Corn to take a leading role as farmers chase high commodity prices
Lured by two years of strong market prices, U.S. farmers will expand crop plantings significantly in 2022, with corn area rising by 3 percent despite sharply higher fertilizer costs, said economist Scott Irwin of the University of Illinois on Monday. This stands in contrast to many other early projections that say farmers will shy away from corn, the most widely grown crop in the country, in 2022 because of higher input costs and put more land into crops such as soybeans, wheat and cotton instead.
Crop tours: Useful on prospects, iffy on yields
Crop tours generate a lot of attention with their estimates of crop yields or output but the organizers often say little about the level of accuracy they represent.
Ethanol industry enjoys a winning streak
Ethanol makers have enjoyed a run of high profits since March 2013, "driven by a combination of steady or rising ethanol prices and falling corn prices," write economists Scott Irwin and Darrel Good at farmdoc daily.