USDA sharply cuts US wheat acreage estimate while raising soybean plantings

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its final report on U.S. planting areas for the MY 2026/27, increasing its soybean acreage estimate compared with March data, while significantly lowering the wheat forecast. The revision supported wheat futures prices.

Compared with the March outlook, planting area estimates were revised as follows:

— all wheat types: reduced from 43.775 to 42.74 million acres (analyst estimate: 43.86 million acres), which is 6% below last year’s 45.3 million acres. This includes winter wheat down by 0.89 million acres to 31.52 million acres (1.62 million acres below last year), spring wheat down 0.03 to 9.39 million acres, and durum wheat down 0.12 to 1.83 million acres;
— soybeans: increased by 0.66 million acres to 85.36 million acres (analyst estimate: 85.37 million acres), up 5.1% from last year’s 81.2 million acres.

Corn acreage was left unchanged at 95.34 million acres (analyst estimate: 95 million acres), which is 3.6% below last year’s 98.8 million acres.

USDA also released its quarterly grain stocks report as of June 1, 2026.

Compared with last year, inventories increased:

• wheat: +7.6% to 25.0 million tonnes (analyst estimate: 25.5 million tonnes);
• corn: +14% to 134.5 million tonnes (forecast: 137.6 million tonnes);
• soybeans: +5.3% to 28.9 million tonnes (estimate: 28.5 million tonnes).

Higher stock levels slightly limited further gains in commodity prices.

Tags: soybean, wheat, USA, sown area, corn