US Corn Price Per Bushel: What It Is Right Now and How to Check It Yourself

By Farmonaut Research & Content Team · Published 8 March 2026 · Updated 26 September 2026

USDA’s Agricultural Outlook put the 2026 marketing-year average corn price at $4.62 per bushel as of its spring 2026 estimate, according to farmdoc daily’s analysis of USDA’s projected prices. That single number moves every month a new USDA report lands, so the more useful skill is knowing exactly which two federal reports set it and where to pull the next update yourself. This page walks through both, plus the supply data behind the price and a break-even calculator you can run with your own numbers.

Two reports drive almost everything discussed below: the monthly USDA NASS Agricultural Prices release, which reports the actual farm-gate price received in the prior month, and the monthly USDA WASDE (World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates), which projects the marketing-year average and the supply/demand balance behind it. Bookmark both if you track this market more than once a season.

What Is the Price of a Bushel of Corn Right Now

There is no single “current” corn price — there are at least three different numbers, and confusing them is the most common mistake in reading this market:

1. The futures price — what traders on the CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) pay today for a contract of corn delivered in a future month. This moves every trading session.
2. The marketing-year average (MYA) price — USDA’s season-long average across the entire 2025/26 or 2026/27 marketing year, published and revised monthly in WASDE. This is the $4.62/bushel figure from farmdoc’s March 2026 analysis of USDA’s Agricultural Outlook.
3. The farm-gate cash price — what an individual farmer actually receives at a local elevator, which includes local basis and can differ from both of the above by a meaningful margin depending on region and month.

When someone searches “corn bushel price” or “current corn price per bushel,” they usually want either #1 (today’s trading price) or #3 (what their local elevator is paying). Neither of those is a number this article — or any article — can responsibly print as a live figure, because both change daily and neither is retrievable without live web access. What this article can do is hand you the exact, authoritative source for each, updated on a fixed schedule, so you always have a current number rather than a stale one.

How to Check the Current Corn Price Yourself

Because this page cannot fetch live prices, here is the durable method — the same steps work whether you’re reading this in the week it was published or a year from now.

For a live trading price (updates every session)

Go to finance.yahoo.com/quote/ZC=F and read the last settlement for the front-month or December corn contract. Futures prices are quoted in cents per bushel (for example, a quote of “462” means $4.62/bushel) and reflect what traders expect corn to be worth at delivery, not today’s cash value at your local elevator.

For the official monthly farm-gate average

Go to USDA NASS’s Agricultural Prices page for corn. USDA NASS releases this figure monthly, mid-month, covering the prior month’s average price received by farmers nationally. This is the most authoritative “actual” price — not a projection — but it always lags by roughly a month because USDA needs that time to survey and compile farmer sales data.

For the marketing-year outlook (updates monthly via WASDE)

USDA’s WASDE report, released monthly, contains the marketing-year average price projection along with the full supply-and-demand balance sheet that explains why the price is moving. The June 2026 WASDE projected 2025/26 marketing-year corn exports at 3.4 billion bushels, per USDA’s WASDE report from June 2026. Each monthly release supersedes the last, so always check the publication date on whatever copy you’re reading.

For year-specific searches (“corn bushel price 2026”)

If you’re specifically looking for the 2026 marketing-year figure rather than today’s cash price, the number to anchor on is USDA’s Agricultural Outlook projection of $4.62/bushel for the 2026 marketing year, published in spring 2026 and analyzed by farmdoc daily in March 2026. USDA revises this projection monthly through WASDE as actual harvest and demand data come in, so a reading taken later in the 2026/27 marketing year will likely show a different, more precise figure than the early-season estimate.

2026 US Corn Supply: Yield, Acreage, and Production

Supply is the other half of the price equation, and it’s the part with hard, dated numbers already on the record. USDA NASS’s Crop Production report, released August 12, 2026, put the national corn yield estimate at 180.7 bushels per acre for 2026 — down 5.8 bushels per acre from the 2025 yield of 188.1 bushels per acre, according to USDA NASS’s August 2026 executive briefing and the underlying Crop Production report.

