09/07/05 Fuel prices hit farmers at harvest time

Farmers who earlier this year worried about having enough water now have to deal with fuel bills that may be double what they budgeted. We found Steve Truesdale in the middle of his bean harvest last week and thinking about the sugarbeets that he still has to dig. He also thinks everything from haircuts to fertilizer to food is going to cost more. TRUESDALE - " It's a domino effect. If fuel is high it affects a lot of things." Another Canyon County farmer Dan Dixon says he has to pay, he can't pass on the fuel cost increase. DIXON  "It's Major. When you have a thousand acres of ground to work you burn a couple of hundred gallons a day through those tractors working it. You start making some decisions, how are we going to cut corners." Farmers like Dixon have to depend on fuel thirsty trucks to get their tons of sugarbeets and potatoes, or their alfalfa and seed corn to processing plants at Nampa or Caldwell. DIXON - "You want to fill that empty ten thousand gallon tank over there. Just about a thirty thousand dollar bill." It's the same story in the fields and on the roads of the Magic Valley, eastern Idaho, the North too. DIXON - " How is that going to affect next year's crop." No one can answer that one, at least not right now. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott