In “Farmers stampede to corn,” Barbara Hagenbaugh of USA TODAY reports that, “Farmers in some of the most unlikely places are planting corn this year as demand for the grain to make ethanol has led to skyrocketing prices, sparking a corn rush throughout the USA.”

Hagenbaugh provides much useful information including:

• “U.S. farmers are expected to plant the largest corn crop since World War II this year, switching acreage from soybeans, cotton, rice and other crops and planting on land that has been sitting idle for years.”
• “Before planting season began, U.S. farmers planned to plant 90.5 million acres of corn in 2007, up 15% from last year and the largest acreage since 1944, according to a USDA survey. If those plans are realized, the amount of corn acreage in the USA this summer will be greater than the entire area of Germany.”
• “Corn acreage is expected to be up in every state but Massachusetts. Record corn acreage is expected in California, Minnesota, Idaho, North Dakota and Illinois in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
• “The increase is mainly coming at the expense of soybeans and cotton. When surveyed in early March, farmers said they planned to reduce their soybean acreage by 11%. That would be the smallest soybean planting since 1996.”
• “Cotton plantings are expected to be down 20% from a year ago. That would be the smallest cotton acreage since 1989.”
• “Farmers are responding to a surge in the price of corn. Corn prices on futures markets peaked at $4.35 a bushel in mid-February, nearly twice the price seen a year earlier. Even though prices have come down since the USDA announced farmers’ planting intentions in late March, the prices were still up 50% from a year ago at $3.58 a bushel at the end of April.”
• “Higher corn prices have led to higher prices for other grains, such as soybeans, because greater corn production is at the expense of soybean supplies. For consumers, the increase in corn prices could lead to higher costs for such items as meat, bread and soft drinks flavored with corn syrup.”
• “More than 11.6 million barrels of ethanol were produced in the USA in January, up 30% from a year earlier and nearly three times the amount produced five years ago, the Energy Department says.”
• “There were 110 ethanol refineries operating in the USA in January, up from 95 a year earlier and nearly double the number operating in 2001, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, an industry trade group.”
• “There are currently 79 ethanol refineries being built in the USA, according to RFA.”
• “Farmers switching from soybeans to corn, common in the Midwest, are facing extra costs. Corn requires more nitrogen-based fertilizer than is needed for soybean plants, which pull nitrogen from the air and deposit it into the soil. Costs for fertilizer, which is derived from natural gas, have jumped in recent years. Natural gas is generally the most costly component in the production of nitrogen fertilizers.”
• “He [farmer Terry Taylor] says he’s seen costs for some raw materials jump as much as 20% in little more than a month as demand has risen for fertilizers, pesticides and other items.”