American corn farmers are celebrating a historic achievement in the fields, even as they face a sobering reality at the bank. The National Corn Growers Association tells Mid-West Farm Report that the U.S. has produced a record-shattering 17.02 billion bushel corn crop, driven by an unprecedented yield of 186.5 bushels per acre.

Despite this feat, the agricultural sector is grappling with a fourth consecutive year of negative returns. The surge in supply, while matched by record demand, has failed to lift market prices high enough to offset near-record input costs.

"We've done the supply side work and that demand needs to be able to meet the moment," says Gretchen Kuck, an economist with the NCGA. "We have this corn, it’s really competitively priced and we have plenty of it, and we need demand solutions to make that demand and those market opportunities match the achievement that our farmers have come up with."