USDA Trims Corn Outlook, Raises Global Wheat Ending Stocks

The US Department of Agriculture has released its September World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. The report showed that the agency trimmed its estimate of the 2026-27 US corn crop, citing a lower national average yield of 178.5 bushels per acre.

This is down from 180.7 bushels per acre estimated in August, with total corn production now projected at 15.80 billion bushels. Corn ending stocks for the marketing year that began September 1 were also lowered to 1.567 billion bushels from 1.653 billion bushels in August.

On the other hand, soybeans saw a marginal increase in yield to 52.8 bushels per acre, pushing total production to 4.535 billion bushels. However, soybean ending stocks were trimmed to 310 million bushels from 320 million.

The global wheat figure saw a bigger move, with the USDA raising its estimate of global ending stocks due to larger harvests reported from competing exporting countries. The agency now projects world ending stocks of 272.1 million metric tons for corn, 124.0 million metric tons for soybeans, and 276.3 million metric tons for wheat.