Farmers in the United States planted an estimated 95.3 million acres of corn in 2026, down 3% on last year, while soybean area rose 5% to 85.4 million acres, according to the Acreage report published on 30 June by the Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

The report is the season's reckoning against intentions. Following up the Prospective Plantings survey of March, NASS questioned about 90,300 farm operators in the first two weeks of June to find out what was actually put in the ground. Growers expect to harvest 87.4 million acres of corn for grain, down 4% on 2025, and 84.4 million acres of soybean, up 5%.

Cotton moved the other way from corn. All cotton planted area is estimated at 9.85 million acres, 6% above 2025, of which upland cotton accounts for 9.70 million acres and American Pima 150,000 acres. Wheat area fell: all wheat is estimated at 42.7 million acres, down 6%, with winter wheat at 31.5 million acres, other spring wheat at 9.39 million and durum at 1.83 million acres.

Biotechnology varieties still dominate but slipped at the margin. Ninety-two per cent of American corn acres and 94% of upland cotton acres were planted to biotech varieties, both down on last year, while 95% of soybean acres used herbicide-resistant seed, also down.

NASS released its quarterly Grain Stocks and Rice Stocks reports the same day. Corn stocks on 1 June totalled 5.29 billion bushels, 14% more than a year earlier, with on-farm stocks up 16% and off-farm stocks up 12%. Soybeans in store totalled 1.06 billion bushels, up 5%, and all wheat 920 million bushels, up 8%.

Rough rice stocks came to 74.8 million hundredweight, up 7% on 1 June 2025, with long grain varieties making up 73% of the total, medium grain 26% and short grain 1%. Milled rice stocks, at 5.93 million hundredweight, were down 3%.

For Bangladesh the numbers arrive as prices rather than as acres. A larger American soybean crop and heavier maize stocks ease the cost of imported feed and of soybean oil, two of the country's biggest agricultural import lines; a smaller wheat area works in the opposite direction on flour.

Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service