Farmer ‘bridge’ payments are coming, but will they be enough?
For many of us who lived on farms in the 1980s, the memories of business disruptions, bankruptcies and personal heartbreaks are indelibly scarred in our brains.
Thanks to some underlying market fundamentals, this current snapshot in time doesn’t feel quite as bad, but I’ve lost track of how many people are sharing stories about the uncertainties they face going into 2026 and the anxieties they feel.
Most farmers would like to see booming domestic and international markets and lower input costs to ease the pain. But for this Christmas, the “medicine” is more government payments.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said earlier this month that the administration will provide $12 billion in financial support for farmers, with the first $11 billion going to row crop producers before the end of February 2026 and an additional $1 billion for specialty crop growers. No specific payment rates have yet been announced, but farmers had until Dec. 19 to report acreage and qualify for the program.
The $11 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program will distribute payments to barley, chickpea, corn, cotton, lentil, oat, peanut, pea, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, and sunflower growers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement on the new assistance. USDA added that the payments would help address “market disruptions,” higher input costs, inflation, and export losses.
“This relief will provide much-needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crops,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House.
Rollins added the money will begin to be distributed by Feb. 28 next year and assured growers they would have an indication of the size of their forthcoming payments before the new year.
Row crop producers are expected to receive substantial payments on 2025 crops because of changes made to the Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs under the One Big Beautiful Act, but that money won’t go out until October 2026.
Specialty crop producers are already worried that the $1 billion won’t go far enough and that Congress will need to provide supplementary assistance. Kam Quarles, CEO at the National Potato Council, said he expects producers of around 300 different crops will soon be jockeying for a piece of the $1 billion.
Congress may need to appropriate more aid
Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-AR, welcomed the administration’s announcement and hinted in comments during the roundtable that Congress could follow up with further assistance in the future.
“If we need some additional help,” Boozman added, “looking to Congress, we’ll be there.” The payments, Boozman argued, would provide farmers with much-needed certainty.
Reaction to the program was mostly positive from his fellow Republicans, but it didn’t take long for requests to come in for an even bigger package.
While “$12 billion is a lot of money for anybody,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, said that “in the absence of the ability to export what we produce, particularly when we, in many instances, have bumper crops,” Congress “very well may need to” issue more.
“The need is evident,” Moran said.
Growers of United States row crops, which stand to receive some $11 billion of the $12 billion in assistance, are facing “serious” economic hardship, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-MS, said. “We’re hoping that we can come up with something. Not sure what it will be yet, but I will certainly support it,” she added.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, D-MN, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, says the $12 billion farmer aid package is just a temporary fix for the farm economy unless President Trump changes his trade policy.
“The administration has called this a bridge. Where’s the bridge? This is more like a circle,” Craig says on this week’s Agri-Pulse Newsmakers.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-OR, also argued the assistance announced won’t even get the farm economy back to where it was before Trump took office.
Farmers “are still paying more for fertilizer, equipment and seeds, while grown-in-the-USA farm goods are facing more obstacles than ever in foreign markets,” he said.
Others called for more long-term reform.
“Short-term payments, while important, are only a first step. What we truly need are long-term structural fixes that restore viability and stability to family farms and ranches for generations to come,” said National Farmers Union president Rob Larew. “In real-time, we are experiencing the consequences of farm policy that is woefully outdated. The farm safety net can’t keep up with today’s economic realities.”
Editor’s note: Sara Wyant is publisher of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc., www.Agri-Pulse.com.
