Rugby, North Dakota -- Front Section, Wall Street Journal -- Corn, Global Warming, Great News

As you read the following story, think about the two new fertilizer plants going up in Jamestown, and Grand Forks and the potential for these two plants to transform the economy of North Dakota.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

RUGBY, N.D.—Wheat has long dominated the windswept farm fields of the northern Great Plains. But increasingly, farmers here are switching to corn, reflecting how climate change, advancements in biotechnology and high corn prices are pushing the nation's Corn Belt northward.

Last year, corn narrowly eclipsed wheat as North Dakota's most valuable crop as farmers produced a record corn harvest. This year, as farmers across the Corn Belt are finishing up the planting season after an unusually wet spring, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast that 4.1 million acres of North Dakota will be sown with corn, an all-time high and a nearly threefold increase over a decade ago.

The shift, which is occurring in northern Minnesota and Canada's Manitoba province as well, shows how warming temperatures and hardier seeds are enabling farmers to grow corn in areas once deemed inhospitable to the crop. As a result, North Dakota's farmers, who produced 4% of last year's U.S. corn crop and are benefitting from high prices for other crops, are invigorating the state's agricultural economy at the same time its energy sector is thriving.

Corn prices are about double historical norms, driven by food demand in China and other fast-growing countries, as well as the rise of U.S. ethanol production.

While politicians are wringing their hands over a 3-millimeter rise in sea levels over the next century, North Dakota farmers are taking advantage of warmer weather, and perhaps longer growing seasons. What's not to like?

By the way, this complements an earlier story posted by The WSJ talking about the expansion of "North Dakota" hard wheat west into Montana. 

See many, many other stories on North Dakota agriculture and corn by going to the "agriculture" and "corn" tags at the bottom of the blog.