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Hillari Mason

Hillari grew up on a family farm in southern Illinois, where she learned to love agriculture and its lifestyle from a young age. Hillari graduated from Murray State University in 2012 and began working for Cargill as a grain merchandiser shortly thereafter. Her time there yielded expansive market knowledge, producer relationships and series 3 and 30 licenses. Hillari joined Pro Farmer in June 2022 and received her master of business administration from the University of Southern Indiana in 2023. Hillari lives on her own farm in southern Indiana and spends the bulk of her days studying futures markets.

While USDA lowered both the national corn and soybean yields from August, both were above the average analyst estimate, along with 2025-26 ending stocks.
Weekly wheat export inspections slid 379,000 MT from the previous week, but were still within the expected pre-report range.
Wheat sales for the week ended Aug. 28 were down 46% from the previous week and 51% from the four-week average. New-crop corn sales were strong, while net soybean sales were near the low end of pre-report expectations.
Traders were expecting net new-crop soybean sales for the week ended Aug. 21 to range from 450,000 MT to 1.0 MMT.
USDA reported weekly wheat inspections totaled 946,472 MT for the week ended Aug. 21, which were more than double the previous week and well above pre-report expectations.
Scouts found average corn yield potential of 198.43 bu. per acre. Soybean pod counts in a 3' x 3' square averaged 1,562.54.
Scouts measured average yield potential of 202.86 bu. per acre. Soybean pod counts in a 3' x 3' square averaged 1,246.86
Net corn sales for 2025-26 during the week ended Aug. 14 exceeded expectations by 860,000 MT. New crop soybean sales were also stronger than expected.
Scouts measured average corn yield potential of 199.57 bu. per acre. Pod counts in a 3' x 3' square averaged 1,479.22.
Scouts took samples from Iowa districts 1, 4 and 7. Iowa’s full results will be posted at the end of Day 4.