USDA Says Corn Acres Up 5% in 2025

Today USDA released the 2025 Prospective Plantings report. In the report, USDA said U.S. farmers will plant nearly 5 million more corn acres in 2025 compared to last year.

The report methodology says the acreage estimates are based primarily on surveys conducted earlier this month. Altogether, USDA is estimating a total of 224.2 million corn, soybean, and wheat acres for 2025/2026, up from 223.8 million for 2024/2025.

Corn

In the report, USDA pegged corn acres for the 2025/2026 crop year at 95.3 million. This was up 5% from last year and above the average trade expectation.

Soybeans

Soybean acres for 2025/2026 were pegged below last year and the average trade expectation.

Wheat

Wheat acres were also pegged lower year-over-year and below the average trade expectation.

Grain Stocks

USDA also released the quarterly Grain Stocks report today. Corn stocks were in line with the average trade expectation and lower year-over-year. Soybeans and wheat, however, were higher than the average trade expectations and higher year-over-year.

Trade Reaction

Naomi Blohm, senior market advisor, Total Farm Marketing: “Today’s USDA report was primarily as expected, and based on market price response, already viewed as old news, with most of today’s information priced into the market already…. The friendly news from today was wheat…. I have a feeling we might see Minneapolis wheat futures needing to buy some acres yet this spring as spring wheat acres came in at 10.02 million, which was on the very low end of estimates. Traders now will shift focus to Wednesday’s tariff news and global weather.”

Jeremy McCann, account manager, Farmer’s Keeper: “So far, today’s Prospective Plantings and Grain Stocks reports have not been the big market movers that we often see. Starting with stocks, ‘The Trade’ nailed their corn stocks expectations, coming in at 8.151 billion bushels, exactly what the USDA posted. Both soybeans and wheat stocks were posted above expectations. 

“The same cannot be said for 2025/2026 acreage, however. Corn acres were reported to be just about one million acres higher than anticipated at 95.326 million acres. Both soybeans and wheat were reported lower than expected. This comes as no surprise as these markets have not been able to hold any length, and profitability on farms for these crops looks slim, if not negative. 

“Immediately after the report, old crop corn and wheat seem to be the only markets getting a positive bounce. We’ve been pricing in our expectations for this report for a solid week now, and because there wasn’t a huge surprise, those markets get to shake off the negative trading that occurred ahead of these reports.”