Associated Press Writer

By BLAKE NICHOLBy BLAKE NICHOLSON

The demands of harvest time are not the only things keeping Vernice and George Balsdon home on their Cavalier County farm these days.

With the cost of fueling a tractor running as high as $500 per tank, farmers don't have a lot of extra spending money, Vernice Balsdon said.

"People say 'car pool.' How do you car pool (in rural areas)?" she said. "We can't do things like the city people do."

State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said the high cost of fuel hits farmers not only when they fill up their equipment, but also in the rising cost of fertilizer and the lower prices for grain offered by elevators facing higher shipping costs.

"You don't make it up unless you can spread the cost over more acres, unless you can market your products for a higher price," Johnson said. "You're talking 40 to 50 percent of (a farm family's) net income that could be impacted."

Balsdon said cutting costs is difficult to do, since farmers have to get their crops off the field.

"You don't see people going out to eat," she said. "We stay at home. Once in a while, you'll go out with the family, but you're not going to expensive places, that's for sure."

Johnson said the average North Dakota farm family will see about $18,000 in added costs this year because of the high fuel prices. The estimate is based on calculations by a North Dakota Farmers Union economist.

"Some of these guys are putting $500 to $800 dollars a day in their fuel tanks," Johnson said.

Dwight Aakre, a farm management specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service, said fuel prices account for up to 12 percent of a typical farmer's variable costs, which include such expenses as seed, chemicals, fuel and repairs.

"You've got to remember we're halfway through the (crop) season, but still it's going to add 25 percent to the fuel bill," he said.

Aakre said he did not think the higher costs would be enough to push producers off the farm this year.

"It's just one more additional expense that keeps whittling away at profits," he said. "But I don't know that it's that serious that it's going to drive people out of the business."

Johnson said if the high prices persist, they could force some farmers off the land next year. He described this year as a "transition year."

Fuel prices were not as high last spring, when farmers were seeding, and many farmers this year stocked up on fuel and fertilizer when prices were lower. Next year, that might not be an option.

"You can't keep taking these kinds of cost increases and hits to the bottom line," Johnson said. "Some folks are going to think long and hard about whether they're going to do this again next year."

Balsdon, the secretary for the state Women Involved in Farm Economics organization, said she and her husband plan to continue farming.

"I keep telling myself, 'Well, as long as everybody is OK,' - you tell yourself that, you tell your family that, 'As long as you've got your health,'" she said. "But it gets to you. A lot of farmers are depressed."