Ethanol

Farmers intend to plant the largest acreage of corn since 1944, 90.5 million acres, 12.1 million acres more than in 2006. And here’s how they plan to do it. Wheat, barley, oats and alfalfa also will be displaced.

U.S. farmers plan to plant 67.1 million acres of soybeans, the lowest total since 1996 and a decrease of 8.4 million acres – or 11 percent – from 2006. Area planted to cotton is expected to total 12.1 million acres, down 20 percent from 2006 Area intended for rice is estimated at 2.64 million acres, down 7 percent from 2006 and down 22 percent from 2005. If realized, this would be the lowest planted acreage since 1987. Expected acreage of long grain rice, which represents 76 percent of total rice acres, is down 8 percent from last year.

From Mexico, there goes my margarita tab, and tortillas, and tomatoes, and, and :

MEXICO CITY, May 29 (Reuters) - Mexican farmers are setting ablaze fields of blue agave, the cactus-like plant used to make the fiery spirit tequila, and resowing the land with corn as soaring U.S. ethanol demand pushes up prices. The switch to corn will contribute to an expected scarcity of agave in coming years, with officials predicting that farmers will plant between 25 percent and 35 percent less agave this year to turn the land over to corn.

This swinging for the fences is going to be a nail biter, as much of this corn crop planting is going into energy intensive, and drier crop lands, where a little drought or bad weather can ruin whole crops. Already farmers are ominously reporting a shortage of diesal fuel needed for harvesting Kansas wheat.