By Ryan Hanrahan
United States farmers planted a record amount of corn and soybeans in the 2026/27 season, the Agriculture Department reported on Wednesday, with combined planted acreage of the two crops reaching 183.5 million acres, more than 3 million acres higher than the previous combined crop record.
The combined acreage record was reflected in Wednesday’s Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates reports from USDA, which Progressive Farmer reported “found an additional 1.4 million planted acres for both the corn and soybean crops to increase the corn crop slightly and boost the soybean crop to the largest in U.S. history.”
“USDA boosted corn acres by 1.4 million acres (ma) to 96.7 ma and increased production to 16.013 billion bushels (bb) despite dropping the corn yield by 2.3 bushels per acre (bpa),” Progressive Farmer reported. “USDA also increased soybean planted acres by 1.4 million to 86.8 ma to increase production to a projected record of 4.519 bb.”
Farm Futures’ Bruce Blythe reported that “USDA didn’t provide specifics on reasons behind the higher corn and soybean acres. But it’s likely that acreage certification data collected by USDA’s Farm Service and Risk Management agencies in recent weeks showed farmers planted more of both crops than what was forecast in June.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Kirk Maltais reported that “the USDA said it projects the national corn yield for the 2026/27 season at 180.7 bushels an acre. That’s down from 183 bushels an acre projected in July’s report, and is a much larger cut than the one expected by analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal, who forecast an average yield of 182.5 bushels an acre.”
Source : illinois.edu