Facing drought, U.S. farmers return to crop rotation Farmers in
top U.S. grain states are planning to rotate to other crops
after repeated plantings of corn on the same fields, combined
with a devastating drought in 2012, badly hurt yields. Farmers
in Iowa and Illinois, which accounted for almost 30 percent of
U.S. corn production in 2012, are expected to shift some acreage
that was seeded exclusively with corn over the past several
years to soybeans this spring. They want to avoid another year
of potentially significant losses as dry conditions persist,
said agricultural market analysts and economists. A move away
from corn in those states may further drive up world food
prices, which are already historically high, because corn
stockpiles in the United States, the world's top exporter, are
forecast to hit a 17-year low by the end of the summer. Soaring
corn prices, due in part to surging demand for ethanol, in
recent years have encouraged a greater amount of corn being
planted on the same land year-after-yea