Corn Futures Contract

01 / The essentials

What are corn futures?

Corn futures are standardized exchange-traded contracts for buying or selling corn for a specified delivery month. One CBOT corn contract covers 5,000 bushels. It trades in cents per bushel, and the minimum price move is a quarter of a cent, worth $12.50 per contract.

Five delivery months trade: March, May, July, September and December. December is the new-crop contract, the one most U.S. producers price harvest against.

The exchange publishes all of that, and it is easy to find. What is harder to find is what those specifications mean when you are the one with grain in the bin.

A 5,000-bushel contract is a simple fact. It stops being simple when you farm 300 acres and produce 53,550 bushels, because 53,550 does not divide by 5,000. That is the kind of thing this page is about.

02 / Two different activities

Hedging or speculating?

Both use the same contract, and that is where the confusion starts.

A hedge offsets something you already have. A producer who expects 50,000 bushels and sells ten corn contracts has grain on one side and futures on the other. If the market falls, the futures gain offsets the weaker cash bid. If it rises, the futures loss offsets the better one. The purpose is to fix a price, not to make money on the futures.

A speculative position has nothing behind it. Someone who sells ten corn contracts without owning corn has no offsetting asset. A move against that position is a loss with nothing on the other side of the ledger.

The difference shows up in how you judge the outcome. A hedger whose futures position lost $12,000 while the cash market gained $12,000 did exactly what the hedge was for. A speculator in the same position simply lost $12,000. Futures and options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every producer or investor, and losses can exceed the funds deposited.

03 / Contract specifications

The specs, and what each one costs you

Verify current contract terms, price limits and margin with CME Group. Exchange rules change through notice.

Contract size: 5,000 bushels

You cannot hedge 14,000 bushels. Only 10,000 or 15,000. Every hedging decision a producer makes starts with that rounding, and the smaller the operation the bigger the rounding is as a share of the crop.

Tick: a quarter cent, or $12.50

A ten-cent move is $500 on one contract. On four contracts covering 20,000 bushels, a sixty-cent rally against a short hedge is a $12,000 loss in the account before a single bushel is sold. That number is the whole margin conversation.

Delivery months: March, May, July, September, December

They are not interchangeable and their prices are not comparable. December is the new-crop month. It prices corn that has not been harvested yet, which is why producers hedge against it. Quoting one month against another across two weeks produces a change that never happened.

Price limits, and what a locked market does

A daily limit caps how far the contract can trade from the prior settlement. When a contract settles at the limit, expanded limits generally take effect, roughly 50% above the daily limit for grain and oilseeds, and stay until no contract settles at limit.

What matters to you: a limit restricts the prices at which new trades occur. It does not close your position. If the market is at the limit with nothing on the other side, you may not be able to offset until it trades again, and the position stays open and exposed.

Margin

Initial margin opens the position. Variation margin is what the account owes when the market moves against you, and it is due before your grain is sold. Requirements are set by the exchange and can be raised by your clearing firm. Ask for the current number, then ask the harder question: how much additional cash could the operation supply, and how quickly, if the market rallied 60 cents?

First notice day and delivery

Corn futures are physically deliverable. Producers almost always close the financial position before delivery procedures apply and sell their grain in the cash market. Your brokerage firm’s cutoff is earlier than the exchange’s first notice day. Ask what yours is, in writing, before you need it.

04 / Price & dollar exposure

Sizing it to your farm

At the 178.5-bushel national average USDA estimated for the 2026 crop in September, here is what different operations look like. Use your own farm yield rather than the national one. This is the shape of the problem, not your answer to it.

Corn acres	Bushels	Contracts	What gets left over
100	17,850	3	2,850 unhedged, or 4 and 2,150 over
300	53,550	10	3,550 unhedged, or 11 and 1,450 over
500	89,250	17	4,250 unhedged, or 18 and 750 over
1,000	178,500	35	3,500 unhedged; rounding matters less at scale

Notice what the table shows: on 100 acres the rounding is 16% of your crop. On 1,000 acres it is 2%. There is no way around it. The contract is 5,000 bushels and your farm is whatever size it is. That is a real reason smaller operations lean on elevator contracts, which can be written for the exact bushels you expect.

If you do use futures, decide in advance whether you would rather be slightly under-hedged or slightly over-hedged. An over-hedged position is exposure with no grain behind it if production disappoints.

05 / What moves corn

The corn year, and the things that move it

Corn prices move on information, and most of the information arrives on dates published a year in advance. Knowing which report settles which question is more useful than any forecast.

