Author: Joe Outlaw

Authors Joe Outlaw and Bart L. Fischer

We have all heard the old proverb “it takes a village to raise a child.”  Indeed, an entire community is needed to interact with and guide a young person to grow into a well- rounded adult.  If the last 2 years are any proof, the same could be said about farm policy. Against the backdrop of exploding input costs and falling prices, the various components of the Federal government ultimately came together to begin addressing the bleak economic outlook. For example:

• While Congress was unable to get a farm bill done in 2024, they ultimately provided $30.78 billion in assistance for both economic and natural disaster losses from the 2023 and 2024 crop years.  Within 90 days of passage, the newly minted Secretary of Agriculture, Brook Rollins, had implemented the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) and quickly followed with the initial round of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP).

• As 2025 unfolded, when it became apparent that a bipartisan farm bill was unlikely, the Chairmen of the House and Senate Agricultural Committees along with the leadership in each chamber and the administration worked to include more than $60 billion in enhancements to the farm safety net in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). OBBBA was passed through the reconciliation process and was signed into law on July 4^th of last year, with the enhanced provisions taking affect for the 2025 crop which was already well underway. While the marketing year average prices that determine the amount of assistance are still being determined, it is safe to say that all of the efforts that were put into getting the enhanced safety net provisions in the OBBBA will be felt and greatly appreciated by producers when payments are distributed after October 1^st for those crops that trigger assistance. And, at the moment, it looks like virtually all crops will trigger.  

• As we approached the end of 2025 with economic and trade-related losses still outstripping the assistance that will eventually arrive under the OBBBA, the Trump Administration stepped in and announced the creation of the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program that will inject an additional $12 billion of operating capital on farms by the end of February. 

• The agricultural leaders in the U.S. Congress are considering taking this even further, with some reports suggesting yet another $15 billion in assistance could go out the door to address other 2025 crop year losses, including those of special crop and sugar producers that were not included in FBA and have yet to be addressed by USDA.

Getting the regulations completed for all of these program changes—and for the new programs—takes the effort of everyone from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Risk Management Agency (RMA) at USDA to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the White House to the congressional agricultural committee staff, just to name a few. Despite all of the disfunction and infighting in Washington, “the village” has still managed to come together to make positive changes to address the bleak outlook facing U.S. farmers.

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Outlaw, Joe, and Bart L. Fischer. “It Takes a Village.” Southern Ag Today 6(4.4). January 22, 2026. Permalink

Joe Outlaw and Bart L. Fischer

On Monday, December 8^th, President Trump and USDA Secretary Rollins announced the creation of the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, a new round of economic assistance totaling $12 billion for the 2025 crop, with $11 billion for row crop farmers. While details such as individual commodity payment rates have not been made available, it was announced that the structure of FBA would be similar to the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) that producers received earlier this year due to low commodity prices received for the 2024 crop. Recall the ECAP program provided assistance based on a producer’s planted acres of eligible commodities and 50% of acres that were prevented from being planted. According to USDA, acres that were prevented from being planted will not be eligible for FBA.

Individual payment rates are expected to be announced the week of December 22^nd. Payments are expected to be released by February 28, 2026. It was announced that payment limits would be different from ECAP. Payment limits will be $155,000 per person or legal entity, and the AGI limits will be $900,000. In ECAP, producers could double their limit if 75% of their AGI was from farming. The new assistance does not have this provision.

The last two years have been terrible financial years for most crop farmers across the United States. While producers will be grateful for the assistance, their estimated losses for the 2025 crop exceed $40 billion. The previous ECAP program paid 26% of losses to producers for the 2024 crop. Based on the estimates of loss for the 2025 crop, it appears the newly announced program will likely cover a similar portion of producer losses.

The announcement and subsequent details of the program when released will allow lenders to include the amount of the assistance in producer’s loan packages which should help those producers who are trying to secure operating loans for the 2026 crop year.

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Outlaw, Joe, and Bart L. Fischer. “Administration Providing Economic Assistance Payments to Struggling Farmers.” Southern Ag Today 5(50.4). December 11, 2025. Permalink

Over the past few months, we have been asked by producers on multiple occasions…since the ARC and PLC programs aren’t going to help very much why don’t we just forget it and use the money on crop insurance that does help?  This article contains the answer we typically give to that question. 

First, remember that the producer safety net is made of three parts: ARC and PLC, marketing assistance loans, and crop insurance.  Over the past few years, ARC and PLC have not kept up in trying to offset producer losses that have occurred because of low commodity prices and extremely high costs of production.  The marketing assistance loan program provides a harvest time loan to producers who need the cash flow but do not want to sell at harvest, which is typically the lowest prices of the year.  Not all producers utilize the marketing assistance loan program; however, in the South, cotton producers have routinely used this program.  At the same time, producers have reported that crop insurance programs (especially revenue insurance) have been a very useful safety net for their operations and that crop insurance was the most important part of the safety net.  We cannot disagree with this assertation. 

