WINNETT — Fuel prices are squeezing Montana, and in rural towns, every mile matters. For farmers and ranchers, fuel isn't optional — it keeps everything running. Now, a Winnett man is stepping up to help his community while trying to stay afloat himself.
About 95 miles northeast of Billings, where the big sky meets the prairie, sits Winnett and the Lund Ranch. Kody Lund runs 800 head of cattle across 20,000 acres.
Kody Lund and others talk about fuel prices - watch:
"Whole operation has kind of gone into building a good cow," Lund said Wednesday.
Building a good cow means all kinds of work, from feeding to running the machines that keep the ranch moving.
"Probably five tractors of actual work utility and then a couple semis for hauling and a handful of pickups for generic ranch work," Lund said.
Day-to-day fuel prices don't hit too hard, but Lund says they stretch the long-term budget.
"When fuel's at a lower price, you kind of can budget for how much you're going to spend," Lund said. "Hay is the big one with your yield. You've got to have a higher yield to be worth putting machines in the field to pay for the fuel to put it out."
"It's kind of a once-a-year paycheck. When the calves sell in the fall, you hope you can cover everything you've spent for the year," Lund said.
The planting season is about to start, which requires about 200 gallons of fuel a day.
"When all the farming happens, plowing, planting and from there, we kind of roll right into haying, where there's six pieces of equipment running all day, every day, burning fuel," Lund said.
Clay Fowler, owner of Winnett Transportation, delivers that fuel.
"We're getting by like anybody out there trying to support the farming and ranching that's out here," Fowler said.
Fowler has seen the cost in fuel rise quickly when buying 9,000 gallons at a time.
"In February, that cost me a little over $27,000 for 9,000 gallons. Well, we get to March and that same 9,000 gallons of fuel now cost me $35,000," Fowler said. "And it got as high as $38,000 plus."
Covering that gap has to come from somewhere.
"Eventually I'll get it back, but you have to be able to float that. And if for a while there it was the prices were doing nothing but going up," Fowler said. "It's like, how long can I afford to keep buying fuel? You know, it gets kind of tough."
Despite the cost, Fowler is still selling fuel to the community.
"I just sold a guy 1,200 gallons of red dye so he could go do his farming to support his cows," Fowler said. "And that 1,200 gallons of red dye cost him about $2,500 or more than it normally would have, had this Iran war thing not been going on."
But it doesn't stop in Winnett. Twenty miles down the road in Grass Range sits a truck stop called Little Montana. Owner Jerry Stively says high gas prices aren't just about filling up your car.
"I've talked to a couple of oil companies about sponsoring us and branding," Stively said.
While the pumps at Little Montana aren't operational right now, Stively knows the pumps and knows it is expensive.
"The fuel prices are so high that the profit margin goes down or you have to take the prices up too high to be able to stay in business," Stively said.
Even stocking shelves is difficult.
"There's a company that we buy some supplies from they won't even take an order now unless it's $2,000 because of fuel prices to deliver," Stively said.
High fuel prices mean hard choices.
"That's another reason why putting fuel in is not a priority for me right now because with the fuel so high other people can't afford it either," Stively said.