MarchProspective Plantings

What farmers say they intend to plant. The first real number on the coming crop, and often a large mover because it replaces guesswork with a survey.

JuneAcreage + Stocks

What actually got planted, plus how much old crop is still around. Two reports on one morning, which is why June 30 is reliably one of the loudest sessions of the year.

AugustCrop Production

The one that matters most. USDA’s first survey-based yield estimate, replacing trend-line assumptions. Research has found the August report cuts uncertainty about the corn crop more than any later one.

Sept–NovHarvest check

Monthly WASDE and Crop Production updates, now tested against actual combine results. This is when the market stops trading estimates and starts trading bushels.

JanuaryAnnual Summary

Final production plus quarterly stocks and a WASDE, all together. Research has measured corn price variance around this cluster at roughly seven times a normal day.

Weekly Crop Progress runs Mondays through the growing season and Export Sales on Thursdays. Both matter, but research has found the impact of Crop Progress has declined over time while the monthly and quarterly reports have grown more influential.

Demand sits in three buckets, and one surprises people

Feed and residual is the largest and least predictable. It is not a clean measure of what livestock ate. It is a balancing line, and it moves with crop size. In September 2026 USDA cut the corn crop 213 million bushels and simultaneously cut feed and residual 150 million. About 70% of a real supply reduction was absorbed on the demand side, and carryout finished above what the trade expected. If you only watched the yield number, the market’s reaction made no sense.

Ethanol is the steadiest bucket and roughly the second-largest use. It moves with ethanol margins, gasoline demand and policy rather than with the crop.

Exports are the most visible week to week. They are also where competition shows up, which is why South America matters.

The rest of the list

Weather during pollination. Heat and dryness matter far more in July than in May or September. A forecast outside a yield-sensitive window is noise.
South American supply. Brazil’s safrinha corn competes directly with U.S. exports. Brazilian weather, harvest pace, port capacity and the real all feed into whether buyers need American bushels.
The dollar. Corn is priced in dollars on the world market. A stronger dollar makes U.S. corn more expensive to a foreign buyer without anything changing in the field.
Fund positioning. Not a forecast. A description of how much money is leaning one way when news arrives.

06 / Basis

Futures are only half of what you get paid

Cash bid=Futures+Basis

If December corn is $4.60 and your elevator bids $4.20, your basis is 40 cents under December. Basis reflects local supply, local demand, freight, storage and processor demand: things happening within a few counties of you, not in Chicago.

One thing that trips people up: basis is a signed number. When your bid is below the board, basis is negative. So that example is $4.60 plus negative 40 cents, which is $4.20, not $5.00. When basis is quoted “40 under,” the minus sign is implied and it still gets added, not subtracted. Basis over the board, which happens when local demand is strong, is positive and does add to your bid.

This is why a rally on the board does not always reach your check, and why a flat board can still produce a better bid. A short futures hedge fixes the futures half and leaves the basis half open, which has a useful consequence: the result of a matched hedge is the futures price you hedged at, plus whatever basis turns out to be when you sell. With basis under the board, that pulls the number down. The futures direction cancels out entirely.

Our guide to corn basis works through the arithmetic, and what to do when basis blows out at harvest covers the situation most producers actually run into.

07 / Try it yourself

Corn hedge calculator

Put in your acres and yield and the rest fills itself in. Then move the sale price around and watch what happens to the net price per bushel, or rather, watch what does not happen to it.

Corn hedge calculatorShort futures hedge against expected production

1 · Your crop

Corn acres

Your yield, bushels per acre

Expected production 54,000 bushels. That is 10.8 contracts of 5,000, and you cannot trade a fraction of one.

2 · How many contracts

Or set it yourself

3 · Prices

Futures price when you hedged

Futures price when you sell the grain

Try a move from where you hedged:

Basis at your elevator, in cents

What you end up with

Cash sale: all bushels at $3.65	$197,100
Futures result on 50,000 hedged bushels	+$30,000
Total for the crop	$227,100

Net price per bushel

$4.21

Margin note:

You are over-hedged.

Hypothetical illustration. Excludes commissions, exchange and clearing fees, financing costs, storage, drying, shrink and quality adjustments. It assumes the hedge is placed and lifted in the same contract month and that production arrives as expected. Your actual result will differ.

The thing the calculator is really showing you. Pick the contract count that covers your bushels cleanly, then hit the price buttons. Minus a dollar, plus a dollar, flat. The net price per bushel does not move.

