(Washington Post) -- The farm economy in the Great Plains states are a bright spot in the otherwise gloomy national economic picture. In states like Nebraska, the housing market is holding up just fine, the banks are making plenty of loans, and employers keep adding jobs. Retail spending in the middle of the country was strong even before the $600 tax rebates this spring, and low interest rates and a tax provision in the economic stimulus bill are helping to goose already booming sales of farm equipment and pickup trucks. The price of farmland in Nebraska has doubled in the past three years, primarily reflecting the boom in commodity prices. The increase also reflects the impact of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve that enabled buyers to bid up land with borrowed money. But if crop prices drop toward historical norms, it could mean sharp decreases in land prices that would devastate some farmers. The availability of loans to farmers is the strongest it has been in five years, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, even as banks nationwide are becoming reluctant to lend money. The reason: There wasn't much overbuilding of housing here, so most regional banks are not saddled with the same bad mortgage and construction loans as their counterparts on the coasts. The good times are not uniform across the region; livestock producers have been pummeled by high prices for feed and fuel. In Blair, Neb., however, long-vacant storefronts have been turned into furniture shops and restaurants in the past couple of years, and Wal-Mart is looking to open a store just down the way. The billion-dollar Cargill plant that turns grains of corn into high-fructose corn syrup and ethanol just announced another $100 million expansion, adding a Danish company that makes enzymes out of corn -- a reflection of booming global demand for all types of commodities. That prosperity also shows itself on Lyle Schjodt's farm a few miles outside Blair, where he farms 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans, 150 head of cattle, and 1,200 hogs. He still has the first tractor he ever bought, back in 1968, in a shed. "I've been farming for 39 years, and I haven't seen a better year than this one," he said. Schjodt is upgrading his equipment; he just ordered a $120,000 Case IH planter, a massive red device that deposits seed corn every seven inches in 30-inch-wide rows. He bought a new $50,000 Ford F-350 back in the spring, too. Nationally, truck sales are battered by skyrocketing fuel costs. But auto sales are up 8% in the Omaha area so far this year, according to sales tax receipts.
