Missouri's average diesel price climbed to a record $6.35 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA's daily fuel monitor, as farmers across Macon County move into harvest.
AAA listed the statewide diesel average at $6.3475 as of Sept. 22, the highest recorded Missouri diesel average on the group's state table. That is up from $6.3035 Monday, $5.9420 a week ago, $5.2560 a month ago, and $3.4233 a year ago. Regular unleaded averaged $4.1846 Tuesday.
The national diesel average was $6.5276 the same day, AAA said, up from $3.6880 a year ago. Columbia's metro diesel average was $6.2840. St. Joseph's was $6.3011.
Macon County counted 1,258 farms and 432,256 acres of land in farms in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service county profile. Soybeans for beans covered 101,939 acres. Crops accounted for 70% of the county's $157.1 million in agricultural product sales that year; livestock, poultry, and products made up 30%.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's Midwest on-highway diesel series for the week of Sept. 21 stood at $6.68 a gallon in the agency's Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update chart data released Tuesday.
Nationally, diesel has climbed nearly $1 in a month as Middle East conflict continues to pressure fuel markets, according to a Sept. 21 report by Ashley Murray of Iowa Capital Dispatch published by the Missouri Independent. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urged President Donald Trump over the weekend to embargo diesel exports, citing farm costs, the report said. A White House official told Murray the administration did not then plan to ban or restrict diesel exports.
Chariton Media Group sought comment Tuesday from MU Extension's Macon County office on how diesel costs are affecting local harvest work.