GALLATIN CO., Mont. — As Montana farmers work to get crops out of the field, rising diesel prices are adding another expense to an already costly operation.
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For Karl DeJonge, who operates his wife’s fourth-generation family farm just outside Bozeman, diesel is powering nearly every part of the potato harvest — from the equipment in the field to the machinery sorting and processing the crop.
“65% of what we do is seed potatoes, 35% is the malt operation,” DeJonge said.
The farm’s seed potato harvest is now underway, with more than 20 people expected to work over the next two weeks to get the crop out of the ground before the first frost.
The Lamoka potatoes are sorted using machinery designed to minimize bruising, then washed and moved along conveyor belts before being stored.
“It’s grown and bred specifically to make potato chips,” DeJonge said.
But keeping the operation moving requires more than manpower.
It requires fuel.
Trucks move between the fields and the farm, while a large generator powers much of the operation.
“Currently all of this is running on diesel because it’s running on that generator right there,” DeJonge said.
The generator holds 1,000 gallons of diesel.
According to AAA, Montana’s average diesel price was about $6.29 per gallon as of Sept. 27, up from about $3.61 per gallon a year ago.
For DeJonge, that increase is translating into thousands of dollars in fuel costs.
He estimates the farm is currently spending about $3,000 a day on diesel alone.
“Three grand a day! How does that make you feel?” DeJonge was asked.
He laughed.
“Yeah ... it’s a struggle.”
DeJonge said he and other farmers expected fuel prices to come down by the time harvest arrived. Instead, prices continued to rise.
“It was high this summer so we thought, ‘Oh, you know, we’ll just wait it out and buy early September. It will come down.’ It did just the opposite,” DeJonge said.
Fuel is only one of the pressures facing the farm.
DeJonge said farmers are also dealing with concerns about water and rising land costs, making it increasingly difficult to keep agricultural operations financially sustainable.
Still, he said the work is worth it.
“I enjoy what we do immensely. I wouldn’t trade this for the world,” DeJonge said.
And as the potatoes continue moving through the sorting equipment, the DeJonges keep working — with the goal of keeping the fourth-generation farm going for the generations that come next.
“Because if we love what we are doing here and you want to keep doing it, it’s like you got to find a way to do it,” DeJonge said.
