USDA estimated that farmers planted 95.3 million acres of corn in 2026, 3% less than in 2025. That June estimate matches the agency’s earlier March forecast of planting intentions, but the reports measure different things: what farmers planned to plant and what they later reported planting.
How much corn did farmers plant in 2026?
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) put the estimate at 95.3 million acres in both its March and June 2026 reports. The March figure was an estimate of planting intentions; the June figure was an estimate of planted area. Both were 3% below 2025.
| USDA report | Survey timing and measure | Corn acreage estimate | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prospective Plantings, released March 31, 2026 | Nearly 74,000 farm operators surveyed during the first two weeks of March; intended plantings | 95.3 million acres | Down 3% |
| Acreage, released June 30, 2026 | Approximately 90,300 farm operators surveyed during the first two weeks of June; estimated planted area | 95.3 million acres | Down 3% |
The March report is the first official, survey-based estimate of farmers’ planting intentions, not a count of fields already planted. The June follow-up asked what farmers had actually planted. The matching national estimates do not make the two measures interchangeable: one captures plans earlier in the season, the other a later estimate of planted acres.
Where did corn intentions fall?
In the March survey, corn intentions were down or unchanged from 2025 in 37 of the 48 states NASS uses to estimate acreage. The agency identified expected declines of at least 300,000 acres in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. These state comparisons describe intentions in March, not final state acreage.
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How did soybean acreage compare?
Soybeans moved in the opposite year-over-year direction in both reports. NASS estimated 84.7 million acres of soybean planting intentions in March, up 4% from 2025. Its June report estimated 85.4 million soybean acres planted, up 5%.
Those figures provide crop context, but the acreage reports do not explain why farmers intended to plant—or ultimately planted—different amounts of corn and soybeans. They do not establish that prices, costs, weather, policy or crop rotation caused the acreage changes.
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What does the estimate mean for corn production?
Planted acreage is only one part of a crop outlook. USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), in its May 2026 Feed Outlook, forecast 2026/27 corn production of 16.0 billion bushels—6% below its 2025/26 record-production comparison. It forecast 87.4 million harvested acres and a yield of 183 bushels per acre, with the yield forecast predicated on normal weather. ERS described the production forecast as the second largest on record.
These are forecasts, not final harvest results. Harvested acres are also a different measure from the 95.3 million planted acres in NASS’s June report; the figures should not be compared as though they describe the same acreage category. See the May 2026 Feed Outlook for the production outlook.
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What the reports can—and cannot—tell you
- They establish acreage estimates. NASS published a March estimate of intended corn plantings and a June estimate of planted corn area, each at 95.3 million acres.
- They show the decline was geographically widespread in the intentions survey. Corn intentions were down or unchanged in 37 of 48 estimating states.
- They do not establish the reason for the change. The acreage releases do not attribute lower corn acreage to a specific market, weather or policy factor.
- They do not make the production forecast a final result. ERS’s 2026/27 production and yield numbers depend on forecast assumptions, including normal weather for the yield estimate.
USDA’s Prospective Plantings publication page provides the report series and context for the March intentions estimates.
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