By Denise Ross

This “crop secret” report from the Chicago Tribune today reminded me of some photos Mr. Hoghouse took a few weeks ago when we visited his family in Aberdeen. And it reminded me of the farm bill hearing Sen. John Thune held in Brookings a year ago.

Crops matter. A lot.

At 3 a.m. Monday, federal officials will review intelligence so sensitive they must first surrender their laptops and cell phones to a security guard, severing all access to a curious world outside their sealed room.

Are they tracking terrorists? No. Do they know about nuclear weapons in North Korea? Definitely not. These officials work for the Agriculture Department. They will finalize their estimates of how many acres of corn, wheat, cotton, oats, barley and soybeans farmers will plant this year. …

The extreme secrecy surrounding agricultural reports dates back to 1905, when the agency discovered that one of its statisticians revealed the cotton acreage by raising and lowering window blinds …

There’s a reason corn leads the list in the second paragraph. The ethanol plant pictured below is just west of Aberdeen, and there’s a new one being finished, about a 10-minute drive west of this one, at the end of Wetonka Road. They are but two in a sea of ethanol plants in a tide that’s been doing nothing but rising during the past decade.

(Photos by David Larson)

Here’s a view of the existing plant, that’s been operating for years, and of the railyard that gave the Hub City it’s nickname way back in the day.

Below is a series of nighttime views of the plant, which is operating at night without any visible workers. I wish I had an audio recording to go with this. Imagine a lot of clanging over a bed of hissing.

Even with all the demand for corn spurred on by the ethanol industry, corn prices haven’t been on a constant upward spiral, according to the Chicago Tribune.

These annual figures carry an added weight because the last two years have transformed the once-calm agricultural markets into tempests, where prices can swerve more in a day than they once did in several months. …

Last year, more corn occupied land previously used for soybeans because biorefineries needed it to produce ethanol, the federally mandated additive for motor fuel. On Friday at the Chicago Board of Trade, corn futures priced at $2 a bushel a couple of years earlier commanded $5.60.

Here’s a view of the Wetonka Road ethanol facility - nearly finished. Who knows what it will mean for the price of corn.

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