Innovations in Seed and Farming Technologies Drive Productivity Gains and Costs on Corn Farms

Corn is a major source of livestock feed, fuel, exports, and derivative products such as starch and sweeteners, as well as paper and bioproducts like plastics and cosmetics. To supply this broad and growing market over the past several decades, U.S. corn production has expanded. Since 1996 the area of corn planted in the Untied States has risen more than 10 percent, with increases reaching as high as 40 percent in the Northern Great Plains region. At the same time, average corn yields have increased more than 40 percent. A USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) report published in July 2021 identified and examined technological and structural changes in U.S. corn production since 1996, focusing on how these changes have affected production costs, net returns, productivity, and yields. To track these trends in corn production, researchers used data covering 1996 to 2016 from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), produced by ERS and USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and the NASS Census of Agriculture.