[MtnClimber]

The diesel cost adds to the expenses side of the balance sheet. With low profit margins the added expense can flip the accounting estimates from expected profit to break even or loss. If your best-case expectation is to break even, then why plant.

[Mr. Lucky]

On average, 3-3.5 gallons of diesel are consumed in raising and harvesting one no-till acre of corn; even at $5 per gallon, that's less than $20 per acre.

Corn, at my local elevator, was bid at $6.60 per bushel as of Friday (close to twice what it was two years ago). At an average yield of 175 bushels per acre, fuel represents 2% of the value of an acre of corn.