What Kind of Fuel Supply Issues Will Farmers Face This Fall

Many farmers wondering about the cost of propane and its availability this fall. Mike Newland, Director of Agriculture Business Development at the Propane Education and Research Council, says propane suppliers are well-equipped to meet demand this fall.

“While we've seen crude and natural gas raised to record prices, propane has been very steady during that same period of time. You know, as you look at the farm and how fuel intense our farming industry is, I think it gives growers a great opportunity to lock in their bottom dollar if you will, by taking a look at pricing tools that are available to you at the local propane supplier level. It's an opportunity for you to lock in what the energy that you need for this fall.”

“Propane is produced domestically, we've got a lot of supply. We do export over 50 percent of the propane that's available to us in the U.S. So, from a supply standpoint, we track it at the distribution point level. We're within the five-year range of what we typically see our summer inventories being. The one thing I would caution a little bit is if you're in an area where you think you may have higher than normal usage, your corn is wet, or you may think you may struggle to get the black layer, and you know that you're going to use a lot of propane, get those tanks filled early, make sure you're talking with your supplier to let them know how many gallons you think you could use, because communication is the key to making sure that we've got the product in place and available for the folks who need it when they need it.”