Row Crops Today — May 1, 2026
The 5-minute 5 AM brief for row crop producers and ag professionals
Headline Stack
📋 House passes farm bill 220–200, drops year-round E15 provision
🌽 U.S. corn export shipments reach 2.98 billion bushels, up 29% year over year
🌍 USDA and EXIM launch FARM Initiative, expanding GSM-102 to $5.5 billion
🌱 Indiana corn 30% planted, soybeans 35% — sprayers can't keep up
💰 Economists warn fertilizer and fuel cost squeeze could last months
Top Story
📋 House passes farm bill 220–200 without year-round E15. — LINK
The U.S. House passed the first full farm bill since 2018 on April 30 in a 220–200 vote, delivering $1.4 billion in funding for crop insurance subsidies, commodity safety nets, SNAP, and conservation programs. The bill omitted language codifying year-round E15 ethanol blends — a top priority for corn growers — though Republican leaders committed to a separate vote on E15 when Congress returns from recess in mid-May. A MAHA-Democrat coalition also stripped a provision that would have pre-empted state-level pesticide labeling rules. Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN), a House Agriculture Committee member, acknowledged "compounding challenges" but called the legislation the biggest boost to farm country since the 2002 farm bill. Rep. Angie Craig, the committee's ranking Democrat, criticized the E15 omission on the floor: "We could expand our domestic markets in this country today. But we're going to take [the proposal] away and 'Oh, we'll come back in two more weeks.'" An industry study cited in the debate projects year-round E15 would generate nearly $14 billion in additional revenue for U.S. corn farmers.
More This Week
🌽 Corn export shipments hit 2.98 billion bushels, up 29%. — LINK
Corn export sales for the week ending April 23 totaled 1,597,800 tons (62.9 million bushels), 21% above the prior week and 22% above the four-week average; cumulative 2025/26 corn exports stand at 2.98 billion bushels versus 2.313 billion a year ago.
"Global demand for U.S. corn continues to be strong," USDA reported, citing "competitive prices and solid trade relationships with key customers" as drivers, with corn on pace to meet the agency's record export projection.
Colombia led weekly buyers at 420,300 tons and Mexico purchased 261,400 tons; USDA's next supply-and-demand update is scheduled for May 12.
🌍 USDA and EXIM launch $5.5B FARM Initiative. — LINK
The Financial Assurance to Revitalize Markets (FARM) Initiative pairs Export-Import Bank export credit insurance with the $5.5 billion authorized under USDA's GSM-102 Export Credit Guarantee Program, building on a February 2026 expansion that added an 18-month repayment option.
"USDA and EXIM share an interest in promoting agricultural exports and reclaiming the United States' status as the breadbasket to the world," said Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke J. Lindberg.
Secretary Brooke Rollins cited 2025 baseline figures of corn exports up 29%, ethanol up 11%, and dairy up 15%, against a $50 billion projected agricultural trade deficit the initiative aims to narrow.
🌱 Indiana planting outpaces sprayers as waterhemp emerges. — LINK
USDA's latest Crop Progress Report shows Indiana corn 30% planted and soybeans 35% planted, with 10% of corn and 11% of soybeans already emerged — outpacing residual herbicide applications across many fields.
"All our residuals take water to get activated, so a lot of those sat there and didn't get activated until Monday night for the first time and may have been sitting there for a couple weeks. And that whole time we had flushes of weeds coming nonstop," said Tommy Butts, Purdue Extension Weed Scientist.
Butts said waterhemp is already emerging in Indiana fields and fluctuating temperatures could drive ragweed pressure, with an additional post-emergence pass now expected on many acres.
💰 Fertilizer and fuel cost squeeze projected to persist for months. — LINK
NDSU and Farm Bureau economists project that fertilizer and fuel cost pressure tied to the Strait of Hormuz disruption could persist for months, with corn-to-soybean acre shifts accelerating ahead of the June USDA acreage report as producers reduce nitrogen exposure.
The cost squeeze comes alongside a January Farm Bureau report — cited by Rep. Angie Craig in Thursday's farm bill debate — finding U.S. producers have lost more than $50 billion over the last three crop years due to low commodity prices and high input costs.
Nitrogen fertilizer prices remain elevated relative to pre-conflict levels; the next USDA Prospective Plantings revision arrives with the June 30 Acreage report.
Basis Watch
Old-crop corn basis firmed 10 cents at the floor in Colorado East, narrowing to sixty under July, while Colorado Northeast improved 10 cents at the ceiling to fifteen under July. Missouri Northwest strengthened 4 cents at the top end to fifty under July, though the floor held at eighty-eight under. Illinois Little Egypt continued to trade at a premium at the ceiling, thirty-seven over May, with the floor edging up a cent to sixteen under. Iowa Northeast and Missouri Northeast posted moves of 3 cents or less.
Old-crop soybean basis improved 16 cents at both ends in Colorado East to one-twenty-five under July, with Colorado Northeast firming the same 16 cents at the floor. New-crop bids in Colorado Northeast strengthened 15 cents at the floor to one-twenty-five under November. Missouri East narrowed 5 cents at the ceiling to seventy-six under July. Other locations across Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri posted changes of 3 cents or less.
Source: USDA AMS
U.S. corn export shipments for the 2025/26 marketing year now total 2.98 billion bushels — up 665 million bushels, or roughly 29%, from the same point a year earlier.
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