The 1996 US Farm Bill eliminated many acreage restrictions, thereby allowing farmers to plant what they believe to be their most competitive crops.

By Alan Guebert The American economy is downright Dickensian. If you're in investment banking, airlines, real estate or automobile anything, it's the worst of times. If you're in commodities - oil, copper, potash, gold, corn, soybeans - it's the best of times.

By Alan Guebert The American economy is downright Dickensian. If you're in investment banking, airlines, real estate or automobile anything, it's the worst of times. If you're in commodities - oil, copper, potash, gold, corn, soybeans - it's the best of times.

Energy costs are cutting into farm profits, but that's only part of the reason income is falling. A new study at the University of Illinois finds rising cash rents, pesticide prices, seed prices and interest costs also are to blame.

By Anne Cook, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill. Apr. 10--SADORUS Steve Stierwalt's gambling this spring, continuing the recent trend of planting more corn than soybeans even though other farmers say they're backing off that crop.