Happy Friday! Grab your coffee, wipe the dust off your boots, and let’s talk grain. The sun is shining, the weeds are growing faster than a high schooler on a growth spurt, and the markets are serving up some pure, unadulterated drama to wrap up the week. ☕☀️

The USDA dropped its highly anticipated June Crop Production and WASDE report yesterday, and if you’re growing wheat, you might want to crack a smile. If you’re waiting for a massive corn rally, well... keep waiting.

What happened: The USDA officially pegged the U.S. winter wheat crop at 1.03 billion bushels. That is down from May's estimate and officially marks the smallest American winter wheat crop since 1965. Meanwhile, they left the U.S. corn crop chilling at a massive 15.995 billion bushels—the second-largest on record.

Why it happened: Mother Nature absolutely hammered the U.S. plains earlier this spring, dragging down hard red winter wheat yields to a measly 46.8 bushels per acre. On the flip side, American corn planting went super smoothly, and the USDA refuses to budge on its monster 183-bushel-per-acre trendline yield for corn.

What it means for the farm gate:

Ever feel like your chemical retailer has a bit too much control over what goes into your sprayer? You aren't the only one.

What happened: Ag input giant Corteva Agriscience just agreed to a massive $85 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit involving over 100,000 farmers.

Why it happened: The lawsuit alleged that Corteva set up "loyalty rebate programs" with major ag distributors (think Nutrien, CHS, etc.). The plaintiffs argued these programs essentially paid distributors not to sell cheaper, generic versions of popular chemicals—specifically ones containing expired-patent ingredients like acetochlor and rimsulfuron. By keeping generics off the shelves, it allegedly forced farmers to pay artificially inflated prices. Corteva says they're just happy to resolve the matter and move on.

What it means for the farm gate: If you bought certain Corteva crop protection products between October 2018 and May 2026, you might be getting a piece of that $85 million pie. But don't go ordering a new seed drill just yet—split among 100,000 guys, it averages out to about $850 a pop. It won't buy a tractor, but hey, it’ll cover a few jugs of glufosinate or a really, really good steak dinner.

If you've been checking livestock futures lately, the beef sector is holding its ground, but the pork side is taking a bit of a bruising.

The Beef: The USDA report revealed that 2026 beef production projections were slashed by 109 million pounds. Packing plants are deliberately slowing down their slaughter speeds. However, the cows that are moving through the gates are absolute monsters—average carcass weights are incredibly heavy right now, which is keeping overall beef supply from completely tanking. Steer prices are holding strong around that $255 mark, so the cattle rally isn't dead yet.

The Pork: It’s a tougher story for the hog barns. Pork production was actually bumped up by 10 million pounds (again, due to heavy hogs). More meat means lower prices: third-quarter hog price projections were chopped down by $2 to average $69/cwt, and Q4 took a $3 hit down to $74/cwt.

1965.

That’s the last time the U.S. winter wheat crop was as small as it's projected to be this year. To put that in perspective, the last time the wheat crop looked like this, gas was $0.31 a gallon, the Beatles were playing Shea Stadium, and your grandfather was probably complaining about the weather from the seat of a brand-new open-cab John Deere 4020 that cost him $5,500.

That’s a wrap for this week! Go check your rain gauges, be nice to your agronomist, and make sure the kids don't leave the shop fridge open. Have a great weekend out there in the dirt!

Until Monday,

The KAND Editorial Team