AgCon26 Discusses Innovations in Ag Trading
OVERLAND PARK, KS – October 22-23, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Kansas State University’s Risk Management Center (RMC) hosted the 2026 Agricultural Commodity Futures Conference (AgCon26), bringing together farmers, agribusinesses, industry experts, traders, and exchanges from across the country.
This year, the conference focused on topics related to:
- Market structure
- Emerging markets
- Contract convergence
- Financing
- Data
- Access to clearing
- Artificial intelligence
- The state of the farm economy
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig kicked off the event by welcoming participants and reflecting on his first year as Chairman:
"I have spent a lot of time this year traveling around the country and talking to farmers and ranchers working hard each day to provide the food, feed, and fiber we depend on throughout our country and the world," he said. "I’ve met with farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, and energy producers in Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Florida, and now, I’m with all of you here in Kansas."
The conference featured:
- A host of speakers
- Fireside chats
- Panels
covering a wide range of issues facing U.S. agriculture, the cash and derivatives market, access to credit and financial challenges facing producers, and emerging technologies facing market participants and regulators.
Keynote speakers included:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden
- Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS)
One hot topic at the conference was the impact of new financial products like perpetual futures, 24/7 trading, and prediction markets on agricultural commodity markets. Some speakers and panelists offered their perspectives on how emerging markets and product offerings could improve price discovery and support new risk-management strategies, while others raised concerns that they could reduce liquidity and disrupt pricing in traditional agricultural markets.
During the conference, Chairman Selig also previewed the CFTC’s plan to increase the publication frequency of the Commitments of Traders Report (COT Report) from once to twice a week by the end of 2026, which was formally announced on October 27. Data from Monday will be published on Wednesday, and data from Wednesday will be published on Friday. Both reports will be released at 3:30 p.m. ET on their respective publication days. Under the enhanced publication schedule, the reports’ latency will decrease from three days to two days.
"COT Reports have been an important source of transparency for decades. Following feedback from the agricultural community, I’m pleased to announce the CFTC will be rolling out COT Reports twice a week to ensure this information stream is as useful as possible," Chairman Selig said.
Representing USA Rice at the conference were Jason Wheeler, a grain merchandising specialist at White Commercial and representative for USA Rice on the CFTC’s Agricultural Advisory Committee, and Jake Westlin, Vice President of Government Affairs.