Ag producers have had to deal with rising input costs for a long period of time, and this summer hasn’t helped.
Diesel prices now above $6 a gallon for the national average are causing producers, regardless of their operation, to make adjustments. Jacquelyne Leffler of Leffler Prime Performance:
Leffler tells KVOE News her operation can lock in prices. The question with that approach is is when do you make the move.
Leffler Prime Performance is changing its haul routes as best it can. It’s also changing some of the products it uses in other areas.
Still, the last year of cost increases, including the rapid increase in fuel costs, have led to a “significant” need for those cost adjustments.
And fuel prices aren’t the only rising input cost for producers. The ongoing trade war now with Canada means higher costs for fertilizer and machinery parts. Those impacts are yet to be seen.
Canada imported around $30 billion in US ag products last year. With other tariff discussions underway, Leffler says ag operators are having to concentrate on more non-ag items.
Leffler says she appreciates the recent push by the USDA on the Ranchers First initiative.
Leffler says the impact of these issues can be hard to pinpoint initially, and the choices aren’t easy once those effects become better known. She also says that knowledge often puts producers at the mercy of the market or others creating headlines that affect bottom lines.
