Farmers plant larger corn crop, befuddling economists

摘要

Ethanol refineries are closing and corn prices are sinking, but farmers are nonetheless planting a bumper crop ofthe nation's top biofuel ingredient.As planting season starts across most of the country, economists' predictions of reduced corn acreage haven'tmaterialized.The Department of Agriculture instead boosted its earlier predictions and said farmers are on track to plant asmuch as 97 million acres — about 4 million more than USDA said in February.