That is not a quirk of the arithmetic, it is what a matched hedge does. The futures gain or loss cancels the change in the cash bid, and what you are left with is the price you hedged at plus whatever basis turns out to be. Which means the question worth asking is never “where are prices going?” It is “what has basis done at my elevator the last five Octobers, and is the number I am being quoted a good one?”

08 / Report days

What a USDA report day looks like in numbers

Agricultural economists have measured this for thirty years. The findings are worth knowing before you plan around a report date.

A report day runs about seven times a normal day

When a WASDE carries NASS crop production estimates, corn price variance has run roughly 7.38 times normal in published research. Around the January report cluster it has run about 7.7 times. Across 74 major report dates in a separate study, the average daily high-low range in nearby corn was about 14 cents, which on 50,000 bushels is $7,000 riding on which side of the release you made your decision.

Options cost more going in than coming out

In a 2025 study, corn implied volatility in weeks with a major report pending averaged 25.6% while volatility that actually occurred averaged 16.8%, roughly double the usual gap. Implied volatility then fell about 0.7 percentage points right after a WASDE and stayed low for days. In plain terms: the market charges a premium to own a floor across a report and hands some of it back once the report is out.

Guessing the number right still leaves most of the move unexplained

Research on Crop Production releases found the unanticipated part of the report explained roughly 31% to 45% of the price change that followed. The rest was everything else happening that day.

09 / Positioning

Who is on each side of the corn market

Every Friday afternoon the CFTC publishes the Commitments of Traders report, showing where the big money sat as of the previous Tuesday. Two columns matter to a corn producer.

Managed Money

Funds and large traders positioning for a price move. They own no corn. When they crowd to one side, the market gets stretched, and stretched markets move hard when they turn.

Commercials

Producers, merchants, processors and users hedging physical grain. These are your peers and your buyers. They are usually net short, because they are selling forward what they own or expect.

What to look for. Not the raw number: the direction and the extreme. Are the funds adding to a position or leaving one? Is the physical trade hedging into a rally or lifting hedges into weakness? When one group sits at a yearly extreme and the other sits at the opposite extreme, the two sets of people closest to the market disagree about the price on offer.

What it will not do is tell you where price is going. Peer-reviewed research across ten agricultural markets found very little evidence that trader positions lead returns, and substantial evidence that they follow price instead. Anyone selling you a positioning-based buy or sell signal is arguing against the literature. What positioning describes is how much money is leaning one way when the next surprise arrives, which changes the size of the move, not its direction.

One more thing that catches people out: the report is a Tuesday snapshot released on Friday. Anything that happened in between is not in it. In one documented week, funds cut a corn net long by roughly a quarter in seven days ahead of a USDA release.

We publish corn positioning every week in our Grain & Livestock COT Report, alongside soybeans, wheat, cattle and hogs. The mechanics are in crowded positioning and scheduled reports.

10 / Questions

Questions producers ask

How many corn futures contracts do I need to hedge 300 acres?

At a 178.5-bushel yield, 300 acres produces about 53,550 bushels. A CBOT corn contract covers 5,000 bushels, so that is roughly 10.7 contracts, and you cannot trade 0.7 of one. Ten contracts covers 50,000 bushels and leaves 3,550 unhedged; eleven covers 55,000 and puts you 1,450 bushels over with no grain behind them. Use your own farm yield rather than the national average, and decide in advance which side of that you would rather be on. If production comes in short, the over-hedged version is the one that hurts.

Can I hedge corn if I farm fewer than 500 acres?

Yes, but the rounding matters more. On 100 acres at 178.5 bushels you produce about 17,850 bushels, three and a half contracts, so the unhedged remainder is roughly 16% of your crop. On 1,000 acres the same remainder is about 2%. There is no smaller increment to fall back on: the contract is 5,000 bushels. An elevator forward contract or hedge-to-arrive can be written for the exact bushels you expect, which is one reason smaller operations often use cash contracts instead, or hedge only the portion that rounds cleanly.

How much money do I need to hedge one corn contract?

Initial margin opens the position, and the exchange sets it while your clearing firm can require more. The number that catches producers out is variation margin: if the market moves against a short hedge, the account owes cash before the grain is sold. A sixty-cent rally against four contracts covering 20,000 bushels is a $12,000 loss in the account, even though the grain in the field is now worth more. Ask your broker for the current initial margin, then work out how much additional cash the operation could supply and how fast.

What happens to my corn hedge if the market locks limit up?

A price limit restricts the prices at which new trades can occur; it does not close your position. If the market is trading at the limit and there are no executable orders on the other side, you may not be able to offset until it trades again, and the position stays open and exposed. For grain and oilseeds, expanded limits generally run about 50% above the daily limit once a contract settles at limit, and stay in place until none does. Margin and liquidation terms vary by brokerage agreement, so have that conversation before a report week rather than during one.

