Soybean field with white house in the distanceEven with non-irrigated corn and soybeans posting record national average yields in 2025, a significant number of farmers across major growing regions still saw ECO and SCO indemnity payments trigger. ECO and SCO are area-based programs that respond to county-level losses – not just your individual operation – and with the Revenue Protection option, payments are driven by a combination of both yield and price. When harvest prices come in below the projected RMA prices, that gap alone can push counties into payment territory, even where yields held up reasonably well. That is exactly what happened in 2025.

The experts at farmdoc daily analyzed ECO and SCO payouts for corn, soybeans and wheat.

Here are some highlights they noted for each crop:

Corn

  • Reported a national average yield of 186.5 bu/acre, but county-level losses were widespread across the South, Midwest, and Plains
  • Harvest price came in at $4.22/bu against a projected $4.70/bu, a 10% drop that was the largest driver of revenue-based payment triggers
  • When yield and price losses are combined, the payment footprint was broad, with revenue-based ECO-95 triggering in 57% of reporting counties nationwide

farmdoc daily, “2025 RMA County Yields and ECO/SCO Payments” (June 2026)

Soybeans

  • Despite a record national average yield of 53 bu/acre, soybeans also saw localized yield losses concentrated in the Dakotas, Mid-South and parts of the Southeast.
  • Harvest price settled at $10.35/bu versus a projected $10.54/bu, a smaller gap than corn, but enough to push triggers for ECO and SCO.
  • When yield and price losses are combined, revenue-based ECO-95 triggered payments in 51% of reporting counties, with the heaviest activity in southern Missouri and Illinois, eastern Arkansas, and western Kentucky and Tennessee.

farmdoc daily, “2025 RMA County Yields and ECO/SCO Payments” (June 2026)

Wheat

  • The national average yield came in at 53.3 bu/acre, with the most notable losses in the Great Plains and Pacific Northwest
  • Harvest prices also fell short of projected levels, expanding the revenue-based payment footprint beyond what yield shortfalls alone would have generated.
  • SCO with RP triggered in 30% of counties, up to 48% for ECO-95.

farmdoc daily, “2025 RMA County Yields and ECO/SCO Payments” (June 2026)

Get a deeper dive in this great analysis by farmdoc daily.


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Citation: Paulson, N., H. Monaco, G. Schnitkey and C. Zulauf. “2025 RMA County Yields and ECO/SCO Payments.” farmdoc daily (16):105, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 16, 2026.

Charts source: farmdoc daily, “2025 RMA County Yields and ECO/SCO Payments” (June 2026)