Subsidies

USDA Releases Per-Acre Rates for Farmer Bridge Assistance Program

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:17:14 GMT

The long-awaited Farmer Bridge Assistance rates are out! Rice and cotton will receive the highest per-acre rates, in keeping with earlier predictions.

On the last day of 2025, USDA announced the Farmer Bridge Assistance program rates for row crop and oil seed farmers hit hard in 2025 by the ongoing trade wars.

“Farmers who qualify for the FBA program can expect payments in their bank accounts by Feb. 28, 2026,” says Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in the announcement.

The following per-acre rates apply:

Corn: $44.36
Soybeans: $30.88
Wheat: $39.35
Cotton: $117.35
Rice: $132.89
Peanuts: $55.65
Sorghum: $48.11
Barley: $20.51
Canola: $23.57
Sunflower: $17.32
Lentils: $23.98
Peas: $19.60
Oats: $81.75
Mustard: $23.21
Safflower: $24.86
Flax: $8.05
Chickpeas: $26.46 (large), $33.36 (small)
Sesame: $13.68

Oil seeds rapeseed and crambe — which were included in the original list of commodities to receive payments according to USDA’s Dec. 8 announcement of the bridge payments — were not included in the Dec. 31 rate list.

The payments, which amount to $11 billion, are intended to bridge the gap between current economic straits of farmers dealing with “unfair market disruptions” and the stepped-up farmer support programs from the previously titled “One Big Beautiful Bill Act ,” which will take effect in October 2026.

In addition to the $11 billion for row crops, $1 billion was set aside for specialty crops and sugar. The Dec. 31 rate announcement, like the Dec. 8 initial announcement of the bridge payments, notes “timelines for payments to producers of these crops are still under development.”

The bridge payments are funded under the Commodity Credit Corporation and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency based on 2025 acreage reports. Payments will be released to eligible producers by Feb. 28 with a limit of $155,000 per entity or individual. Click here to access USDA’s FBA program calculator.

Reaching the Farmer Bridge Assistance Rates

According to USDA, the FBA rates were developed using “a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2025 crop year.” This loss average was reportedly based on planted acres reported to the Farm Service Agency, cost of production estimates from the Economic Research Service, and yields and prices from the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.

The announced rates were mostly in keeping with earlier estimates. For example, shortly after the bridge payments were announced Farm CPA Paul Neiffer projected that corn would see rates of $43.52 to $48.35. Later in December, University of Illinois’s farmdoc Daily released its own estimates , which trended a bit higher than Neiffer’s, but they were also in line with the Dec. 31 announcement. For example, farmdoc estimated cotton would see a $115 rate.

Both based their estimates on how USDA did the 2024 Emergency Commodity Assistance Program payments given the similarities between how that is calculated and how USDA described it would calculate the FBA rates to row crop and oil seed growers.

What About the Other Commodities?

Notably absent from the list of crops benefiting from the bridge payments are fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat, and nuts, crops that collectively represent hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.

According to USDA’s Dec. 8 announcement, “the remaining $1 billion of the $12 billion in bridge payments will be reserved for commodities not covered in the FBA program such as specialty crops and sugar, for example.”

By contrast, the Dec. 31 rate announcement specified that the $1 billion would be just for specialty crops and sugar.

Shortly after the FBA program was announced, the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance expressed disappointment that specialty crop growers were not included directly in the bridge payments. The group noted specialty crops account for more than one-third of all U.S. crop sales. Later, on Dec. 18, the Congressional Specialty Crop Caucus urged congressional agricultural committees to make that $1 billion available to growers immediately .

According to records from USDA’s Economic Research Service, these agricultural commodities not directly named to receive bridge payments saw the following total cash receipts in 2024 :

Cattle and calves; $112.09 billion
Dairy products; $50.73 billion
Fruits and nuts; $31.34 billion
Hogs; $27.31 billion
Vegetables and melons; $25.31 billion
“Other Crops” which include commodities like sugar, mushrooms, flowers, and herbs; $40.58 billion

Speaking specifically about the specialty crop industry, Rebeckah Freeman Adcock, vice president of U.S. government relations for the International Fresh Produce Association, told The Packer that $1 billion is not enough : “Quite frankly, the $12 billion is not enough for agriculture in general, and USDA knows that, it’s just this is what they have.”

Some See Payments as a Bandage on a Bigger Problem

Following the announcement of the planned bridge payments, commodity groups and ag economy experts voiced appreciation for the planned payments, but some also noted the payments would be too little, too late in many cases.

Ed Elfman, senior vice president of agriculture and rural banking policy at the American Bankers Association, told AgWeb that the support will help , but it won’t fix structural issues in the ag economy.

