2009 crop planning

I was wondering if anyone knows if the corn acreage will be down this year. Have heard that many ethanol plants are failing and thought that many producers might shift to soybeans or grain. This would have an impact on the prices of these commodities. I had heard that potato producers in the northern states had shifted to corn because of low spud prices,will they be shifting back?

Our farm had a revolving door of seed salesmen today.  I did ask one if he'd noticed any difference in seed purchases.  His answer was not really.  I realize this is not a scientific poll but the best I had to work with today. 

It will take at least 4 $ corn for a break even in our country. They will have to buy some acres with higher corn prices here. I have a short well on my circle(300 gallon) so I will probably plant feed. Do you think the corn price will venture into the 4-5 $ area? Dry land corn is a very iffy deal here although we did hit one 90 bushel field all the way down to 35.

We are still keeping our normal rotation of 60% corn and 40% soybeans this year. Not many people around here are making drastic changes. We have 2 reliable ethanol plants within 40 miles, and another that runs with a co-op in town. As far as corn prices go, every year we have seen the prices fall during harvest, and then they rebound a little. After the spring acerage registration they usually bounce back and forth as more or less is registered than last years. Then in the summer they usually rebound again, and peak around july. Then as harvest gets started and all the "Record Yields" come in they dive again. This is about as close to "predicting" the markets that we have come.  (lol)

we might end up w/ some more rented ground.
Plant in Lima, Oh went bankrupt after only 4 months of being opened.

Red

aj said:

It will take at least 4 $ corn for a break even in our country. They will have to buy some acres with higher corn prices here. I have a short well on my circle(300 gallon) so I will probably plant feed. Do you think the corn price will venture into the 4-5 $ area? Dry land corn is a very iffy deal here although we did hit one 90 bushel field all the way down to 35.

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I really don't know what the price will be.All I know is that we had $350-400 fertilizer last year and this year they are saying $1100. Many people are talking about not growing barley at those prices for fertilizer and I thought that if there was going to be a glut of corn because of the ethanol plants closing, than maybe more beans would be going in.

We aren't planning on making any big changes this year.  One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be less wheat acreage.