Row Crops Today — June 12, 2026
The 5-minute 5 AM brief for row crop producers and ag professionals
Headline Stack
🌧️ D4 Extreme Drought returns to Minnesota for first time since March 2024
📊 June WASDE raises corn ending stocks just 3 million bushels, soybeans unchanged
📋 Boozman says bipartisan farm bill text imminent; SNAP cost-share still the holdup
💰 FSA raises per-entity payment cap to $155,000, indexed for inflation
Top Story
🌧️ Extreme Drought returns to Minnesota corn and soybean country. — LINK
The June 9 U.S. Drought Monitor reintroduced D4 Extreme Drought across portions of western through southeastern Minnesota, the first D4 designation in the state since March 2024. The new classification covers a swath of Minnesota's primary corn and soybean territory, with growers already reporting wilting crops and rising irrigation costs. Roughly two-thirds of the state now falls under some level of drought designation following weeks of below-normal rainfall and above-normal temperatures. Producers in the affected counties have begun running pivots earlier than typical for mid-June, adding fuel and electricity expense to operations already squeezed by tight margins. The Drought Monitor is jointly produced by NOAA, USDA and the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the next weekly update is scheduled for June 16. Minnesota ranked fourth nationally in corn production and third in soybean production in 2025, according to USDA NASS.
More This Week
📊 June WASDE a "copy-and-paste," analyst says. — LINK
USDA raised U.S. corn ending stocks by 3 million bushels and left soybean ending stocks unchanged in Tuesday's June WASDE; winter wheat production was cut 2% to 1.03 billion bushels.
"USDA essentially did a copy and paste and that tends to happen seasonally with the June report being uneventful. The May WASDE is really the kind of first look at new crop. That tends to be a bigger market mover," said Bree Baatz, grains and oilseeds analyst with Terrain.
The report also raised old-crop soybean production estimates for Argentina and old-crop corn production for Brazil and Argentina; the next WASDE is scheduled for July 10.
📋 Boozman says bipartisan farm bill text is close. — LINK
Senate Ag Chair John Boozman said bipartisan farm bill work is about to yield results, with Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar pointing to state SNAP cost-shares as the remaining sticking point ahead of USDA's end-of-June release of final state SNAP error rates.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins conceded the farm economy continues to face "serious headwinds," while crediting administration tariffs with producing 19 new trade deals and cutting the ag trade deficit nearly in half.
Boozman cited high fertilizer and diesel prices, labor costs, and interest costs as reasons farm policy needs to be modernized; Ag Democrats counter that tariffs and the war with Iran have driven farm income losses and bankruptcies.
💰 FSA payment cap rises to $155,000, with new pass-through rules. — LINK
USDA's finalized rule under the One Big Beautiful Bill raises the per-entity ARC and PLC payment cap from $125,000 to $155,000, indexed annually for inflation, and extends pass-through eligibility to LLCs and S-corporations for the first time.
"The member, in order to be eligible through this pass-through entity provision, the member has to be actively engaged in that farm. So they either have to be providing labor, capital, management or equipment. They have to provide two of those four things to qualify as being actively engaged," said Richard Fordyce, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation.
The $125,000 cap had been in place for years prior to the change; FSA is directing producers to local county offices to update business structure records and confirm eligibility under the new pass-through provisions.
Basis Watch
Nebraska Northwest old-crop corn firmed 10 cents on Thursday, the day's largest move across either commodity. Nebraska Southwest old-crop corn improved 8 cents on the low end, and Kansas West Central strengthened 5 cents on the top end, leaving western Corn Belt corn the firmer side of the session. Minnesota South new-crop corn improved 5 cents, the lone notable move on the December contract. Illinois North old-crop corn was steady to modestly firmer.
Soybean basis was quieter and mixed. Illinois North old-crop softened 3 cents on the top end, while Minnesota South old-crop firmed 3 cents on the top end. Moves at Nebraska Central and Nebraska East Central old-crop were limited to 2 cents.
Source: USDA AMS
More than 15 inches of rain fell on parts of southern Iowa and northern Missouri in the two weeks ending June 12, on top of additional rainfall from Thursday's storms, per Page County farmer Lee Brooke.
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