Farmers Stockpiling Corn in Response to Tough Growing Conditions

A costly tug of war has broken out over what is usually one of the Farm Belt’s most ubiquitous commodities: corn. Agribusiness companies, including Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co. ADM +0.96% and Smithfield Foods Inc. are dangling hefty premiums to buy bushels of corn in places where unrelenting rain this spring prevented farmers from planting millions of acres.