However, going forward, the One Big Beautiful Bill significantly increased reference prices used in both ARC and PLC while changes were made to the ARC program that will trigger payments sooner while covering bigger potential losses.  These changes will help increase the value of ARC and PLC to producers.  At the same time, in the current low-price environment, crop insurance will become relatively less helpful as insurance prices—which are based on a month of futures market daily closing values—are likely to be significantly lower than producers’ costs of production.  Losses will still be covered; however, producers will be indemnified at levels far below recent years because the futures market prices are low.   

The good news in all of this is when market prices eventually rise, insurance prices will rise with them.  With higher prices, the ARC and PLC program will be less likely to trigger assistance.  The marketing assistance loan program will still be useful to offer storage loans to allow producers to pay their bills while waiting for prices to increase.  In this situation, what we see is that each of the three parts of the producer safety net are important and are designed to complement one another, but there will be times when each are relatively more important.

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Outlaw, Joe, and Bart L. Fischer. “A Reminder That All Three Parts of the Producer Safety Net Matter.” Southern Ag Today 5(45.4). November 6, 2025. Permalink

As detailed in a previous Southern Ag Today article, the American Relief Act of 2025 was signed into law in December 2024 with the following key provisions:

• funded the government through March 14, 2025;
• extended the 2018 Farm Bill provisions through September 30, 2025; and
• provided the U.S. Department of Agriculture with $30.78 billion to deliver disaster recovery assistance to farmers and livestock producers.  $10 billion was designated for economic losses and the remaining $20 billion was for physical losses.

As we noted in an article on July 3, 2025, sign-up for the economic loss program—the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP)—is underway.  To date, nearly $8 billion has been provided to producers through ECAP.  We also noted that USDA has released approximately $1 billion in Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) payments to affected producers, and enrollment for another $1 billion in ELRP aid for flooding losses is targeted to begin in mid-August. Last week, USDA announced that signup has begun for the highly-anticipated Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) which targets $16 billion in assistance to producers for necessary expenses due to losses of revenue, quality or production of crops due to weather related events in 2023 and 2024. The remainder of this article will focus on SDRP.

Notably, SDRP is being rolled out to producers in two stages.  Stage 1 is providing payments to producers for eligible crop, tree, and vine losses calculated using data already on file with USDA from previously issued Federal crop insurance indemnities and Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) payments.  Stage 2 will target uncovered losses, including non-indemnified shallow losses and quality losses, and signup is estimated to begin in mid-September.

Following are a few of the questions we have received and our responses.  While this is intended to serve as educational guidance, it is no substitute for consulting USDA’s SDRP landing page or for contacting your local FSA office as they ultimately are responsible for implementing the program.

1. How do I know if Stage 1 applies to me?  In Stage 1, USDA is using a streamlined, pre-filled application process for eligible crop, tree and vine losses leveraging existing NAP data as well as data on file with RMA for losses covered by certain federal crop insurance policies. If you expected to receive an application but did not, you can also consult the Final Rule (Page 30572) for more details, including the list of losses that aren’t covered. Otherwise, you can consult your local FSA office.

• If I get a pre-filled application for Stage 1, doesn’t that prove that I’m eligible?  No! In an effort to ensure no one is left out, USDA is sending pre-filled applications (as detailed above) regardless of the cause of loss. But, it is up to you to determine if your losses were due to a qualifying disaster event that Congress chose to cover under SDRP (you can find that list here under “Eligibility”). If your losses were due to a qualifying disaster event, you will simply list that event in Block 18 on the SDRP application you receive in the mail.

• Does the loss I list on the SDRP application have to match the loss listed on my crop insurance loss records? In other words, do I need to go to my crop insurance agent to find out what losses were listed on my crop insurance loss forms? Not necessarily. You may have suffered from multiple loss events on the farm, even if all of those did not make it onto your crop insurance loss records.  If you suffered from a qualifying disaster event (see above)—regardless of the loss event listed on your crop insurance records—you can self-certify to that event in Block 18 on your SDRP application. Please note that the FSA county committee will be keeping a close eye on applications to ensure that the loss event you listed is relevant and actually occurred in the county.

• If I had a loss on my farm but it’s not due to one of the “qualifying disaster events” covered by SDRP, shouldn’t I just pick one of the qualifying disaster events from the list and submit my application?  No! While it may be very painful for a producer who had a loss that was due to an ineligible disaster event, the fact remains that Congress chose to cover only certain disaster events. If USDA is not covering your particular disaster event, it’s because Congress did not provide the authority for them to do so.

