Top 10 Ag Stories of 2025: No. 2 - Growers Expected to Set New Record Average Yields Despite Seasonal Setbacks

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- Despite pests, disease and everything Mother Nature could dish out throughout the growing season -- from frosts and flooding to droughts and derechos -- U.S. row-crop farmers still managed to set what are expected to be record average yields for both corn and soybeans in 2025.

While USDA won't release final crop production data for 2025 until January, the agency's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report released earlier in December forecast average corn yield at 186 bushels per acre (bpa), besting the 179.4-bpa average from 2024. Total corn production and harvested acres also are expected to reach new all-time highs at 16.752 billion bushels (bb) from 90 million acres, surpassing the 15.341 bb harvested from 86.5 million acres in 2023.

Soybeans also set what could be a new record average yield at 53 bpa, eclipsing the 52.6 bpa from 2016. Total production was down as both planted and harvested acreage was at its lowest level since 2019.

COULD HAVE BEEN EVEN LARGER CROP

Had it not been for weather events leading to losses and crop abnormalities in some areas and the onset of some late-season foliar diseases in others, the 2025 corn and soybean crop could have been even larger.

In some regions, the season got off to a quick start as conditions allowed for early and/or rapid planting. But heavy rains across the upper Delta and lower Ohio Valley regions delayed planting, made replanting necessary or prevented planting all together.

A burst of heat in May led to issues with rapid growth syndrome in some young corn stands. While in other places, rapid growth at later stages led to reports of "tassel wrap," a relatively uncommon condition where the uppermost whorl becomes tightly wrapped around the tassel as it begins to emerge. When tassel wrap occurs, the timing of pollen shed and silk emergence can be affected, resulting in varying degrees of ineffective pollination and poor kernel set, depending on the severity.

While how a crop starts is important, so is how it finishes. Later in the season, a lack of precipitation across the lower Midwest and to the east into the Ohio Valley meant that corn didn't pack on as much kernel weight and displayed more tip back than farmers would like. Soybeans in some places struggled to fill pods with beans no larger than BBs.

Diseases also crept into the crop, especially where farmers cut back on fungicide applications to mitigate expenses. In corn, tar spot, southern rust and gray leaf spot wreaked the most havoc. Outbreaks of red crown rot, sudden death syndrome and white mold dominated disease reports from soybeans.

Insect pressure was more isolated; injury was relatively minor when it occurred. Most notably, corn leafhoppers, which can transmit corn stunt disease, were found farther north than usual for the second consecutive season.

Although reports of all-time best yields for many farmers would usually bring satisfaction, that wasn't the case in 2025 for most. Instead, row-crop farmers became victims of their own agricultural success as commodity prices remained low in an environment of abundant global supply and uncertain demand.