Corn Growers Point to Devastation if USDA Estimate of Record Crop Materializes (The Progressive Farmer) [View all]

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Members of the National Corn Growers Association didn't mince any words on Wednesday following the latest USDA estimates of a record corn crop expected in 2025.

U.S. farmers need more markets now.

Corn growers called on Congress and the Trump administration to push across the finish line legislation that would allow year-round, permanent sales of E15 nationwide. If the 16.7-billion-bushel (bb) production estimate comes to fruition, it will be devastating to farmers and rural communities.

"This is a major concern for our farm back home here," NCGA President and Illinois farmer Kenneth Hartman Jr. said during a press call on Wednesday. "I mean, this doesn't only just affect our farmers, but this goes back to rural America. We had good prices back in 2022 and we had reasonable cost for our inputs. But now these prices have dropped in half and at the same time -- I call it the inflation factor."

Tuesday's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report that also projected a record yield of 188.8 bushels per acre (bpa) and a 30-cent drop in the farmgate price to $3.90 a bushel, came in an already challenging price environment, Hartman said.

"You know our local elevator now has it already $3.38, which is extremely lower even than we're talking about as far as the (Chicago) board of trade," he said. "I know there's going to be areas that are going to actually for the first time in many years dropping in the $2 range, probably the $2.80, $2.90s at harvest because of the basis."

NCGA Chief Economist Krista Swanson said the math is worsening for corn producers. Farmers are facing an 85-cent-per-bushel loss at current market prices, a third consecutive year of negative profit margins with the 2026 outlook "even worse," she said, while the cost of producing a corn crop is around $4.75 a bushel with a $3.90 price.

https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2025/08/13/corn-growers-point-devastation-usda