Corn prices may have sold off in recent days, but they remain more than double the value of a year ago. This is having a dramatic impact in related industries. Corn is the staple diet of most farmed animals. And as their food bills climb, farmers are feeling the strain. Tom Dyson recently visited Iowa and says farmers there are throwing piglets in the trash — hogs there are no longer worth the feed costs…

A perfect storm is gathering that may make investing in a livestock ETF one of the best profit plays for 2008.

According to a report by Bloomberg, cattle prices may rise 13% by the end of the year on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Brazil’s Bolsa de Mercadorias e Futuros. More from this story:

Not since 1996, when corn reached what was then a record $5 a bushel, have cattle been this cheap relative to their primary source of feed.

The time is right to invest in a livestock ETF. Livestock prices have remained cheap over because grain prices have remained low. But this has changed… and an ETF is a great way to play the upswing in livestock prices.

“Hogs, like most commodities, went nowhere for 30 years,” says Ian Davis in The Growth Stock Wire. “In 1977, hogs sold for about 55.5 cents per pound. Today hogs sell for only about 79 cents per pound. That’s a rise of 42% in 31 years, or an annualized return of 1.1%… well below the inflation rate.

Corn stocks are expected to plunge to a 13-year low, according to the US Department of Agriculture, setting up a great play in a little-known livestock ETF.

MarketWatch reports that corn stocks are set to suffer because US farmers are cutting back corn acreage this spring to grow more soybeans.

Corn futures for July delivery today closed down 1 cent at $6.2925 a bushel. The contract had ended Thursday’s session at $6.3025 a bushel, an all-time high.

The largest freezer in the world is in Le Mars, Iowa. The freezer is six stories high and shaped like a cube. The local newspaper calls it a “high rise freezer.”