The cost of putting a traditional Easter dinner on the table this weekend is going up.
Tom Thieding with the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation says that Easter ham will cost you nine more cents a pound compared to last year. Potatoes are also up and if you're planning on coloring eggs. A dozen eggs will cost nineteen cents more this year.
Thieding says some of that is due to the higher cost of grain. And it's not just chicken farmers who are feeling the grain crunch. Thieding says livestock and dairy farmers who don't grow their own are getting concerned over higher production costs.
Some say the rush to plant corn for ethanol is the culprit for rising grain costs but Thieding says that's overblown. He says people forget grain prices were higher in 1996 than they are now and ethanol was the cause then.
Thieding doesn't see a price problem at the grocery store level either. For example, he says processed grain only counts for 4% of the cost of a box of corn flakes.
AUDIO: Jim Dick reports ( 1:00 MP3 )