“Any aid will help,” he said. “It’ll help make cash flow work a little better. It’ll make the margins look a little better. Profitability will go up, but at the end of the day, it’s just a Band-Aid. It’s not a long-term solution.”

Jerry Gulke, president of the Gulke Group, had much the same to say, calling the payments “like a bridge to nowhere.” Referring to earlier estimates on the FBA rates for corn, he told AgWeb a $46-per-acre payment is woefully inadequate for him to plant corn next spring and that he may need to shift to soybeans in 2026 where the cost of production is lower.

Luke Lindberg, USDA under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, acknowledged the bridge payments are a short-term solution in a one-on-one interview with AgWeb .

“We don’t want Band-Aid programs. We want fundamental shifts to the farm economy that allow our producers to be profitable for the long run, bring rural prosperity back to rural America,” he said, pointing to USDA’s three-point plan , announced in late September, aimed at bolstering international demand for U.S. ag products.

“Our team certainly plays an important role in generating demand overseas for the products,” he said.

“A lot of those One Big Beautiful Bill provisions, like some of the taxing, tax expenses and things, all start next year,” he added. “We’re bridging the gap from today to what that better future will look like next year.”

Labor Shortage? Data Shows Added Unemployment Payments are Crippling Employers' Ability to Find Workers

Tue, 11 May 2021 16:15:45 GMT

Restaurants closing early. Sign after sign plastered along roadsides with businesses looking for help. The hiring issue is evident in many regions of the country, crippling everything from manufacturing to the restaurant industry.

“In talking with my guys that do the welding for us in ordering to steel, they said it all goes back to the steel mills,” says Nic Beck of Carks Ag Supply based in Nebraska, a company that produces seed tenders. “It’s not a shortage of iron ore. It’s not a recycled steel shortage. It comes down to labor.”

And in the Pacific Northwest, farmer Shay Myers is also dealing with a labor shortage. He pushed out a TikTok video that went viral after he pointed out 350 pounds of asparagus that was on the verge of going to waste.

“We can’t get the labor,” he said on the video. “We can’t get people to show up and do the work for $16 an hour, with housing, transportation and all of those things. What we usually do is bring people in on a H2A visa, but the border is so screwed up, that we can’t get people across. So, they are telling us it’s 30 to 45 days before we have laborers in this field to pick this crop.”

While Myers points to the border being the issue for him, the lack of available workers in the U.S. is creating bottlenecks, and it’s driven in part by a shortage of truck drivers.

The California Farm Bureau says during carrot and onion harvests in South California, they are seeing up to 30% fewer drivers than before the pandemic.

“In order to alleviate some of the shortage, we need to get President Biden to enact the Stafford Act, as Donald Trump did last year,” says Joe Antonini, president of Antonini Enterprises. “This would allow the weights of the loads to go from 80,000 pounds maximum to 88,000 pounds, a 10% weight tolerance. Given that, there would be some relief on the amount of drivers needed to bring in the harvest.”

The Labor Debate

Purdue University’s Jayson Lusk says there’s not necessarily a shortage of workers in the U.S.

“It’s a little perplexing,” says Lusk. “You mentioned the word ‘shortage.’ If you actually looked at data on employment, there’s actually a lot fewer workers in the restaurant industry, and a little bit fewer workers in food manufacturing and in grocery retail. So that would seem to suggest, well, we don’t really have a shortage.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows wages and earnings have increased significantly, especially in the grocery and retail food sectors.

“Wages are getting pulled up, so you would think that would pull in more workers into those sectors. But we’re not really seeing that at the moment. That’s really where this perception of a shortage comes from,” Lusk says.

(Farm Journal)

According to AP on Tuesday, U.S. employers posted a record number of available jobs in March, illustrating starkly the rush of businesses seeking to find new workers as the economy expands. Yet total job gains increased only modestly, according to a Labor Department report issued Tuesday.

JUST IN: WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. employers posted a record number of available jobs in March. Job openings rose nearly 8%, to 8.1 million in March, the most on records dating back to December 2000.
— AgDay TV (@AgDayTV) May 11, 2021

The data comes after the April jobs report last week that fell far short of economist expectations, largely because companies appear unable to find the workers they need. Data that shows it’s not a shortage of workers, it’s a shortage of people willing to work.

“That the natural question: why? Why are people showing back up at work? And I think there are several possible explanations,” he says.

In the latest Kansas City Federal Reserve Manufacturing Report , one manufacturer said, “Stimulus and increased unemployment money are wrecking the labor pool. Lower-level employees are quitting to make just as much not working.”

