''Knee-high by the 4th of July'' was the measure of a good corn crop back in the era before hybrid corn. In the modern era, the corn is normally shoulder-high or even higher by the 4th. Per tradition, the date is still a time when farmers are seeing how their crop is measuring up. So, our friend Doug Lawton, whose farming operation is based just northeast of Cooper in west central Iowa, walked into one of his cornfields on July 1, 2007, and the corn stretched a good three feet above the head of the 6 ft. 2 in. farmer. And, as you'll remember, the '07 crop turned out to be an especially robust one. But in this spring and early summer of 2008, farmers have had real difficulty. The first six months of the year turned out to be the wettest opening of a year in the history of Iowa weather records. Many farmers were 30 to 45 days late getting the corn crop planted, not finishing until early to mid June. Many didn't get their soybean planting done until late June, at least a month late. Then more rain came, and there had to be a significant amount of replanting. So on Wednesday, July 3, when Doug and his son Lance Lawton walked into one of their cornfields, they knew of course that it would be much shorter than the corn was a year ago now. But they were still a little shocked to realize it is only chest-high on this 4th of July. ''That depresses me knowing how much higher it was a year ago,'' Doug said. ''It is growing really fast now, but that means the stalks are pretty brittle and weak, so you worry about what would happen if we get some strong winds. Even so, we've got a long way to go in the growing season, and a lot of it could still turn out to be pretty good.'' But no one's expecting yields like a year ago, and that is bound to drive the price for corn well beyond the records of $7 per bushel and higher that have been set recently.

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