(Lansing, MI) - Michigan has joined Indiana and Ohio in allowing farmers to burn tax-free diesel fuel in their semi-trucks hauling grain during this year’s harvest to provide relief from record high prices at the pumps.

 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer on October 12 issued the tax waiver order, which will save farmers in her state 52 cents a gallon at a time of rising costs for other inputs like fertilizer and seed. 

 

Her order declaring a statewide energy emergency, which also extends tax free diesel fuel to loggers, is set to expire on December 31.

 

“Michigan farmers and loggers face unprecedented financial strain from record high fuel prices, tight margins and significant market volatility.  Therefore, granting eligible highway-licensed vehicles temporary access to this fuel would provide immediate relief,” she wrote in her order.

 

While food producers in the state appreciate the savings, farmers like Jay Williams of Waldron wish the order would have come a few weeks sooner to provide relief at the very beginning of this year’s harvest.

 

“I think, overall, in the farm community it’s a positive that something is being done.  I think it would have been received better had it not been delayed for quite as long as it was,” he said.

 

According to AAA, diesel fuel prices on average nationwide set a record in September at $6.53 per gallon, an increase of more than 70-percent from a year ago.

 

Michigan Farm Bureau was among the organizations in the industry calling for the tax waiver about two weeks prior to the governor’s decision.

 

Williams, who serves on the board for the Michigan Soybean Association, said the savings will not be a make or break for growers and his savings will be less since markets for his corn and soybeans are within relatively short distances from his fields.

 

His 1,600 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat are in fields in Michigan and nearby Ohio, where farmers are saving 47 cents a gallon on tax free diesel fuel in their grain hauling trucks during the harvest under an order from Governor Mike DeWine that went into effect on October 4.  

 

Governor Mike Braun’s waiver of the diesel fuel tax for harvesting farmers hauling grain in Indiana began on October 6.