An Iowa farmer has opened up about the “tremendous” trickle-down effect that record-high diesel prices — fueled by President Donald Trump’s unpopular war of choice in Iran — are having on the agricultural industry.

“I just wish they would get that deal settled in the Middle East,” said Dan Pedersen in an interview with KETV, a local ABC affiliate in Omaha, Nebraska.

“It’s going to have to happen sometime because another year of this and the economy and everything can’t handle this. I don’t think you can handle it two or three more months.”

Pedersen’s 10,000-acre farm and feedlot with 12,000 cattle in Underwood, Iowa, is over 6,700 miles from a conflict that’s driven up the cost of diesel fuel since February.

Diesel hit another record-high average of $6.53 a gallon Tuesday, per AAA. A year ago, the price was about $3.69.

Trump floated a ban on diesel exports to help lower costs Tuesday, a move experts say would only “compound the problem.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright has since dismissed talks of a “blanket” ban on exports.

Pedersen told KETV’s Aaron Hegarty that the farm and feedlot use roughly 800 gallons of diesel a day, noting that he’s spent an additional $75,000 a month on fuel.

“And I’m not even counting our trucks that are on the road,” said Pedersen, adding that two of his trucks were moving cattle out of Kansas, a job that’s $400 higher due to fuel costs.

He continued, “It’s just crazy, you know?”

Elsewhere in the country, farmers are feeling the financial strain as a result of the global diesel shortage, prompting Trump-backed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) to declare a state of emergency on Wednesday in an effort to provide what he called “immediate relief” to farmers.

John Boyd Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, told NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Monday that there’s a “national farm crisis.”

“I’m having to come up with money that’s really not in the budget,” he said.

Boyd highlighted how over 400 Black farmers are at risk of losing their farms, telling NPR that the rising fuel costs have added to the squeeze.

“A lot of these farmers voted for this president,” he said, “but now they find themselves losing their farm and no help from the administration.”

Founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association John Boyd Jr., seen here in 2021, said there is a “national farm crisis.”

via Associated Press

Jack Klapper — a farmer based in western New York — told Rochester’s ABC affiliate WHAM-TV that, as harvest season kicks off, farmers “can’t just simply turn the tractor off” due to fuel costs.

“The crops are ready, they need to be harvested, the cows need to be fed every single day,” he said.

“This operation doesn’t stop just because diesel prices rose another 25 cents. But it does have a major toll on how we operate our business.”