Corn Prices Going Up

WSIL -- The price of corn is going up thanks to a smaller crop last year and that could cost us all more at the grocery store. Illinois produced nearly two billion bushels of corn in 2010. Three percent less than 2009. Farmers say it's not time to panic but there are several troubling signs, including the wet weather in the forecast. A rainy day gives Williamson County farmer Jim Anderson a chance to get his tractors ready for planting season, the problem is, it's already time to get in the fields.
"It's not late yet but when you get into May, we're starting to get into that nervous time frame where every week really amounts to a lot," Anderson said.
The recent rains have only made farmers like Anderson worry about this year's crop. The Department of Agriculture predicts the smallest corn surplus in 15 years.
"The shortages we have now, if we have a hot, dry summer over the whole country, these prices will continue to go up and could go up another 50 percent," Anderson said.
One of the biggest ways we're all effected by these rising corn prices actually starts here at the farm. Each one of these 40 cattle consume nearly 250 dollars of this corn mixture every day. So when corn prices go up, so does the price you see at the grocery store.
"If you start raising the price of corn, then down the road the product is going to have to raise the price to make up for our prices on the other end," Chet Stuemke said.
Stuemke works with cows at University farms at SIU and says although higher corn and cattle prices seem better for the farmer on the surface, they're just accompanied by other costs. Part of the reason it's getting so expensive to feed these animals is because of fuel costs, which makes it more expensive to transport the corn.
"From the second it gets ready to go into the ground, to the second it comes out of the ground, fuel is involved. And the higher that fuel price gets, the worse it's going to be," Stuemke said.