That yield decline, spread across 88,592 thousand acres of harvested corn, produced a total 2026 crop estimate of 16,013 million bushels — a drop of roughly 1.0 billion bushels from 2025’s total, per the same August 12, 2026 USDA NASS briefing. A yield decline of this size, applied against a similar acreage base, is the kind of single data point that can move futures within minutes of the report’s release, which is why the August Crop Production report is one of the most closely watched USDA releases of the season.

A smaller crop on a slightly smaller yield doesn’t automatically mean higher prices — that depends entirely on whether demand absorbs the reduced supply, which is the subject of the next section. But it does explain why futures firmed the way they did in the weeks after this report, described below.

Regional variation sits underneath these national totals. The Corn Belt spans Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota, and Kansas, among other producing states, and USDA’s national yield figure is a production-weighted average across all of them. A state hit by dry conditions during pollination can post a yield well below 180.7 bu/acre while a state with timely rain during grain fill posts one well above it — USDA’s state-by-state corn yield map breaks out that variation county by county.

Digital monitoring has become more relevant as weather volatility affects these state-level yield swings. For example, Farmonaut’s crop plantation and forest advisory tools are designed to help users monitor field health and weather-linked stress through satellite-based insights. We focus on making this type of monitoring more accessible through web and mobile interfaces.

Demand: Exports, Ethanol, and Feed Use

Supply fell in 2026, but the price reaction to any supply drop depends on what’s happening on the demand side at the same time — and demand data in mid-2026 has been unusually strong on at least one front. Trading Economics reported that US corn export inspections rose 81.7% year-on-year in 2026 compared with 2025, a sharp acceleration in foreign buying that came alongside the production shortfall described above.

That export surge lines up with USDA’s own forecast: the June 2026 WASDE projected 2025/26 marketing-year corn exports at 3.4 billion bushels, per USDA’s WASDE report. Combine a smaller 2026 crop (16,013 million bushels, down 1.0 billion from 2025) with export inspections running 81.7% ahead of the prior year, and you have the two data points that explain most of the price direction discussed in USDA’s spring 2026 outlook — tighter supply meeting stronger foreign demand.

No corn price outlook is complete without a look at where that grain actually goes. In the United States, corn remains a cornerstone of animal feed, ethanol production, and industrial processing — starch, sweeteners, and a range of food and manufacturing inputs. Each of these channels absorbs bushels differently, and each responds to different signals.

Feed demand

Feed demand tracks livestock production cycles — herd size, poultry placement, feed conversion efficiency, and the relative cost of corn versus other feed ingredients. This demand channel changes gradually rather than in sudden jumps, which makes it a stabilizing base for consumption even when other signals are volatile. USDA’s WASDE report breaks out feed-and-residual use as one line item in the balance sheet; check the latest release at the WASDE link above for the current feed-use figure.

Ethanol demand

The ethanol sector is one of the largest single demand channels for US corn, consuming roughly a third of the crop in a typical marketing year according to USDA’s balance sheet accounting (see the WASDE report for the exact current-year figure). Ethanol grind responds to gasoline demand, blending economics, crude oil prices, and biofuel policy. A stronger grind absorbs supply that would otherwise sit in storage and pressure basis; a weaker one does the opposite.

Industrial and processor demand

Corn processors buy grain for starch, sweeteners, and food-ingredient manufacturing. This channel gets less headline attention than exports or ethanol, but it provides a steady baseline of use, and in years when specialty or identity-preserved corn is in demand, processors will bid up for quality-specific supply even while the broader commodity market stays balanced.

Export demand

Export demand is the swing factor precisely because it’s the most volatile of the four. US corn’s major foreign buyers include Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and several Southeast Asian markets, and volumes to each depend on freight rates, currency moves, trade policy, and the size of competing crops out of Brazil, Argentina, and Ukraine. The 81.7% year-on-year jump in export inspections cited above is exactly this kind of swing — a reminder that this line item alone can rewrite the entire balance sheet within a single marketing year.

For operations that need more field-level visibility into how these demand shifts intersect with crop condition, Farmonaut’s large-scale farm management tools are designed for remote crop monitoring across dispersed acreage. We provide satellite-based operational visibility that can help managers track variability, crop condition, and field performance at scale.

