Corn prices have jumped, fueled by ethanol demand, and Texas farmers have shifted their strategies accordingly
By Barry Shlachter
The Standerfer family works out in the field from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. or later. Despite a good corn crop, Johnny Standerfer says they face losses in wheat because of heavy rains.
 FRISCO -- Under a darkening sky, Cody Standerfer flips on his combine's headlights and steers it through a field that's a mere shouting distance from a new housing development and strip center with a doughnut shop, a florist and a stockbroker -- on land his father once farmed.
Ethanol-fueled demand for corn is being felt in this corner of Frisco, where Standerfer's family has planted 400 acres and where the 26-year-old battles traffic every morning to get his big green machine to leased land scattered around Texas' fastest-growing city.
"They hate us. I don't know how many times I get the finger," said Standerfer, laughing. "We've got to get to work, too. But the combine only goes 18 miles an hour."
Standerfer grew up in a rural-flavored community of 6,000 that has morphed into an affluent suburb of 78,000 about 26 miles north of Dallas. Although even more of Frisco is being put under concrete, 2007 will likely go down as a superb year for corn in Collin County and elsewhere in Texas, just as agricultural experts predict for the nation as a whole.
U.S. farmers have planted the most corn since 1944, prompted by prices that surged as much as 60 percent over last year. The grain market has been stimulated by increased production of corn-derived ethanol, used to try to lighten the country's dependence on imported oil.Texas, the country's top cotton and beef-cattle producer, ranks only 10th in corn for grain use. And although more has been sowed here several times since World War II -- 3.1 million acres in 1946 compared with 2.1 million acres this year -- this year's planting is the biggest in 12 years and, more importantly, the harvest is expected to set a record.
Nearly ideal growing conditions are likely to deliver the state's highest-ever yield per acre -- 142 bushels -- explaining a predicted record pro- duction of 262.7 million bushels, up 17 percent from 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service."Corn is in excellent shape statewide, just a tremendous-looking crop -- phenomenal considering last year's drought," said Mark Welch, an agricultural economist with the Texas Cooperative Extension service who himself grew corn and wheat for 25 years. Farm incomes are expected to rise this year, but expenses are expected to catch up with growers in 2008, Welch said.
Farmers in Collin County are getting more than $3.40 a bushel today, up from about $2.60 this time last year, said David Gibson, executive director of the Lubbock-based Texas Corn Producers Board, noting that farmers were paid $3.44 back in 1980, when the dollar packed far more buying power.
A bushel is equal to 56 pounds. Most of the corn grown here goes to cattle feed, but it benefits from the ethanol surge, as does grain transformed into cornflakes and sweeteners.
Except in South Texas and a few other areas, nature cooperated this year by providing relatively moderate temperatures and ample amounts of rain at times best for the crop's development, Welch said.
High corn demand prompted many farmers to switch from cotton, whose price was down when many growers were making decisions on what to grow this season, he said. Cotton acreage in Texas fell about 20 percent from last year, according to the USDA.
"Certainly the corn price is virtually all driven by biofuels," Welch said. "We really haven't seen any other factors that have had an impact. And this ethanol-driven demand has lifted the entire grain market complex."
Corn, grown in the upper Panhandle and a swath of land from the Red River through Central Texas to the southeast, is a risky crop, Welch said.
"It's very moisture-dependent, and rain has to come at the right time, especially at tassling. It takes more than sorghum and wheat, and that alone creates challenges in Texas dryland areas."
But farmers planted more, including some in areas where the grain has not been traditionally grown.
The odds didn't deter Mike Atkins, 55, a cotton and peanut producer near the West Texas town of Rochester, 68 miles north of Abilene, in Haskell County.
Neighboring farmers sneered behind his back when he devoted 900 acres to corn this spring, his second attempt during three decades in agriculture -- and his first had been a complete failure.
"A friend overheard people calling me nuts," Atkins said in a telephone interview. "I never heard any comments myself, but I'm sure they thought we were going to lose our butts. But when you farm, you're gamblers anyway."
Like many farming operations, Atkins' venture is diversified. He and his family mitigate crop-growing risks by breeding ranch horses.
Corn is rarely tried in his area of Haskell County because of a narrow growing window.
A crop can be ruined because of an early freeze. If planted too late, temperatures hitting 95 degrees will hurt corn plants when they are tassling, he said.
"But the corn price got good and cotton was down, and some fields had to be rotated to another crop anyway, so I decided to give it another try," he said. "We have to be the guinea pig sometimes, but it's somewhat less risky with irrigation."
The gamble is paying off for Atkins.
He estimated expenses for seed, fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation, fuel and labor -- two full-time hands and a part-timer -- will total $200,000 to $250,000.
At a solid yield of 200 bushels an acre, Atkins says he might gross as much as $600,000 to $700,000. But he noted he could just as easily have zeroed out with bad weather like last time.
Back in Frisco, the Standerfers are in the middle of combining, working from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. or later.
The only break comes while waiting for an empty truck to return from a grain elevator in Celina, allowing one of the workers to run over to a Taco Bell to fetch meals for the crew.
That's the plus side of suburban farming -- fast-food outlets conveniently located nearby, Cody Standerfer said.
Aside from rush-hour traffic, the downside includes the dumping of old appliances on their land, which could damage costly equipment, and teenagers trespassing for a joy ride. "One night they jumped on a tractor and drove through the fields until they burst a tire," he said.
The family's corn crop is good, but it won't make up for their wheat losses this year from heavy rains, said Johnny Standerfer, Cody's father and a third-generation Frisco farmer.
Only about a third of the 1,066 acres of wheat could be harvested. "We were able to collect insurance, so we had to plow the rest under."
The fickle weather, he said, meant that "you had the worst corn [yield] this year on the best land, which stayed too wet, and the best corn on the worst land."
Despite the risks and hassles, Standerfer says he'll farm in Frisco until it's all paved over and then somewhere else until he reaches his 80s or 90s.
"Playing poker up in Oklahoma once, someone threw a $100 bet and another guy left," he recalled.
"I said: 'That ain't no money. Hell, I'm a farmer taking $300,000 and putting it in the ground and wonder if it's going to rain or not.
"That's gambling."
Top corn producers, in bushels for grain:
1. Iowa 2.05 billion
2. Illinois 1.8 billion
3. Nebraska 1.17 billion
4. Minnesota 1.10 billion
5. Indiana 884 million
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
In Texas, projected 2007 harvest::
262.7 million bushels
2006 harvest:
175.4 million bushels
Previous record, 1997:
241.5 million bushels
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
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