USDA Market News has released its weekly grain price report for the High Plains and surrounding regions, the single document producers in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and neighboring states use to track wheat, corn, soybean and sorghum quotations alongside export activity and terminal bids.

The report, published October 13, 2026, pulls together several data streams that normally sit in separate releases. It covers cash grain prices, export sales activity, terminal market bids, ethanol production figures and cotton spot quotes, and places recent figures next to prior ones so producers can read the direction of the market rather than a single point in time.

What does the report actually contain?

• Wheat, corn, soybean and sorghum prices for High Plains locations
• Export activity and terminal bids from major markets
• Ethanol production data, a demand-side signal for corn processors
• Cotton spot quotes for growers balancing row-crop and fiber acres
• Week-over-week comparisons of prices and trading volume

For producers, the practical value lies in basis — the difference between local cash prices and futures — which determines what a bushel actually nets at the elevator. Weekly terminal bids and regional quotes are the raw material for that calculation, and the report consolidates them in one place rather than forcing growers to reconcile separate releases.

How should practitioners read it?

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), the agency division that compiles the data, publishes the report through its grain market news portal. Prices are snapshots tied to a specific reporting window, not forecasts, and harvest-period quotes can shift quickly as local supplies reach terminals. Growers evaluating marketing decisions should treat the figures as a record of traded levels for the week, distinct from condition reports or forward projections.

Ethanol production numbers carry weight for corn growers because they signal crush margins at processors, which in turn shape regional corn demand. Cotton spot quotes matter for the same reason on the fiber side: they indicate what merchants are paying now, which informs planting and hedging decisions for the next cycle.

The report is one of the few free, government-compiled sources that puts grains, ethanol and cotton in a single frame, letting producers in mixed-cropping regions compare markets without stitching together private data services.

The full report and historical figures are available at the AMS grain market news portal, ams.usda.gov/market-news/grain, with new editions published on the agency's weekly schedule.