Iowa farmers are paying $6.07 a gallon for diesel in the middle of harvest. A year ago it was $3.45.
President Trump says help is coming. At a rally in Park City, Kansas, on Monday night, he announced an $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief program to cover part of the hit. “Providing our farmers with $8 billion in support to offset diesel costs during this harvest season,” Trump said, according to Fox Business.
The Agriculture Department will make one-time payments to farmers through the Farm Service Agency.
Why diesel spiked
Fox Business tied the jump in fuel costs to disruptions in global energy supply caused by attacks from Iran and its terrorist proxies in the Middle East. The national average for diesel hit $6.30, according to DTN. In Kansas, diesel was $2.50 a gallon higher than a year earlier, the AP reported via DTN.
Trump said he expects relief at the pump once the fighting stops. “As soon as that war ends, you’re going to see a plunge because there’s so much oil and diesel around,” he said.
He also pointed to an executive order that waives the off-road rule for red-dyed diesel. That lets farmers and truckers buy it tax-free, Fox Business reported.
How the money works
According to USDA:
- Payments cover a share of each farmer’s modeled 2026 losses, using one formula for everyone.
- The formula draws on planted acres, USDA production-cost estimates, and federal yield and price forecasts.
- Payment rates for major commodity crops come out in November.
- Specialty crop growers and fishermen are also covered. Their payment method will be announced later, and USDA wants them to email fuel-cost data to [email protected].
- Crop insurance is not required.
- Farmers should set up a Login.gov account linked to USDA now to get a pre-filled application.
The money comes through the Commodity Credit Corporation. Payments won’t go out before the election, DTN reported.
Building on earlier help
The program is modeled on this year’s Farmer Bridge Assistance, which paid $12 billion to more than 560,000 farmers. About two weeks ago, farm safety-net programs also paid roughly $14 billion. USDA says that is about $8 billion more than farmers would have received without the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
Trump credited Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas: “Roger got it to happen.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said, “President Trump is the most pro-farmer president of my lifetime.” She said the money “will help bring certainty to our farmers during this harvest.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation welcomed the move. “Higher diesel prices have squeezed farmers’ bottom lines,” President Zippy Duvall said.
DTN noted that it isn’t yet clear how much of the fuel cost the payments will cover.
The bottom line
Farmers didn’t cause this. They can’t stop harvesting because a regime half a world away decided to attack the global energy supply. Diesel runs every combine, grain truck and dryer in farm country, and when it jumps more than $2.50 a gallon in a year, family farms take the hit first.
Conservatives are right to be wary of Washington handouts. But this is one-time, targeted help for a cost shock caused by war, not a new entitlement. Paired with tax-free red-dyed diesel, it keeps American food production running while the fight with Iran plays out.
The lasting fix is cheaper energy. Until then, the people who feed this country shouldn’t go broke bringing in the crop.