Corn farming expected to slide in Northwest Indiana

A government report predicting a shift from corn production this year has some Northwest Indiana farmers going against the grain.

A survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture said corn acres nationwide will fall 4.6 percent to 78.019 million from last year.

Indiana corn growers plan to plant 5.5 million acres, down 7 percent from last year, Purdue University agriculture statistician Greg Preston said.

Soybean production is expected to increase, with Indiana farmers expecting to plant 5.9 million acres, up 9 percent over last year, Preston said.

Illinois farmers planned to plant 700,000 fewer acres of corn and about 600,000 more acres of soybeans this year.

Increased costs of nitrogen based fertilizer and fuel weighed into farmers' decisions to reduce their corn crops, which depend heavily on the special fertilizer for strong yields.

Fertilizer producers combine nitrogen with natural gas to change it into a form that plants can digest, and natural gas costs rose over the past year alongside fuel costs.

Higher production costs forced Porter County farmer John Remster to reconsider his plans for spring planting, still about a month away.

"Last year I planted all corn," said Remster, who farms nearly 700 acres east of Valparaiso.

"I had intended well in advance (of the Agriculture Department report) to plant some beans this year. The reason for that was the high input costs, especially for corn."

The shift in his acreage won't be as major as some U.S. farmers have planned, Remster said.

"But any year I don't buck the trend I better take my pulse," he added.

Matt Goetz, whose family farms 3,000 acres in Porter County, said the family plans to stick with its long-time pattern of planting half corn and half soybeans.

Growing demand for corn-based ethanol as a petroleum alternative and a healthy corn futures market turned the tide in favor of corn, Goetz said.

Fertilizer costs climbed to $550 a ton, Goetz said, up from $200 a ton a few years ago.

But December corn futures, the contract on which grain elevators and ethanol producers base their fall delivery price for this year's crop, rose 3.5 percent last week on the Chicago Board of Trade following the Agriculture Department report.

"I've had a renewed feeling that you ought to have at least 50 percent in acres of corn," Goetz said.

A change in the weather, or in prices, could prompt a shift in acreage.

"If we have a rotten spring, farmers could make changes," said Todd Hutson, agriculture agent with the Purdue University extension in Valparaiso.

Goetz said he'll go with his instincts.

"I just have this feeling it's kind of exciting to be a corn grower right now."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.