By the Numbers

The issue is also heating up in Washington, D.C. The Labor Department report on Friday showed 266,000 new jobs were created in April, which was much smaller than the 1 million expected by a Reuters poll. The report also showed a drop in temporary help positions.

Today, someone with a $15-per-hour job, working 40-hour weeks, would bring home $600 a week. However, in Kentucky, the maximum unemployment pay is $569 per week, plus the extra $300 per week passed in the Biden Administration’s American Rescue plan. In Kansas, those who were getting $488 for unemployment before, are now getting $788 with the added federal benefit. The numbers show instead of getting paid to work, some Americans can make more money by simply not working at all.

“I haven’t seen empirical estimates of the effect, but it has to be having some effect,” says Lusk. “If people can stay at home and make something similar to what they might at work, that’s going to keep people out of the workforce.

(Farm Journal)

The extra $300 per week federal unemployment benefit was extended through the beginning of September as some states are now taking the matter in their own hands. Just last week, Montana’s governor announced the state will end its participation in the federal unemployment program, which means unemployed workers will no longer receive the extra $300 per week. Instead, Montana’s governor says the state will launch a new program to provide bonuses to unemployed workers who return to work.

The Biden administration held a press briefing on Friday and dismisses concerns that the added unemployment benefits are causing hiring issues across the U.S.

“It’s clear there are people who are not ready and able to go back into the labor force,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

The True Cost of Fewer Workers

And as food service employers offer sign-on bonuses or pay more to find people to fill those jobs, basic economics show there’s no such thing as a free lunch as those added costs will get passed on through the menu.

“It gets pushed in both directions,” adds Lusk. “It has a depressing effect on commodity prices, despite the highs we’re seeing at the moment, but also is going to result in higher retail food prices. That extra cost in the system is going to ultimately be born - at least in part - by the food consumer.

The labor debacle is coming at a time when commodity prices are also racing higher.

“We are starting to see those higher farm commodity prices show up in higher retail food prices,” says Lusk. “If you just look at the year-over-year change, it doesn’t look crazy, it doesn’t look outside the norms. But I think the cumulative effect is really starting to appear in the data. And really, over the course of the last year, we’re seeing retail food prices starting to tick up quite a bit.”

As corn prices gained $1 in just two weeks, the rise in commodities may not be over yet, as the debate over inflation also heats up.

“At the moment, it looks like those high commodity prices may be with us,” says Lusk. “I think we’ll probably continue to see that in our food prices and our meat prices.”

Just last week, wholesale choice beef prices reached prices not seen since the early weeks of the pandemic. With added expenses and labor challenges for those trying to serve customers, it’s making for an expensive and challenging return to normal.

USDA Announces Phase 2 of ERP Along With New Aid Opportunities

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 15:05:21 GMT

USDA announced the launch of Phase 2 of its Emergency Relief Program (ERP) with Phase 1 paying out $7.15 billion to eligible producers.

Who Qualifies for ERP Phase 2?

Phase 2 is targeted to those who suffered losses in 2020 and 2021 but may not have received any payments under Phase 1 for losses in allowable gross revenue for traditionally insurable crops and specialty crops intended to be commercially marketed.

The payments will be based on the difference in farm revenue between a typical year and the disaster year and are to avoid windfall or duplicate payments.

USDA said that the signup deadline for Phase 1 ERP, which was previously extended indefinitely, will now be set to Dec. 16.

Can You Defer ERP Payments?

As you’ll recall from Paul Neiffer’s article , only certain ERP payments can be deferred.

According to Neiffer, if the payment relates directly to damage occurred in 2021, then the payment can’t be deferred until 2023. But if the damage if really for the crop that was harvested in 2022 and damage was for drought during the growing period, then it should be able to be deferred.

As a reminder, here are the three requirements to defer crop insurance proceeds:

• Farmer is on the cash method of accounting (almost all are),
• Farmer normally reports more than 50% of total sales in the year after harvest (most do), and
• The farmer can only defer to the year after the damage was incurred

The last item is what blows up any ability to defer Phase 1 payments. These payments are for damage that occurred in 2020 and 2021. 2022 is the latest you could defer 2021 payments and since you collected them this year, you are stuck with reporting these payments in 2022.

More Payment Opportunities

USDA also mentioned the new Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) will be available to help those with ag commodities that saw revenue declines in calendar 2020 compared with 2018 or 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The agency said PARP is aimed at addressing “gaps in previous pandemic assistance which was targeted at price loss or lack of market access, rather than overall revenue.”

Under PARP, USDA says producers will use revenue information available from “most tax records,” and urged producers to have those documents available for the past few years along with supporting materials.

According to USDA, the documentation is similar to what producers had to provide for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2) effort which allowed for 2018 or 2019 to be used as the benchmark year.

