On land that has yielded corn and beans, Jim Dane and some other Johnson County farmers may see something new produced.
Locally, the Dane name is associated with Dane's Dairy, a popular ice cream shop just off Highway 1 now run by his sister. But Jim Dane still works 500 acres his family accumulated over the last century. Today, 200 acres are in the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program; some of the remaining 300 are in row crop.
But it's not sweet corn, he's producing. It's fuel.
"I'm growing the crop for the most economic return I can get," Dane said about his corn being turned in to ethanol.