Do I have to deliver corn if I sell a futures contract?

Producers commonly close the financial position before delivery procedures apply and sell their grain in the cash market instead. Corn futures are physically deliverable, so a position held too long can create delivery obligations. Your brokerage firm’s cutoff is earlier than the exchange’s first notice day. Confirm both dates before you trade, and get your firm’s in writing.

Which corn contract month should I use for my harvest?

December is the new-crop contract for the U.S. corn harvest and is what most producers price against. The five delivery months, March, May, July, September and December, are separate contracts with separate prices, and they are not interchangeable. Match the contract month to when you will actually move the grain, and check how your local basis is quoted, since basis is quoted against a specific futures month.

Why did my cash bid not move as much as corn futures?

Because your cash bid is futures plus basis, and basis answers to local conditions. Harvest flow, elevator space, drying capacity, freight and nearby processor demand can all move basis independently of the board. A rally in Chicago can arrive with weaker basis and reach your check diluted, or a flat board can deliver a better bid if local demand firms. That is also why a matched hedge produces the futures price you hedged at plus final basis. The futures direction cancels, and basis is what is left.

How much does a USDA report typically move corn?

Published research found that WASDE releases carrying NASS crop production estimates produced corn price variance around 7.38 times a normal day, and roughly 7.7 times around the January report cluster. Across 74 major report dates in a separate study, the average daily high-low range in nearby corn was about 14 cents. The dates are published a year in advance, which is the argument for deciding your numbers before a release rather than during one.

Is it cheaper to buy a corn put before or after a USDA report?

After, generally. In a 2025 study of weekly grain options, corn implied volatility in report weeks averaged 25.6% against 16.8% realized, roughly double the usual gap, and implied volatility fell about 0.7 percentage points immediately after a WASDE, staying low for up to five days. The market charges a premium to own a floor across a report. If the report is not what concerns you, the days after cost less. If it is, you are paying up for a reason. Just go in knowing it.

What is the difference between hedging and speculating in corn futures?

A hedge offsets a position you already have. A producer expecting 50,000 bushels who sells ten corn contracts has grain on one side and futures on the other, so a futures loss is matched by a better cash price and vice versa. A speculative position has no offsetting asset behind it, so a move against it is simply a loss. Both use the same contract, which is why the distinction gets blurred. But a hedger whose futures lost $12,000 while cash gained $12,000 got exactly what the hedge was for.

Run these numbers against your own bushels

Everything above is arithmetic until it meets your farm. How many contracts fit your acres, what margin your operation can actually fund, whether a purchased put suits you better than a short futures position, and how your local basis has behaved at harvest: those answers are specific to you, and they are worth twenty minutes on the phone.

Have these four things handy when you call

• Expected production, or acres and your realistic farm yield
• Anything already priced: forward contracts, hedge-to-arrive, bushels sold
• When you need to move the grain, and to whom
• Roughly how much cash the operation could put behind a margin account

We will walk through what each choice commits you to, what cash it may require if the market moves against you, and which decisions stay open. If a futures hedge does not fit your operation, we will tell you that too. An elevator contract is the better tool for plenty of farms, and you can work with a broker on the financial side while selling physical grain to the same buyer you always have.

Talk to an Ag Optimus broker

Keep reading

Corn Basis Explained: Cash vs. Futures: the other half of your cash bid

Commodity Broker vs. Grain Elevator: hedge-to-arrive against a futures hedge, obligation by obligation

When Basis Blows Out at Harvest: what to do when the board rallies and your bid does not

Crowded Positioning and Scheduled Reports: why the same USDA number lands differently depending on who is already in the trade

Sources

CME Group, Corn Futures contract specifications. cmegroup.com
CME Group, Grain and Oilseed Price Limit FAQ and Price Limits. cmegroup.com
USDA, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates. usda.gov
Isengildina-Massa, Irwin, Good & Gomez, “The Impact of Situation and Outlook Information in Corn and Soybean Futures Markets,” 2008. AgEcon Search
Isengildina-Massa et al., “When does USDA information have the most impact?” 2021. ScienceDirect
Diersen, “Weekly Options on Grain Futures,” 2025. Cambridge Core
Sanders, Irwin & Merrin, “Smart Money,” 2009. AgEcon Search
Virginia Tech, “Do USDA Reports Move the Markets?” aaec.vt.edu

Corn futures.