CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Corn farmers aren't the only ones who have been thankful for rain in the last few weeks.

Ethanol producers are also happy that the rain helped the corn — their main ingredient — rebound from what was shaping up to be a mediocre growing season.

Rain has fallen off and on through most of July in parts of the central and eastern Corn Belt, just as the crop started pollinating. The rain has improved the health of the crop and, to the delight of ethanol makers, driven down corn prices.

"This has really helped to increased the profitability for ethanol producers," said Rick Kment, an ethanol analyst with DTN, an Omaha, Neb.-based agricultural market information company.

Farmers planted a record 92.9 million acres of corn this year, based largely on the expected demand for ethanol. Production of the fuel additive has risen more than 40 percent since 2004, according to the industry trade group Renewable Fuels Association, with demand increased by high oil prices.

But a lot of that crop grew under sunny, cloudless skies through June, leading to worries that all those acres might yield relatively little corn.

Then came the rain, as much as 6 inches so far in July in eastern Iowa and western Illinois, according to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center. Iowa is the country's top corn producer and Illinois is No. 2, accounting between them for 30 percent of corn planted in the United States this year.

In mid-June, a little more than half of Illinois' corn crop was in good to excellent condition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Last week, that figure was 81 percent. In Iowa, it was still healthy at 63 percent, held down by dry conditions in the western end of the state.