Sneaky Sileage Boosts USDA Corn Data Figures

Unexpected changes in corn silage use are being blamed for the surprise jump in US corn production in the latest USDA data. North Dakota State University economist Frayne Olson, says the increase came from a sharp rise in harvested acreage, not higher yields. He explains that strong growing conditions in 2025 produced more silage than livestock operations could store, forcing more acres to be harvested for grain. Instead, that shift added more than a million acres to us days harvested corn total, pushing production higher than traders had expected.

“Not all of the acres are going to be harvested and run through a combine. We always have some corn silage. So that differential, that spread between planted and harvested went from 8.7 million acres to 7.5 million acres.”

Once again, Frayne Olson, North Dakota State University agricultural economist, Olson says that it was a good year for corn silage as well, and many farmers that had good corn silage put that grain into bins, inadvertently boosting the nation's total grain production and catching the market off guard. Thanks for tuning in to today's Line on Agriculture report, I'm Lorrie Boyer for the Ag Information Network.