• What if I suffered from drought but my county did not meet the D2 and D3 thresholds established by Congress?  If you are in a county that does not meet the D2 and D3 thresholds established by Congress (see the list of eligible counties here), you are not eligible to apply for SDRP based on “qualifying drought.” With that said, if you also suffered from another qualifying disaster event (e.g., excessive heat), you can self-certify by listing that loss event in Block 18 on the SDRP application.  Again, note that the FSA county committee will be keeping a close eye on applications to ensure that the loss event you listed is relevant and actually occurred in the county.

• What if I have an error in the pre-filled parts of my application?  Can I just mark them out and make corrections?  No!  USDA has made it clear that any handwritten changes to the pre-filled portions of the application will nullify the application.  If the pre-filled portions are in error, you need to go back to the source (i.e., either your crop insurance agent for crop insurance records or to the local FSA office for NAP records). They can correct the underlying problem and updated applications can be re-printed by your local FSA office.

• My pre-filled application (Block 14) lists my “Estimated SDRP Payment.”  Is that the amount I should expect to see deposited into my account?  As we understand it, that is the gross payment BEFORE both the payment factor of 35% and payment limits are applied.

• Did USDA just make up the 35% factor?  While we don’t know everything that went into determining the factor, consider the following: (1) USDA made clear that progressive factoring (i.e., applying different payment factors based on gender, race, etc—as was done in the previous Administration) would not be used in SDRP; (2) USDA presumably estimated the total expected SDRP payments relative to the total funding available and determined that 35% was appropriate; and (3) they had to ensure that funding was available for producers who have eligible losses in Stage 2.  Notably, if funding is left over after all applications have been submitted, USDA could issue another round of payments to producers.

• Does the payment limit apply to each year separately (i.e., $125,000 for 2023 and $125,000 for 2024) or is it a combined limit?  The payment limit applies separately to both 2023 and 2024.

1. If I receive an SDRP payment, do I have to commit to purchase crop insurance going forward?  Yes, generally, producers receiving aid must maintain crop insurance or NAP coverage for the next two years at 60% or higher, or repay the assistance with interest.

1. Are all states eligible for SDRP?  This round of disaster assistance was somewhat different than the past.  Congress chose to provide assistance in the form of block grants to Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, and Massachusetts. As a result, they are excluded from SDRP but will use state block grants funded by the American Relief Act of 2025 to compensate producers for losses.

We plan to update this as additional information becomes available. Importantly, as noted above, you should use the information in this article simply as educational guidance. For any questions related to your specific application/circumstances or for official guidance on the operation of SDRP, it is important to consult USDA’s SDRP landing page and/or reach out to your local FSA office.

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Outlaw, Joe, and Bart L. Fischer. “Supplemental Disaster Relief Program Sign-up Announced.” Southern Ag Today 5(29.4). July 17, 2025. Permalink

We often are asked by the media about the size of and need for government assistance that is provided to U.S. farmers when something goes wrong (e.g., bad prices, yields or both). The first thing we do is highlight that the safety net provided for by Congress is designed to offset some – but not all – of the risks faced by farmers.  It might sound like semantics, but in the policy world…words matter.

The rest of the conversation generally involves talking about uncertainty in U.S. agriculture.  Rather than provide an exhaustive list here, let’s just focus on the three primary determinants of profitability: prices, yields and costs.

• U.S. farm prices are determined by world supply and demand for the crop, the price of its substitutes, and policy.  What type of policy?  First, U.S. producers must compete against producers that are heavily subsidized by the governments of our competitors around the world.  Second, the trade policies of those countries (such as tariffs or other non-tariff barriers to trade) impact prices received by U.S. producers as well. Third, monetary policy in the U.S. impacts interest rates that farmers have to pay to finance their crops, land and equipment and exchange rates that tend to make our exports relatively more expensive than our competitors.  Other types of policies that can impact U.S. crop prices are conservation, biofuels, taxes, and more recently health regulations such as those listed in the MAHA report that questions the health impacts of certain agricultural products (e.g., sugar) or bi-products (e.g., vegetable oils).
  
• U.S. farm yields are primarily impacted by weather…enough said about that.
  
• U.S. crop production costs are impacted by the supply and demand of each of the individual inputs, from seed, fertilizer, and chemicals to equipment, farmland, and labor, among others. Increasingly, for many producers, these purchases also must be financed at elevated interest rates. In addition, all of the policy areas discussed under farm prices above can also impact crop production costs.  

These conversations usually conclude with an explanation that, even though there is a lot of uncertainty, U.S. farmers understand how the forces of supply and demand impact crop prices and input costs and are accustomed to dealing with erratic weather. However, it’s the uncertainty that comes from policy that keeps them up at night.  In our minds, the government safety net helps reduce some of their and their lender’s uncertainty regarding the ability to remain viable and able to try again next year in search of profits.

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Outlaw, Joe, and Bart L. Fischer. “Dealing With Uncertainty in Agriculture.” Southern Ag Today 5(25.4). June 19, 2025. Permalink