How the 2026 Price Compares to Recent Years

Reading a single price in isolation tells you less than reading it against the trend that produced it. CBOT corn futures rose 3.72% over a recent four-week period in August 2026, according to Trading Economics’ corn commodity data — a short-term move that sits on top of the longer supply-and-demand story already described: a 2026 crop down 1.0 billion bushels from 2025, met by export inspections running 81.7% ahead of the prior year.

Every one of the four rows in that table points the same direction: less corn, moving faster off the farm, at a firmer futures price. That’s not a coincidence — it’s the standard supply-demand mechanism playing out in near-real time, and it’s why USDA’s monthly WASDE revisions matter more in a year like this than in a year where the numbers are flat.

For a longer look-back — how 2026’s $4.62/bushel projection compares with the 2024 price cycle that first put tight-supply corn markets in headlines — see Farmonaut’s coverage of the 2024 corn futures surge and USDA’s tight-supply report, which covers the prior instance of this same dynamic.

Data access also matters in planning ahead of these revisions. Through the Farmonaut API and the API developer docs, we make satellite and weather-linked data available for integration into agricultural, finance, and operational systems where monitoring, verification, or risk assessment is needed.

What Moves the Price, Bushel by Bushel

The four data threads above — yield, production, exports, and futures momentum — don’t move independently. They interact, and the interaction is what actually sets the price. Five categories of signal are worth tracking on an ongoing basis, regardless of what year you’re reading this in:

• ✔ Weather signals: Moisture and temperature during pollination and grain fill determine whether the national yield lands above or below the USDA’s in-season estimate. The 2026 yield of 180.7 bu/acre versus 2025’s 188.1 bu/acre reflects exactly this kind of season-over-season swing.
• ✔ USDA report signals: The August Crop Production report and the monthly WASDE are the two releases most likely to move futures within the same trading day. Both are on fixed monthly or annual schedules — check USDA NASS’s release calendar for the next date.
• ✔ Demand signals: Feed use, ethanol grind, and export inspections — the last of which posted an 81.7% year-on-year jump in 2026 — determine how fast the crop is absorbed.
• ✔ Export signals: Sales to Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia set how much of the US crop the world buys, and freight, currency, and competing-origin supply can shift that quickly.
• ✔ Cost signals: Fertilizer, fuel, seed, and financing costs set the break-even price a producer needs, which shapes how much of the crop gets sold versus stored at any given price level.

There is also a cost side to this equation. Corn is more input-intensive than some alternative crops — fertilizer, diesel, machinery, seed, crop protection, drying, and financing all factor into a producer’s break-even price. Nitrogen and phosphate costs are typically the largest single input category in a corn budget, because corn’s fertility program requires more nitrogen per acre than most rotation alternatives. USDA does not publish a single national “average corn production cost” figure in the research gathered for this article — for a current input-cost benchmark specific to your operation, USDA’s Economic Research Service publishes annual commodity cost-and-return estimates, and your local extension office or elevator can typically quote current regional fertilizer and diesel pricing.

For institutions assessing exposure to these cost and margin swings, Farmonaut’s crop loan and insurance verification tools are intended to support satellite-based validation workflows. We use remote observations to help improve visibility for agricultural finance and risk review processes.

Break-Even Calculator: Corn Price vs. Your Costs

The figures above set the national context, but the number that actually matters to a producer is whether a given bushel price clears their own break-even. Enter your acreage, expected yield, per-acre cost, and a corn price to test — including USDA’s $4.62/bushel 2026 projection or today’s futures quote — and see the margin per acre and per bushel.

Assumptions and exclusions: This calculator uses a flat per-acre cost figure you supply — it does not model financing terms, crop insurance indemnities, government payments, basis, or drying and storage charges separately; add those into your cost input if they apply. It also assumes your entire crop sells at the single price you enter, which won’t match a season where you sell across multiple price points. Use it for a quick break-even check, not a full marketing plan.

Basis, Storage, and Marketing Strategy

Once you know your break-even, the next question is how the national price translates into what your local elevator actually pays — and that gap is called basis. A producer near an ethanol plant with strong nearby demand may see a tighter (more favorable) basis than one in a region with rail bottlenecks or heavy harvest-time delivery pressure, even when both are reading the same CBOT futures quote.

