Farm equipment dealers have a backlog of several months in orders for new machinery. Cropland rents are rising, along with agricultural land prices. And with spring planting just weeks away, farmers are watching the volatile commodities markets as they decide which crops to grow in the coming season.

While their city neighbors are struggling with foreclosures and fears of a recession, a lot more money is circulating in rural Kansas today, said Jere White, executive director of the Kansas Corn Growers Association.

"They are kind of riding the wave, running counter to the rest of the economy," Terry Kastens, a part-time agricultural economy professor at Kansas State University, said of his fellow farmers.

See full story here.