Grain prices have the potential to move higher well into 2027, according to Dan Basse, market analyst with Ag Resource Company, who points to shrinking stocks across all three major commodities as the driver of an emerging acreage battle for next year.

"We are seeing stocks declining in all three commodities. That indicates an acreage battle for next year," Basse said.

The dynamic matters directly for farm margins. When ending stocks fall across corn, soybeans and wheat at the same time, each crop must bid against the others for limited planted acreage in the 2026 season. That competition tends to lift prices — and, by extension, the forward pricing opportunities available to growers — rather than any single commodity trading on its own supply picture alone.

For producers, Basse's message centers on marketing discipline. A flexible marketing plan, he says, gives farmers the opportunity to capitalize on higher moves in the market. Growers who lock in sales too early, or too heavily, risk missing the price strength that a tight-stocks, acreage-competition scenario could deliver over the next two seasons. The analysts' outlook effectively argues for keeping incremental sales open rather than committing the bulk of the crop at current levels.

The forecast carries weight because Ag Resource Company is a long-established Chicago-based agricultural research and advisory firm, and Basse is a regular voice on global grain supply and demand. His 2027 time frame extends beyond the usual marketing-year horizon, suggesting he expects the stocks drawdown — and the planting decisions it forces — to play out over more than one cropping cycle.

As with any analyst projection, the acreage-battle thesis rests on stocks estimates that USDA will revise as harvest results replace condition reports and forecasts in coming months. How many acres farmers actually devote to each crop in 2026 will hinge on relative input costs, fertilizer and seed pricing, and basis levels at planting time — factors that will sharpen the price signal Basse expects growers to capture.