Storage decisions follow the same logic. When cash prices are weak at harvest but the futures curve shows a later month priced higher (a “carry” market), on-farm or commercial storage can capture that spread — but storage is never free. Interest on the stored value, shrink, handling charges, and the risk that basis moves against you all factor into whether storing beats selling at harvest.

Common risk-management tools available to producers include:

• ✔ Forward contracts to lock in cash prices for future delivery
• ✔ Futures hedges on the CBOT ZC contract to manage directional price risk
• ✔ Options strategies to protect downside while preserving some upside
• ✔ Storage hedges when carry and basis conditions justify holding grain
• ✔ Incremental sales plans that spread sales across several dates rather than one

Given 2026’s combination of a smaller crop (16,013 million bushels) and export inspections up 81.7% year-on-year, the market has been signaling tighter near-term supply — the kind of environment where basis at export-adjacent elevators tends to strengthen relative to interior locations further from rail and river export corridors. Confirm the current relationship at your own elevator rather than assuming it holds nationally.

Traceability and logistics can matter in specialized supply chains built around this pricing environment. Farmonaut’s blockchain-based traceability tools are built to improve transparency across agricultural product movement, while fleet management tools are designed to support operational efficiency for vehicle and resource tracking. We apply satellite, AI, and data tools to improve visibility rather than selling grain or farm inputs.

Farmonaut: Satellite Tools for Tracking Crop Condition

Everything above — yield estimates, production totals, export pace — eventually traces back to what’s actually happening in the field weeks or months before USDA publishes its numbers. Satellite imagery, AI-assisted crop monitoring, and weather-linked data integration give market participants earlier visibility into crop condition than waiting for the next scheduled USDA release.

Farmonaut is a satellite technology company offering solutions across agriculture, mining, infrastructure, and related sectors through Android, iOS, web/browser app, and API access. Our platform combines multispectral satellite imagery, AI-based advisory systems, blockchain-based traceability, and resource management tools. In agriculture, we focus on affordability and accessibility so that satellite-driven insights can support decisions across farms, agribusiness operations, financial institutions, and government use cases.

Our agricultural technology stack includes satellite-based crop monitoring, the Jeevn AI advisory system, traceability tools, and environmental monitoring features such as carbon footprint tracking. For corn-focused operations or institutions interpreting field-level risk, these tools can add decision support around crop condition, weather-linked stress, and operational oversight — the same kind of signal that eventually shows up in USDA’s monthly yield revisions.

• 📊 Crop health visibility: We use multispectral satellite data to help monitor vegetation condition and field variability.
• ⚠ Weather-linked advisory: Our Jeevn AI system is designed to provide timely insights and weather-aware guidance.
• 🌱 Sustainability tracking: Carbon footprinting tools support environmental monitoring for operations that need emissions visibility.
• 🔍 Finance and verification: We provide satellite-based support tools relevant for loans and insurance workflows.
• 🚜 Operational scale: Our solutions are structured to serve individual users, businesses, governments, and corporate clients across varying levels of complexity.

In a market where a few weeks of weather can shift expectations for millions of acres, better field visibility supports more informed decisions. That doesn’t replace USDA reporting or futures analysis, but it adds a layer of earlier signal. For readers who want access to Farmonaut’s subscription tools, the pricing table is included below.

FAQ: US Corn Bushel Price

Final Summary

The US corn bushel price is not one number — it’s a futures quote that moves daily, a marketing-year average that USDA revises monthly, and a farm-gate cash price that depends on local basis. As of USDA’s spring 2026 Agricultural Outlook, the 2026 marketing-year average projection stood at $4.62/bushel, set against a smaller crop (180.7 bu/acre yield, 16,013 million bushels total production, per USDA NASS’s August 12, 2026 Crop Production report) and export inspections running 81.7% ahead of 2025.

What won’t go stale is the method: check Yahoo Finance’s ZC=F quote for today’s futures price, USDA NASS’s Agricultural Prices page for last month’s actual farm-gate average, and the monthly WASDE report for the current marketing-year projection and the supply-demand balance behind it. Read those three sources together, and you’ll always have a more current number than any single article can print.