Crops May Help Minnesota Farmers Rebound

From corn to soybeans to sugar beets, Minnesota farmers are looking at bumper crops this year.

They’ve benefited from good weather and a particularly mild spring that allowed for early planting. And wheat growers are particularly in the green, as prices for that grain have rocketed over the past several weeks.

Meanwhile, livestock and dairy farmers — who mostly lost money last year — are back in the black in 2010.

The upshot: “Farm income trends should be very good this year,” said Michael Swanson, an agricultural economist at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. “It’s a very positive outlook right now.”

U.S. corn production is forecast to hit record highs this year, including in Minnesota. The state’s corn crop is expected to be 1.25 billion bushels, up slightly over last year, with a yield of 178 bushels per acre, an increase of four bushels over 2009, according to data released Thursday by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Minnesota field office.