The $12 billion farm aid announced by the Trump administration in December 2025 is the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, a one-time USDA payment funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation and paid out by the Farm Service Agency. Up to $11 billion went to row crop producers, and the remainder was reserved for specialty crop and sugar growers. The payments are meant to carry farmers through until higher commodity support levels under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect on October 1, 2026.
What the Program Covers
The package has two parts. The Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program handles row crops, covering roughly twenty commodities including corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, sorghum, peanuts, oats, barley, and several oilseeds and pulses. A separate Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) program handles specialty crops such as strawberries, almonds, apples, potatoes, and tomatoes. A third allocation of $150 million was set aside for sugar producers and was still being finalized as of spring 2026.1American Farm Bureau Federation. Tracking Farmer Bridge Assistance Program Payments
Livestock is not included. Neither are floriculture, nursery crops, herbs, or hops. Crops grown in controlled environments like greenhouses and vertical farms are excluded from the specialty crop program, with mushrooms as the only exception.2Federal Register. Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program
Row Crop Payment Rates
Row crop payments are calculated per acre, not by production volume. USDA estimated expected economic losses for each commodity by comparing projected gross returns to production costs, then applied a uniform 30.41 percent factor to produce a flat dollar-per-acre rate. That rate is multiplied by a farmer’s reported 2025 planted acreage.3Federal Register. Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program
Rates vary widely by crop:
- Rice: $132.89 per acre
- Cotton: $117.35 per acre
- Oats: $81.75 per acre
- Peanuts: $55.65 per acre
- Sorghum: $48.11 per acre
- Corn: $44.36 per acre
- Wheat: $39.35 per acre
- Soybeans: $30.88 per acre
- Barley: $20.51 per acre
- Flax: $8.05 per acre
Rapeseed and crambe received nothing, because USDA’s modeling found no economic loss for those crops.4Farm Progress. Bridge Payment Rates Are Here, but Are They Enough to Help Your Bottom Line
Prevented plant acres, cover crops, and land used for grazing or experimental purposes do not qualify for payment.
Row Crop Eligibility and Payment Caps
To qualify for FBA, you had to be actively engaged in farming and to have filed a 2025 crop acreage report with your local FSA office by December 19, 2025. Advocacy groups criticized that deadline as an “incredibly tight timeframe,” particularly given staffing shortages at FSA offices.5National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Fleeting Relief for Some Farmers, but Bridge Payments Lack Long-Term Solutions
Two limits cap how much any one operation can receive:
- Payments are capped at $155,000 per person or legal entity.
- Producers with an average adjusted gross income above $900,000 across the 2021 through 2023 tax years are ineligible entirely.
The program does not require participants to carry crop insurance.6USDA Farm Service Agency. Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program
How to Enroll and When Payments Arrive
USDA opened FBA enrollment on February 23, 2026, and closed it on April 17, 2026. The agency pre-filled applications using existing acreage data on file. Farmers could review, certify, and submit their applications online through a Login.gov account, or in person at their local FSA county office.7USDA Farm Service Agency. USDA Announces Enrollment Period for Farmer Bridge Payments
Payments began going out on February 28, 2026. By late April 2026, nearly $9.6 billion had been disbursed to roughly 500,000 approved applicants. Corn producers received the largest share at about $3.45 billion, followed by soybean growers at $2.27 billion and wheat at $1.34 billion. Cotton accounted for about $874 million and rice for $307 million. Iowa led at the state level with $843 million, followed by Texas at $784 million and Illinois at $765 million.
Specialty Crop Payments
The specialty crop side took longer to build. USDA announced the ASCF program on February 13, 2026, and finalized the details on May 29, 2026. The budget grew from the $1 billion originally reserved to $1.625 billion.8American Farm Bureau Federation. 2025 Specialty Crop Bridge Payments Finalized
Rather than modeling each crop separately, USDA placed specialty crops into four payment tiers based on average annual revenue per acre:
- Tier 1 at $650 per acre: high-revenue crops such as strawberries, lettuce, fresh grapes, and sweet cherries.
- Tier 2 at $225 per acre: almonds, apples, potatoes, tomatoes, and wine grapes.
- Tier 3 at $65 per acre: lower-revenue crops including pecans, hazelnuts, and sweet corn.
- Beans and peas at $25 per acre: varieties not already covered under the row crop program.
The specialty crop payment cap is $250,000 per person or entity, higher than the row crop cap. The same $900,000 average AGI disqualification applies. Applications opened in June 2026, with a deadline of August 7, 2026.
What the Payment Will and Won’t Cover
Farm groups have been consistent: the money helps, but it does not close the gap for most producers.
