An ear of yellow corn with its husks peeled back, with the USDA logo, on a white background

USDA Will Run an AI Check on Its November Crop Report After September Corn Data Errors

USDA says its own AI tool would have caught September's corn yield errors in Nebraska and Kansas. It will review the Nov. 10 crop production report.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will run an artificial intelligence tool it built over its November crop production report. Officials found the tool would have flagged the errors in September’s corn data, Reuters reported.

TLDR

  • The monthly crop production report is due Nov. 10, according to Reuters.
  • USDA corrected its September corn yield estimates last month, raising Nebraska’s by about 3% and lowering Kansas’s by about 2%.
  • A computer file wrongly combined irrigated and non-irrigated corn acreage data, a USDA statistics official told Reuters.
  • Under Secretary Scott Hutchins said the AI tool will add to the agency’s data checks, not replace them.

What USDA Said

Hutchins said in an interview that he is very bullish on using these tools to avoid errors in the future, Reuters reported on Nov. 6. He described the tool as a check for anomalies the agency could not see in its normal process.

Hutchins also said the September errors were not related to staffing losses. Thousands of USDA employees have left since the administration downsized the government last year, Reuters reported, and experts have worried about the effect on the agency’s data.

What Went Wrong in September

Lance Honig chairs the agricultural statistics board at USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). He told Reuters that a computer file incorrectly combined irrigated and non-irrigated corn acreage data gathered by field surveyors. Kansas and Nebraska were affected because they have higher shares of irrigated fields, which often yield more.

Honig called it a very isolated occurrence and said proper validation should have caught it. He said there was no problem with the data gathered in the field.

The Pushback

The National Corn Growers Association, which represents 35,000 farmers, said last month that the errors were unacceptable and further hurt farmers’ confidence in USDA reports, according to Reuters. USDA was also criticized for sharp upward revisions to last year’s corn acreage estimates and for inaccurate beef export sales data over the summer.

In the week of Nov. 2, market analysts also questioned a separate USDA soy processing report, Reuters reported. USDA said it is reviewing that report as part of a normal process and will make any needed revisions next month.

Why It Matters

USDA crop reports move grain prices and shape planting, feed and food ingredient costs. The agency has already started a pilot that leans more on technology for acreage and yield estimates as fewer farmers answer its surveys. The November report is the first one an AI check will review.

Source: Reuters, via SRN News (Nov. 6, 2026).