US Farmers Set Record for Corn and Soybean Acres Amid Weather Challenges

USDA August report highlights record corn and soybean acres planted by US farmers. According to the report, farmers planted 96.7 million acres of corn, a 1.4 million acre increase from previous forecasts. Soybean acreage also reached a record high at 86.8 million acres, with combined corn and soybean acreage totaling 183.5 million acres.

The increased plantings were offset by lower yields due to adverse summer weather conditions, which caused heat and drought stress in parts of the western Midwest. Despite this, the USDA still projects a second-largest corn crop on record, behind only the 2025 crop of 17.02 billion bushels.

Soybean production is also expected to reach a record high at 4.519 billion bushels, with yields trimmed slightly to 52.7 bushels per acre due to excessive rain in some areas.

However, the wheat crop is projected to be the smallest in over 50 years, with 1.53 billion bushels of production forecasted.