The corn numbers released in this month’s Supply and Demand report were eye-opening. “USDA added 1.3 million acres to corn harvested,” reports Iowa State University Economics Professor Chad Hart. “A lot was originally intended for silage, but, given how great a year it was for production, we were able to fill those silage bins up fairly quickly and therefore we had more acres of silage than we needed and so that acreage got redirected back into the grain market.” For 2026, less corn is expected to be planted. “We’re looking at a planted area around 95 million acres, giving up about 3.8 million acres (from this past season); that still would be the second highest total we’ve had in the past five years.”
