High Diesel Prices Squeeze Montana Farmers
For Montana’s agricultural producers, the immediate impact is often a tighter profit margin.
By Jacob Olness (09/30/2026)
Credit: Lauren Miller / Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America
Diesel prices in Montana have been trending up since the start of the U.S.-Iran conflict in late February and are now near record highs, raising costs for farmers, truckers, and other businesses that have little choice but to keep buying fuel—and potentially pass some of those costs further down the supply chain.
Data from GasBuddy, a fuel price tracking service, showed Montana’s average diesel price at $6.23 per gallon as of Wednesday, up $2.58 from a year ago and just below the record $6.31 statewide average set on September 24th.
"A lot of farmers are going to see high input prices, and there’s not a whole lot you can do with that," says Eric Belasco, an agricultural economics professor at Montana State University. "So a lot of them are eating the cost at the farm level."
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture now forecasts that American farmers will spend an additional $4.8 billion, or about 29% more, on fuel and oil in 2026 compared to the prior year.
The impact of diesel prices specifically is even broader because of its use in trucking and rail freight. Rising fuel costs can indirectly raise the price of food after it leaves the farm, as noted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA also highlights that high diesel prices contribute to higher road and rail freight costs across the economy.
Those rising prices have been driven by a tightening supply of diesel and other distillate fuels globally. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, attributes this to disruptions in overseas refinery output. Similarly, the U.S. Energy Information Administration points to reduced refining capacity in Russia, China, and the Middle East, combined with elevated crude oil prices. These factors have led to a sharp reduction in U.S. distillate inventories.