STANTON, Mich. — Michigan growers are finding their bins full of corn turning to gold as prices continue to hold steady at well over $3 per bushel this year.

While heavy rains throughout the fall and winter have delayed harvest in some areas of the state, the weather has not dampened farmers’ spirits as corn prices rose from about $1.85 per bushel in August to about $3.50 per bushel in October. While the board price dipped about 26 cents this week to 3.25 per bushel, the market continues to show promise for another strong year in 2007.

Steve Sutherland, who farms about 1,000 acres in Montcalm County, said the higher price of corn has caused him to change his planting plans for this year.

“Normally I plant about 50-50 corn and soybeans,” he said.

Last year, however he ended up with about a 70-30 split in favor of soybeans. But with the higher corn prices, Sutherland said he will do the just the opposite this year, with a 70-30 split in favor of corn. In addition he said he has sprayed another 60 acres of alfalfa and plans to plant corn on that ground, too.

“That’s a big switch,” he said. “My decision has everything to do with price. The bean price hasn’t risen accordingly and the corn price is good.”

With the push to switch to corn-based ethanol as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, market experts expect corn growers should continue to see higher prices. The futures market also is holding steady – a benefit for farmers who want to contract the next year’s crop this winter.

According to Jim Hilker, Michigan State University professor with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension marketing specialist, the demand for corn will continue to be fueled by the state’s growing number of ethanol plants. He said the challenge now will be to grow enough corn to meet the increased demand.

He estimated that it will take nearly 7 million more planted acres next year to feed the nationwide demand. Michigan grows about 2 million bushels annually, and Hilker estimated that the state will experience about a 15 percent increase in corn acres in the next crop year.

In 2005 the industry produced nearly 4 billion gallons of ethanol – nearly twice the amount produced in 2002. Production in 2005 consumed more than 1.4 billion bushels of corn, or about 13.6 percent of total corn use in the nation. In 2006 ethanol production is expected to hit 5 billion gallons and experts say the industry will triple by 2015.

Lisa Johnson, who grows potatoes, corn, soybeans, sugarbeets and wheat on about 2,000 acres in a partnership with her husband, Marvin, and his brother and parents near Lakeview, said higher priced corn likely won’t cause any big changes in the crop rotations on their farm this year.

“For us, we probably won’t switch much soybean acreage for corn,” she said. “But what I think we’ll see happening (throughout the state) is that some more marginal ground may come into cultivation.”

Johnson said she believes that the push for renewable fuels “has the potential to revive rural America. All of a sudden there’s significant movement in a market that nobody has cared about.

“Where are they building these ethanol plants? Not in big cities,” she said. “And when the farmers have money they’re more likely to spend it in their small towns.”

While they may not be jumping on the wagon to divert a lot of acreage into corn production, Johnson said she is encouraged by the upward swing in the corn market and they will continue to grow corn in their regular rotation.

“We experienced a record year this year for income,” she said. “I spent the last week of December trying to find places for the money.”

But, Johnson said the farm isn’t going to be too quick to make a lot of depreciable investments. “We changed combines and bought a tractor earlier this year,” she said, but she’s still apprehensive about the future.

“If the corn prices drop and we get stuck with storage full of potatoes … well, it’s a real roller-coaster,” she said.