The grain trade gives up post-crop report gains.

April 1, 2026

The grain trade moved lower overnight, which is classic after the USDA crop report, with the grain trade going in the opposite direction of how the port day settles. Recall that the bearish January crop report led the grain market to recover over the following two days. The bottom line will from yesterday, is that the USDA really doesn’t know what the true acreage will be and will likely spend the next nine months, similar to last year, trying to figure it out. The response rate from farmers to the 70,000 inquiries mailed out was only 37%. Many of those occurred before the extreme increases in input costs due to the Iran-Iraq War.

With the March data now out of the way, the market’s focus is shifting back to U.S. spring planting. For now, the weather pattern is mostly dry, and in the early season, that tends to weigh negatively on prices because it allows producers to move quickly