By: Gene McCluer, Extension Educator
Diesel fuel costs have risen over the last year and based on current predictions will continue to rise during the coming months. The estimated cost of fuel for tractors, combines, and various tillage and planting operations are shown in the fuel cost estimator. If you do custom work, you will want to reflect some or all of the increased fuel costs in the rate. Using a price for number two diesel fuel at $4.00 per gallon, the table displays fuel costs for the various horsepower machines as well as different field operations. This form is an excel spreadsheet where you can change the price change per gallon or the fuel use per acre or hour to more precisely estimate the fuel cost portion of field operations. This will be helpful in determining the fuel costs for custom work operations or other farm work.
You can see that the current fuel prices may raise fuel cost for a mid-size combine from $24 to over $38 per hour. For row crop planters, the increase in fuel cost alone is 54 cents per acre. For haymaking, just the fuel for the mower/conditioner and twine baler will increase costs $1.26 per acre.