The USDA is a U.S. federal government agency with a wide reach. While the majority of USDA spending funds domestic anti-hunger programs administered by the agency’s Food and Nutrition Service branch, the USDA is also an important provider of agricultural data to the world. Farmers, traders, agronomists, students, diplomats, heads of state and economists around the globe turn to both domestic and international data produced by the Economic Research Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, National Agricultural Statistical Service and Agricultural Marketing Service branches of the USDA to understand present and past production and prices as well as to gauge and anticipate the agricultural needs of different countries. The USDA also operates notable farm, conservation and forestry programs.

Throughout the year, the USDA releases a schedule of reports on topics ranging from commodities as abundant as corn and cattle to specialty crops such as blueberries, asparagus and coconuts. New data releases, in particular with respect to exchange-traded commodity crops, can be hotly anticipated by market watchers, with newswires such as Bloomberg and LSEG aggregating polling expectation pre-report. When a report’s results differ from market expectation, futures on pertinent commodities can react – in a big way.

Compiled from a survey of tens of thousands of the nation’s farmers, the annual June Acreage report provides an important concrete indication of the new crop year by state for corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, barley, rye, sorghum, rice, peanuts, sunflower, flaxseed, canola, rapeseed, safflower, mustard seed, cotton, dry beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugarbeets, alfalfa hay, tobacco and sugarcane. While the breadth of the report’s coverage proves crucial to a diversity of sectors, the corn and soybean acreage numbers receive special attention, with Corn and Soybean futures highly reactive to surprising results.

While Prospective Plantings, which is released on the last business day in March, provides the planting intentions of U.S. farmers, Acreage gives a picture of the crop year after planting has already begun. Though Prospective Plantings can serve as a baseline for Acreage, a lot can and does happen between March and June that causes the two reports to differ.

Lead-month Corn futures have seen an average intraday range of 12 cents over the last five years, from May 2020 to May 2025. For example, on March 28, 2025, May 2025 Corn futures opened the day at 450.25 cents per bushel, reaching a high of 454 cents and low of 442 cents before closing the day at 453.25 cents. This daily range covered 12 cents, with a difference of only three cents between the day’s opening price and the closing settlement price.

Days on which the USDA Acreage report was released have been much more volatile for Corn futures markets than nearly any other days over the past five years. Days on which the annual USDA Acreage report was released saw intraday ranges of between 18 and 68 cents, averaging 38 cents since 2020. In comparison, the annual report Prospective Plantings, the next most impactful report during the period, averaged an intraday range for front-month Corn futures of 24 cents, while the monthly World Agricultural Supply Demand Estimates (WASDE) report averaged a 16 cent range over the last five years.

Last year’s Acreage report was released at 11:00 AM CT on Friday, June 28, 2024. Prior to the release of the report, the LSEG/Refinitiv newswire published a weighted average of industry analysis pinning corn acreage for the year at 90.5 million acres. This number represented an expansion of the March 2024 Prospective Plantings, which indicated from a large farmer survey, that just over 90 million acres of corn would be planted.

Source: LSEG and CME Group

The release of 2024’s Acreage surprised market watchers when an even greater expansion in domestic corn area was reported: nearly 91.5 million acres. This number meant that the United States was about to have much more corn than previously thought, so under the principles of supply and demand, corn per bushel was about to get cheaper. Accordingly, lead-month Corn futures fell, covering nearly 30 cents post-release to close 15 cents down on the day.

Micro Ag futures present convenience and opportunity for market participants looking to express a view on market-moving reports, without having to worry about the logistics of physical delivery or the larger margin requirements of standard, full-size futures contracts. Representing 1/10 the size of a standard Corn futures contract, Micro Corn futures allow participants to express a precision view or hedge smaller exposure.

Standard Corn futures are physically settled, meaning that at expiration, eligible participants have the opportunity to express their position via physical transaction, with one contract translating to 5,000 bushels of physical corn at designated delivery points. The nature of physical settlement demands a longer trading period, with the final weeks of the life of the standard contract extending into the designated delivery month. Micro Ag futures, on the other hand, financially settle to the price of the standard futures on the same day that the corresponding standard options expire: the last Friday preceding two business days of the month preceding delivery of the corresponding standard futures.

July Micro Corn futures, for example, will settle on June 20, 2025, over one week prior to the June 30, 2025 Acreage report. The active Micro Corn futures on the day of the 2025 June Acreage report, will therefore be underlied by corn deliverable against the September 2025 Corn futures contract. This schedule is convenient for market watchers because although standard July Corn futures will still be trading on June 30, 2025, it is all but certain that the standard September Corn futures contract will be the most active.

Micro Ag futures present a new choice to market participants looking to completely avoid physical delivery and/or trade a contract with a smaller notional value than standard physically delivered Agricultural futures. Participants looking to trade both can even execute implied spreads at ratios of 1:10 between standard and Micro futures.

Learn more through your broker platform, or at Micro Ag futures.