Corn harvest nears finish with big yields, despite low prices
Corn was planted in a narrow window in early spring, and the majority of the crop was expected to be harvested by late September.
Mississippi’s 2025 corn crop is an estimated 880,000 acres, making it one of the state’s largest crops on record.
Mississippi’s 2025 corn harvest is nearly complete, and farmers across the Delta are bringing in one of the largest crops in recent history, the Mississippi State University Extension Service said.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), 880,000 acres of corn were planted in Mississippi this year, which is a sharp increase from 500,000 acres in 2024. MSU Extension grain crops agronomist Erick Larson said this is one of the state’s biggest crops on record.
“Mississippi had 930,000 acres of corn in 2007, but there has not been a larger crop since 1960,” Larson said.
MSU Extension agricultural economist Will Maples said yields are expected to average 179 bushels per acre.
“This would lead to an 80 percent increase in corn production this year due to higher acreage,” Maples said.
Prices, however, remain soft.
“Like other crops, corn prices are struggling this year and are below a profitable level for producers,” Maples said. USDA projects the average farm price at $3.90 per bushel, down from $4.30 last year. (USDA WASDE, Aug.–Sept. 2025)
Larson said Delta producers benefited from ag aviation, which allowed them to apply fertilizer and herbicide even during wet periods.
“That helped tremendously,” he said. “Corn yields in the Delta are very good where nitrogen applications were timed properly.”
Nitrogen timing made or broke many fields, Larson said.
“Growers who put out a lot of nitrogen by early May greatly increased the exposure of the nitrogen to wet soils, which causes extensive losses,” he said. “If they put it out too late, they missed the window, and crop growth suffered.”
Nationwide, NASS projects a record 16.8 billion bushels of corn. MSU Extension said this record supply will keep downward pressure on prices through the winter.
Corn harvest in Mississippi was expected to wrap up by the end of September, provided sunny weather holds, MSU Extension said.
