Roger Crane stood atop a wooden bridge at the edge of his cornfield, squinting into the mid-afternoon sun.

The wind whipped around him, lifting his white hair and puffing out his shirt, drowning out his soft-spoken voice with every blustering gust.

He faced his cornfield, 5 acres of which had been carved into a maze. The stalks rustled as the wind danced through their leaves.

The corn towers more than 6 feet in the air, an ideal height for a corn maze's popularity, farmers say, because as people make their way through the maze, they won't be able to see anything on the other side of the stalk wall.

At a time when small family farms are faced with a theoretical ultimatum - either expand and be successful or decrease production and specialize - a corn maze becomes just another way to survive.

"There's no room for the midsized farmer anymore," said Crane, who grows pumpkins, bales straw and runs the corn maze with his wife, Carolyn Crane. Their roughly 200-acre DeWitt Township farm is located near the Lansing Capital City Airport.

"It's harder for the small farmers to make it," he said.

To make a living, farmers have to cater to niche markets by turning to different crops or creating other sources of income, such as the corn maze, Roger Crane said.

"In order to stay competitive, you've got to make more money," he said. "We decided a few years ago to just get smaller and specialize a little."

The average market value of production per farm in Ingham County decreased by 12 percent, from $57,465 in 1997 to $50,438 in 2002, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's 2002 Census of Agriculture.

According to the same survey, Ingham County ranked 27th out of the state's 83 counties in the total value of agricultural products sold, at $51,346,000.

MSU agricultural economics Professor James Hilker said his department works with the MSU Extension to help farmers develop budgets for individual crop production and specialize their economies, adding that the trend is not particular to farming alone.

"(Specialization is) always going to be taking place," Hilker said. "That's going to be taking place in almost every business, whether it be farming or whether it be something else."

Farms are more often turning to forms of "agritainment," Carolyn Crane said, with farms adopting interactive events, such as corn mazes and cider mills, to help earn an income.

"(It's) just a different way of trying to farm, still having the land and trying to do something with agriculture," Carolyn Crane said.

This is only the second year the Cranes created a corn maze on their farm. The two said they hope to have a small farm market in operation across the street from the corn maze by next year, which would sell plants and flowers, in addition to farm products.

The Cranes have two sons, ages 15 and 17, who work in the corn maze now but don't want to farm for a living, Carolyn Crane said.

"It's not enough money," she said, adding that people won't farm as adults "unless you really have the feeling of farming in your blood."

Even though his sons have decided against farming, Roger Crane said he would like to see the farm stay in his family, and the corn maze is one way to do that. Crane's family has owned the land for more than a century.

"What we have left, we're protective of," Roger Crane said. "So many people, their family farms are getting sold for development."

Kindra Beck, a manager at Uncle John's Cider Mill in St. Johns, said a corn maze has been added to the mill and farm for the first time in years.

The family-managed farm plants cherries, apples and pumpkins, but also offers a cider mill that sells caramel apples, cider and doughnuts, in addition to a small farmers' market with different products each season.

The corn maze was another way to increase revenue at the farm, but not because business was lacking, Beck said.

"We just wanted to expand and add," she said.

Mark Benjamin said that his corn maze, Bestmaze, allows him to supplement his income but still keep his land for farming.

Benjamin, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat on his Williamston farm with his father and brother, said he designs his 20-acre corn maze on paper and lays out the maze using tape measures and flags. Although some other farmers, such as the Cranes, join associations or hire companies to create the maze, Benjamin said he and his brother carve out their maze.

Bestmaze, shaped into an aquatic scene featuring fish, a loon and a river otter, has brought revenue to several different families, he said.

"When you're creating income for 10 family members, that changes the reason you do it," Benjamin said. "Since the income's all split among the family members, it gives more of an incentive."

His maze has been in operation for four years, and a growing reputation aids in bringing customers to the farm, he said.

He said the maze isn't only a way for the public to enjoy themselves, it's a way to keep from having to expand his farm.

"The profit margins per acre are getting smaller, so I either have the choice of buying more land and getting bigger, or finding something else to do," Benjamin said. "So that's a big part of why we do the maze."

Some farmers say they will continue with the mazes until they're forced to change.

"I grew up all my life on a farm," Benjamin said. "All my neighbors up and down the road like my corn maze because they know as long as that's in operation, I'm not putting a factory or a house behind them."

Lindsay VanHulle can be reached at vanhull3@msu.edu.