Aug 13, 2026
U.S. Corn Yield Unchanged at 181.0 bu/ac, Recent Rains Helping
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The 2026 U.S. corn yield is unchanged this week to 181.0 bu/ac with a neutral bias. Corn is now rated 61% good to excellent, unchanged from last week.
Weather last week and over the weekend continued to be favorable for crop development with weekend rain across nearly all of Iowa and southern Minnesota. The forecast for this week is calling for more rain across the Corn Belt, which will get us to mid-August under generally good conditions. Weekend rains underperformed in the northwestern Corn Belt, especially North Dakota and South Dakota where they need more moisture.
The corn yield estimate was left unchanged this week at 181.0 bu/ac, but I changed the bias to neutral instead of neutral to slightly lower. Any significant downside risk to the U.S. corn crop has probably been reduced by the favorable start to the first half of August. If the weather during the second half of August is as good as the first half, the corn yield estimate may increase slightly.
The latest Drought Monitor placed 28% of the corn and 26% of the soybeans in drought, which is a slight improvement from the previous week.
The August Crop Production Report and the August WASDE report will be released on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. The August Crop Production Report does not contain physical in-field sample counts. Instead, it relies on the Agricultural Yield Survey (farmer-reported expectations), administrative data, and satellite imagery. Actual physical in-field sample measurements—known as the Objective Yield Survey—begin appearing in the September, October, and November reports.
In my weekly reports, I try to anticipate the final crop yield at the end of the growing season. I do not try to anticipate what the USDA might report in the monthly crop production estimates.