High diesel prices are squeezing farm margins this autumn, just as harvest makes it the season of heaviest fuel use, and Farms.com has compared what farmers in different countries pay to fill a combine.

"Of course it's the worst timing ever," Illinois farmer Bart Bittner told KCUR, because the equipment in the field and the trucks hauling grain to market all run at once. Pennsylvania farmer David Wolfskill told WFMZ that such prices "cut into the bottom line". Farms.com attributes the rise to geopolitical issues.

Using average national diesel prices as of 21 September, in US dollars, Hong Kong tops the list at $18.55 a gallon: $6,121 to fill a John Deere X9 1100 (330 gallons), $983 for a Yanmar AW (53 gallons) and $3,672 for a Deutz-Fahr C9300 (198 gallons).

Malawi follows at $12.80 a gallon ($4,224 for the X9 1100), then Liechtenstein at $11.85, Denmark at $11.78, Norway at $11.35 and Switzerland at $11.16. Singapore ($10.76), the Netherlands ($10.75), Finland ($10.64) and Germany ($10.56) complete the top ten.

For comparison, diesel averaged $4.91 a gallon in Canada, where filling the X9 1100 costs $1,620, and $4.50 in the United States, where it costs $1,485.

Manufacturers are looking at alternatives: New Holland has donated a methane-powered tractor to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources to test fuelling it with biomethane from farm plant waste and manure, and the French company Terafield has an electric combine called the Moonstone. The comparison was compiled by Diego Flammini of Farms.com.

Photo: MarcelX42 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: Farms.com