BYRON - With prices for the “Big Three” in commodities - corn, soybeans and wheat - all near historic highs, upstate New York farmers are in a good mood this harvest season.

“This is a year you can get ahead,” said John Starowitz, one of the owners of Star Growers, a 4,000-acre farm based in Byron, about 25 miles west of Rochester.

Star and most other farms have just finished bringing in their wheat crop, and are gearing up for soybeans and corn. All three crops are up more than $1 a bushel from the price about a year ago, with soybeans almost $4 higher.

While farmers face much higher costs this year for fertilizer and fuel, Starowitz said the higher commodity prices should more than offset those costs.

“We should be able to upgrade stuff we've had for 20 years,” he said.

“This is one of those ‘go wild' years. It's make it or break it.”

The prices were even higher in June, when devastating floods in the Midwest wiped out corn and soybean fields. Corn hit almost $8 a bushel. But the price has backed off with improved weather in the past two months drying out wet crops and raising hopes for a decent crop in the Midwest.

New York growers planted record acres for soybeans this year and increased their corn acreage, trying to tap the high prices.

Farmers planted 235,000 acres of soybeans, up 15 percent from the 205,000 last year. New York farmers also planted 1,140,000 acres of corn, up 9 percent from 2007.

“The industry is more optimistic about the opportunities - you're seeing that with the record acres in New York for soybeans and added acres for corn,” said Rick Zimmerman, executive director for the New York Corn Growers Association. “It's certainly a different picture today than it was five years ago (with $2-a-bushel corn). That certainly is good for farmers.”

Corn prices have been volatile in the past two months, and have been dropping. Zimmerman said farmers need to be good managers of their expenses and good marketers for their crop.

“There's a good opportunity to make a profit, but it's not a cakewalk,” he said.

“The business requires careful management of your input costs.”

Prices also have been pushed up by a rapid ethanol expansion in the United States and increased worldwide demand for commodities, Zimmerman said.

Corn and soybeans are increasingly sought for the alternative energy market, and as more acres shift to those crops, that has affected wheat, one of the crops farmers have moved away from, Zimmerman said.

The recent dip in the prices worries some farmers, who are paying so much more for seeds, fertilizer and fuel.

If the prices continue a downward trend, there could be a crisis in the farm community, said Ed Urbanik, a portfolio manager for Farm Credit of Western New York.

The input costs for growing corn have doubled from about $250 to $300 per acre a few years ago to $500 to $600 this year, Urbanik said.

“If the prices drop, we could have real problems because the farmers' costs have just skyrocketed,” Urbanik said.

The prices are still high enough that farmers should end the year in a better financial position than a year ago, particularly with the booming corn crop, which looks like it will have big yields from all the rain and warm weather, he said.

“The corn around here, just look at it,” he said. “I've never seen corn this strong. This could be a really good year for farmers.”