The American Farm Bureau Federation put total row crop payments at roughly $10.8 billion and concluded the aid was “not enough to cover the full extent of row crop losses” from recent years. The Farm Bureau also said the original $1 billion for specialty crops “won’t be enough to cover their losses.”9Agri-Pulse. $11B in Bridge Assistance Helpful, but Not Enough, AFBF Analysis Says The American Soybean Association said the $30.88-per-acre rate “will likely not be enough for soybean farmers to keep their operations financially solvent.” Wheat growers said the payment would “lighten the blow” but “not come close to making wheat farmers whole.” The National Cotton Council, whose growers received $117.35 per acre, called the rate “a welcome and much-needed level of assistance.”10Successful Farming. USDA Farmer Bridge Assistance Rates Favor Rice, Cotton
Regional analyses tell a similar story. University of Illinois economists found the payments brought projected 2025 returns for grain producers in northern and central Illinois to roughly breakeven, while farms in southern Illinois still faced negative returns even with the aid.11farmdoc daily. Farmer Bridge Assistance Program Payment Rates For southern rice producers, without the $132.89 payment, budgeted returns were negative across nearly all growing regions except parts of Louisiana; with it, most regions moved to near breakeven on operating costs, but not full profitability.12Southern Ag Today. Potential Impact of the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program on Southern U.S. Rice A central Illinois grain farmer on cash-rented land was still projected to lose about $33 per acre in 2026 even after the bridge payment.
USDA based payments strictly on 2025 acreage, not projected 2026 plantings, to avoid steering planting decisions.
Why It’s Called a “Bridge”
The program’s name reflects its role. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, raised statutory reference prices for major commodities by 10 to 21 percent compared to 2018 Farm Bill levels. Corn’s reference price moved from $3.70 to $4.10 per bushel, soybeans from $8.40 to $10.00, and wheat from $5.50 to $6.35. The law also lifted the effective reference price escalator from 85 to 88 percent and raised the Agriculture Risk Coverage guarantee from 86 to 90 percent of benchmark revenue.13farmdoc daily. Impacts of the Commodity Title Changes Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for Midwestern Farms in 2025
Those higher supports apply to the 2025 crop year, but the actual payments do not begin flowing until after October 1, 2026. University of Illinois economists estimated the OBBBA changes would roughly double commodity title payments for Illinois farms, adding $25 to $30 per acre for corn and soybeans. The bridge payments were designed to fill the cash gap in the meantime, particularly for financing the 2026 planting season.
How USDA Paid for It, and Why That Matters
USDA authorized the spending under Section 5(b) of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, which lets the CCC support agricultural production and marketing without a fresh Congressional appropriation. The Government Accountability Office classified the FBA rule as a “major rule” under the Congressional Review Act, which would normally require a 60-day waiting period; CCC bypassed that by invoking a “good cause” exception, arguing that payments were “critical to the financial stability of producers” needing help to finance the 2026 planting season.14GAO. Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, B-338223
In October 2025, USDA transferred $13 billion from the CCC to the Office of the Secretary to create a “Farmers Support Program” for tariff relief. According to reporting by Government Executive, USDA did not notify the relevant Congressional committees of the transfer.15Government Executive. USDA Transfers $13B Slush Fund for Future Tariff Relief Senator Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the transferred funds a “slush fund” and warned the move “threatened core farm programs.” By late October 2025, $3 billion had been clawed back to keep FSA operational during a government shutdown. The CCC’s borrowing authority is capped at $30 billion by statute; by early 2025, available authority had fallen to roughly $4 billion, according to Congressional aides.16Agri-Pulse. Lawmakers Eye CCC Cash Flow to Allow Uninterrupted Payment
FSA Staffing and What It Means for Applicants
The agency processing these payments is running short-handed. County-level FSA employees dropped from 7,672 to 7,022 over 2025. Forty-two FSA county offices had no remaining staff by early 2026, and 127 counties lost all federally employed FSA workers. The agency shed 614 county program analysts, the staff who help farmers with paperwork, along with 122 county executive directors.17National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. USDA Staffing Crisis: Losses Reduce Local Presence in Communities Nationwide
The losses came largely through the Deferred Resignation/Retirement Program offered to federal employees in early 2025. Across USDA, about 15,000 of 106,000 employees accepted buyouts, and nearly two-thirds of those who left worked at agencies with direct farmer contact.18AgWeb. Impact of DOGE Cuts on USDA Staff and Programs USDA Undersecretary Richard Fordyce said in mid-2026 that “county offices are not staffed to the level that we would like to see them,” while maintaining that shortages were not affecting the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission.19Civil Eats. USDA Says It Is Working to Address Farm Office Staff Shortages If you’re following up on an FBA or ASCF application, expect that your county office may be thinner than in past years, and factor delays into your planning.