American farmers are hurting -- and worried about their futures

Rick Telesz farms 700 acres in western Pennsylvania. He says he'll be lucky to break even on his corn and soybean crops this year, given the sky-high cost of diesel fuel and fertilizer. Mike Clark's Studio hide caption

Rick Telesz raises soybeans, corn and dairy cows on about 700 acres in western Pennsylvania. He's expecting a promising soybean crop this fall — but Telesz will be lucky to just break even.

"Am I going to make money this year?" he asks. "To be honest, I hope the harvest is good enough that I can pay for all those inputs I had this spring and summer."

The inputs Telesz needs to raise his crops include fertilizer and fuel, which have both gotten a lot more expensive as a result of the U.S. war with Iran — adding to the woes of farmers already struggling with the fallout from the trade war.

Fertilizer prices are up 15% this year compared to last, and the price of diesel fuel has jumped by 80%, making it hard for farmers to turn a profit.

Telesz is paying about $6 a gallon for diesel and his combine alone burns through 150 gallons a day. The machines he uses to dry his grain burn more fuel.

"It's a cost that a farmer can't pass on," Telesz says. "You take your trucking industry, it's just added to the freight [charge]. But a farmer, it's just an added cost he just has to absorb. It's real. It's painful."

(The average retail price of diesel fuel is even higher — about $6.50 a gallon, according to AAA. But farmers who use diesel for off-road purposes are typically spared the federal fuel tax of 24.4 cents per gallon and some state fuel taxes as well, including Pennsylvania's.)