It has little to do with transportation costs, this time. It's due to the increased demand for ethanol and biodiesel, produced from corn. The demand for corn is so high, that prices are forecast to continue to rise. It is projected that we'll be increasing our production of corn by 15% this year, but it still won't be enough. There are many more ethanol plants being built that haven't gone on line yet. Wait until they do, and then see where prices go!

IMO, it all can be blamed on our oh so intelligent president and his energy and foreign policies.

Just for fun, here's a site where you can compare corn, soy prices for several years.

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA commodity prices

Around here the corn burning stoves went into houses like crazy. Corn seems to burn well, much less work than wood, little mess left for cleaning out. Takes small amount of corn to keep the WHOLE house warm. I was rather surpised at how enthusiastic the new owners are over corn stoves.

Transportation may not be the whole cost, but tractors are fueled with gas and oil, to work the soil and bring in the crops. Tractors are not especially efficient in fuel usage, cost a bunch to produce those crops. Costs that farmer has to pass to buyers so farmer can at least pay his bills.

Hay is supposed to be costing more, I know the truck to go get it runs on fuel that has more than doubled in cost since last year. Much equipment is diesel powered, even costlier than gas. Diesel has always been cheaper to produce, now they just WON'T produce it, keeping cost high. Bush and his Oil friends are making plenty of money. Keeping cost of doing business for truckers very high. Consumers pay that extra.

I don't know if Ethanol is going to be cost effective as a fuel. We have a local plant being built 5 miles away, 60 new jobs in a very hard hit job market area. Everyone is excited, but for corn fuel to be useful, it can't cost more to produce than it costs to sell.

At least the farmers can sell their product, so many were just losing money planting corn. Prices just never got where you could turn a profit.

I buy our grain, mixed at a local mill. No commercial bagged food for the animals so I am not seeing those costs. We use quite a bit of corn in the horse feed, prices seem to be staying higher than other years. I think the oats come from Canada. Not sure why they are not local, we do have oat production. Dry dog food prices are higher, even on the junky stuff. Again, I would point at mostly fuel prices to raise a crop, then transportation to get products to market.

Hay prices here should begin to decline within the next thirty days. With spring here, we will see more available pasturage, which will mean that last years cut hay will have less demand. If you can, hold off on your hay purchases for a little while. If you have adequate storage for hay, look to see about buying hay in the field sometime in May or June. The prices should be fair, but depending on the prospect of drought later in the year, might be higher than buying it in the fall but it will be higher quality hay from the spring cutting.

Feed prices may remain higher for awhile, due to the ethanol/biodiesel market, but it will moderate some due to two factors that have not been factored in by some folks at this point. The total number of cattle on feed will likely decline due to the higher cost of feed, if the price of cattle remains stagnant or declines, which is what historically has happened when feed prices rise. The other one I alluded to is the production from South and Central America, and the demand for grain worldwide. If the South and Central American production of grain is high, and worldwide demand remains constant, then the price of U.S. grain should also moderate.

I work at a feed store and shipping on every 50# bag is $1.50. I am in CA where grass hay is $16.00 a bale. When I started with horses Alfalfa was $35.00 a ton delivered and stacked in your barn, Oat hay $10.00 a ton and grass hay $8.00 a ton. Ralph may be my last horse because I won't be able to take care of another with the prices going like they have. The gas co. ownes our grain too now, we may drive and starve.

Just adding my views
As a farmer I can tell you that yes ethanol plants are a driving force to your prices, but also fuel and fertilizer and labor .
To reduce your cost try growing some of your own if you have a yard or acreage .
Had pretty good luck growing feed for rabbits ( everyone can grow tons of carrots easily )

I generally buy my hay from my brother, who produces his own hay for his cattle. He said his fertilizer costs have jumped from $90/ton 3 years ago to $350/ton last year, and he expects it to go up more this year. Ammonia phosphate fertilizer is made from petroleum, and when the price per barrel of oil goes up, so does the price of fertilizer. Add to that, the costs of fuel for equipment, transportation, etc. and the cost for hay and feed will be high this year. The last 2 years, I had to buy my hay local, since my brother didn't cut squares, between the high costs of fertilizer and the drought. Horse quality squares of coastal started at $6/bale in the barn, but jumped to $7/bale by July, and this supplier, one of the largest in the area, was out by Christmas. Feed stores are limiting the number of bales you can buy and it's over $10/bale. And this is in an area where you could get horse quality hay for $4-4.50/bale in the barn just 3 years ago. It will probably start at $7/bale this year. I'm stocking up this year as soon as I can. Clean-up cuts will be this month and first cut of good coastal squares should be in June, if the rains hold up. I'm actually hoping for a minimal tropical storm to come through. Tired of the drought the last 2 summers.

Yeah, they raised them here too in Pa, about 50 cents for sweet feed, and over 2.00 for XLA for chickens.

Re the ethanol, ANY biomass can be used, not just corn. They can use woodchips or any plant material. I think it's a scam to get the prices up so some people get rich while others get fleeced. Supposedly the Mexican govt is exporting corn to the USA and this is causing (of course) the prices to rise in that country so much that most of the people there can't afford to buy food to eat (they mostly eat corn tortillas in Mexico).

Brazil HAS cars that run solely ON ethanol and you can covert a standard gasoline engine to them without too much expense. Of course the oil companies don't like to hear that.

Some guy in Australia has invented a car that uses compressed air to go, and it can be recharged at a tire pump! It's pretty cool, you can see it at youtube.com here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq8aZVLpf-c