Row crop farmers in the Midwest and Great Plains have a better idea of how much money they can expect from one-time federal aid payments announced last month.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released per-acre rates for 20 crops included in the $11 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program. The dollars aim to help farmers impacted by tariffs, high production costs and low crop prices until stronger farm safety nets go into effect in October.
"President Trump committed to increase certainty in the farm economy, and farmers can count on these payment rate calculations when going to the bank as they plan for the spring planting season," Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins stated. "Farmers who qualify for the FBA Program can expect payments in their bank accounts by February 28."
Details have not been released for an additional $1 billion allocated for specialty crops and sugar.
The USDA based its "bridge" payment rates on the number of acres planted in 2025, along with estimated production costs and losses.
An analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation projected payments at the state level will be highest in Texas at $1.1 billion, followed by Iowa, Kansas and Illinois. Corn, soybeans and wheat are expected to account for over three-quarters of the program dollars.
DeDe Jones, a risk management economist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in the Amarillo District, said the grain and cotton farmers she works with are struggling. Many are entering the 2026 growing season with high interest rates, high input costs, low crop prices and significant amounts of debt.
"This bridge of assistance will definitely provide some relief, both to the farmer and then also to the lender, and some reassurance that they will be able to pay off some of that carryover debt and continue to farm for another year," Jones said. "It is nowhere near enough to cover all their losses that they've dealt with in the last couple of years, but anything helps."
Over half of the farmers surveyed by the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer this fall said they would use potential government aid to pay down debt.
Nicholas Paulson, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program is designed to distribute financial aid quickly. The tradeoff is that payment rates, based on national averages, may not reflect the financial realities for individual farms.
"There will be farms where the bridge payments are maybe more than sufficient to cover the financial stress that they're experiencing on their own farm. There will be farms where the bridge payment is insufficient to cover it," Paulson said. "It will be helpful, but it won't completely cover the losses that they're experiencing in the 2025 crop year."
For example, he said soybean yields in southern Illinois were much lower last year than in the central and northern parts of the state.
Paulson and his colleagues estimate the average returns for southern Illinois soybean farmers will remain in the red, even with the bridge payment, commodity programs and crop insurance. But soybean farmers in central and northern Illinois are more likely to break even or come out ahead.
Factors contributing to a bleak farm economy
Production costs were more than 50% higher in October 2025 compared to 2011, while the prices farmers received were roughly 21% higher, Investigate Midwest reports. That's created one of the widest gaps in a decade between what farmers are paying and what they earn.
Over the past five years, fertilizer, labor and interest expenses have risen 37%, 47% and 73%, respectively.
High corn and soybean prices in 2021 and 2022 – in part due to China rebuilding its swine herd, global market disruptions from the Ukraine-Russia war and lower yields in the U.S., Brazil and Argentina – helped offset higher production costs. But then prices fell as supply and demand shifted again.
"We have had some really, really good growing seasons, especially with the grain crops," Jones said. "When you have these bumper yields … then we're going to need not just average demand, but better than average demand to offset that supply and keep those prices high, and we just don't have that."
Trade disruptions in 2025 decreased demand and contributed to an oversupply of some U.S. commodities, said Chad Hart, an agriculture economics professor at Iowa State University. Cotton, rice and soybeans experienced more significant market impacts due to retaliatory tariffs compared to corn and wheat, he said.
"Even though there's been a lot of discussion of deals with China, and we have seen some sales coming in … soybean trade is still lagging behind where it usually is," Hart said.
Reactions from national soy, corn associations
After the USDA released its payment rates, the American Soybean Association said in a news release that it "appreciates the administration's focus on the economic downturn in the U.S. agricultural industry" but the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program "falls short." The association pointed to damage caused by the trade war with China.
"Due to significant trade losses this year, the payment rate for soybeans will likely not be enough for soybean farmers to keep their operations financially solvent as we move into the next planting season," the group's president Scott Metzger said in the release.
Metzger urged the administration to strengthen domestic markets for soybeans, in part by incentivizing soy-based biofuels through the 2026-2027 Renewable Volume Obligations and finalizing rules for the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit.
The National Corn Growers Association also called for more long-term solutions.
"Corn growers have been sounding the alarm about the fact that farmers have been faced with multiple consecutive years of low corn prices and high input costs," President Jed Bower said in a news release. "We urgently need the administration and Congress to develop markets in the United States and abroad that will provide growers with more long-term economic certainty."
Ad hoc assistance
The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program comes on the heels of other economic aid.
In December 2024, Congress passed legislation allocating $20 billion for producers impacted by natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 and $10 billion to offset economic losses from low crop prices and high production costs.
The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program and its payment rates largely mirror the last economic aid program.
Paulson described the ad hoc assistance programs as Band-Aids to the challenges row crop producers are facing.
"Prices for most row crops have not significantly improved from what farmers are currently dealing with for their 2025 crop, and we don't see production costs declining to the extent needed to get farmers back into the black," Paulson said.
Half of the participants in the December Ag Economists' Monthly Monitor expect the farm economy to stay the same over the next year. Nearly 40% predicted improvement while 15% expect conditions to worsen.
In the coming months, Hart said he'll closely watch what happens with China and other countries that have agreed to buy more U.S. agriculture products, especially soybeans and cotton.
"That's going to influence whether these payments can truly be that one time bridge or whether that bridge will need another extension," Hart said.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
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