According to a report issued yesterday by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service, there's
going to be more corn planted by farmers this year. A lot more
corn. The NASS is projecting that due to high prices, farmers
will plant 95.9 million acres of corn this year, up 4 percent
from last year. If the weather cooperates and the projected
acres are planted, it will be the largest amount of acres
planted with corn since 1937. Iowa farmers plan to defend the
state's position as the top corn-growing state by planting a
record 14.6 million acres of corn. ... Growers in Idaho,
Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota also intend to plant
record-high acreages. The largest year-over-year increase is
expected in North Dakota, where farmers are recovering from last
year's floods and declared their intentions to plant 3.4 million
acres of corn, up 52 percent from last year. That's a whole lot
of corn. The warm and dry winter will have an impact on
plantings in other states, as well as