Record prices in Alabama farm forecast offset by rising expenses for fuel and fertilizer

Encouraged by record crop prices in Alabama's farm forecast, growers must find the money to start planting while at the same time avoid being hit with rocketing costs for fuel, fertilizer, seeds and equipment.

The drought also lingers as a threat to the state's multimillion-dollar farm economy and a late-season freeze would be a setback. A late, hard freeze last Easter weekend reduced wheat and corn yields in some parts of the state.

But it's the cost of farming that's a major threat.

Auburn University farm economist Robert Goodman said the price of fertilizer this year has almost doubled. The price of some varieties of seed also has doubled and soybean seeds are in short supply.

"Everybody knows what the price of fuel has done," Goodman said.

While farmers decide what to plant, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's projection for record prices for wheat, corn and soybeans presents an opportunity for profit, depending on weather conditions.

The state's winter wheat seedings for this year were estimated at 170,000 acres — up 50,000 acres from last year and the most acreage seeded since 2001, according to USDA, which projects a 6 percent increase nationwide in domestic wheat use.

Growers have been meeting with their bankers to decide how much planting money to borrow as expenses soar.