Record crop harvested

Farmers in Illinois and the rest of the country harvested a record corn crop last year as an ethanol boom raged across the Midwest, but production of soybeans statewide slid slightly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Illinois farmers produced nearly 2.3 billion bushels of corn in 2007 on 13.2 million acres planted. That's 26 percent more output than the previous year and the largest corn harvest on record for the state. Illinois soybean growers produced about 350.5 million bushels, off 27 percent because farmers planted fewer acres.