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• A few measures of corn's popularity in the Upper Midwest:
• . Of all the additional corn acres gained nationally in the past two years, North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota account for roughly half. Historically, U.S. corn production has been concentrated in the Corn Belt -- Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, southern Minnesota and parts of surrounding states, including eastern South Dakota.
• . North Dakota's corn acreage has increased nearly fivefold since 1995, with corn acres in South Dakota doubling in the same period.
• . Minnesota already

was a major corn producer in 1995, so its percentage increase in corn acres is relatively modest: 30 percent. Even so, Minnesota farmers have added about 2 million corn acres over the past 17 years, nearly as many as their peers in North Dakota and South Dakota.
• Treat the numbers with a dash of skepticism. The 2012 acreage numbers are just projections; the number of acres ultimately planted to corn this spring could be less.
• Soybean prices have strengthened recently, which could encourage farmers to plant more of that crop and less corn. And some farmers apparently couldn't find their first, preferred variety of seed corn, which also could lead to less corn acreage, officials say.
• There's no doubt, though, that area farmers will plant a lot more corn this spring. The only question is how much more.
• The reason for expanded corn acreage is simple. Farmers can make more

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