The Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour ran August 17 to 20, with more than 100 scouts sampling over 3,000 fields across seven Corn Belt states. The tour pegged corn notably below USDA’s August estimate of 180.7 bushels per acre.
USDA’s September 11 WASDE report confirmed the tighter picture, cutting the national corn yield to 178.5 bushels per acre and production to 15.8 billion bushels. Corn ending stocks fell to 1.567 billion bushels, pushing the stocks-to-use ratio below 10% for the first time in several years, which many analysts see as more significant than the yield cut itself. Soybean ending stocks remain historically tight at 310 million bushels.