More on ag business:

Can You Defer 2022 ERP?
Paul Neiffer: When Can Inflation Help You?

Farm Share of the U.S. Food Dollar Hit a Record Low; What Does this Mean for Producers?

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 14:14:10 GMT

The farm share of the U.S. food dollar has been tracked since 1993. The 2021 data provided by the USDA on Monday shows U.S. farm share hit an all-time low.

(Farm Journal)

USDA found that out of every food dollar spent, the farmer receives 14.5¢. This is down from 2020’s 15.5¢.

Seth Meyer, USDA’s chief economist, says the decrease in return doesn’t necessarily mean a producer is making less in a given year.

“If the farm share’s slice of the product pie is growing, while the pie as a whole is growing, the farm is better off in the long run,” he says.

However, Meyer says there are “bits and pieces” of the piece that eat up both food and farm shares even when overall prices go up. Some of these include:
• How much consumers are eating out
• Commodity prices
• Wholesale trade prices
• Transportation and freight costs

The Year Ahead

According to Meyer, eating out attributed most to the farm share decrease this year, but there may be next year.

Looking to 2022’s farm share predictions, Meyer thinks the trend of food away from home will slow, along with the disruptions from supply chains. However, other political and biological factors such as the war in Ukraine and avian influenza could put the coming year in jeopardy.

Do You Know Your Value-Added Opportunities?

To make the most of the farm share, Meyer suggests producers look at every angle of value-added that’s at their disposal. He offers an example:

“In cattle, you have to consider if there are some value-added aspects beyond simply sending your calf to the feedlot or finished cattle to the slaughter plant,” he says. “Are there some elements that you can try and grab above that from a marketing standpoint? Or do you focus on just being a great cattle producer that makes efficient gains?”

Meyers says many opportunities in both incentives and consumer preferences often go untapped as well. He challenges producers to weigh the options.

“If consumers want that [climate-smart option] and are willing to pay, is USDA’s Climate Smart Commodities program an opportunity to make your operation better off when it comes to the share of the food dollar? You have to ask yourself these questions,” Meyer says.

More from USDA :

How USDA’s $2.8 Billion Climate-Smart Investment Might Impact Your Operation
Know Someone Who Wants to Farm or Ranch, But They’re Not Sure Where to Start? New USDA Funds Could Help
$670 Million Awarded by USDA to Farm, Meatpacking and Grocery Workers for their ‘Essential Role’ in U.S. Food Systems During Pandemic

Thanksgiving Staple Dish Heads for Compost Heap?

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:04:54 GMT

Cranberries might be a staple on Thanksgiving tables, but a glut of U.S. supplies has gotten so large that fruit could be headed to the compost pile.

Just as demand is hitting its seasonal peak, American processors are anxiously awaiting government approval that would allow them to turn excess fruit into fertilizer. The program would be the first of its kind for cranberries.
Supplies have piled up amid bountiful U.S. harvests and a surge in imports. Inventories were large enough to top consumption before farmers even started gathering this year’s crop in September. The overhang prompted growers and processors to vote in favor of the disposal program at a biannual meeting of the Cranberry Marketing Committee in August. The U.S. Department of Agriculture could rubber-stamp the proposal as early as this week.

“The order will allow the industry to get back into supply and demand balance,” said Kellyanne Dignan, the director of global cooperative communications at Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., the largest U.S. producer and processor, and a name that’s become almost synonymous with the fruit.

The humble cranberry is iconic at this time of year as it pops up in everything from traditional relishes to Christmas cookies and cocktails. About 20 percent of annual sales of the fresh and processed fruit occurs during the week of Thanksgiving, celebrated on Nov. 23 this year. But becoming a celebrity of the fruit world hasn’t been enough to reverse the slowing pace of demand growth, leading the industry to take desperate measures to keep prices from collapsing.

Under the proposed initiative, fruit processors and exporters would be responsible for supply disposal. Some can be donated or used for research, but the lion’s share will likely end up as compost. The cranberry committee has also recommended that growers reduce next year’s production, leaving it 25 percent below average sales of the past six years, according to Michelle Hogan, executive director of the Wareham, Massachusetts-based group. The plan for next season is similar to a crop-reduction method last used in 2000 and 2001.

“We are producing a lot more than we are selling” Hogan said.

The cranberry is one of many agricultural products that are plagued by gluts, which has kept global food inflation in check. World grain stockpiles are ballooning and American meat production is at record levels. All the excess supply will help make this year’s U.S. Thanksgiving dinner the cheapest since 2013.

The disposal program would help to reverse the growth of excess supply while the industry works to increase demand in domestic and international markets, said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association . About 5 percent of the crop is sold as fresh fruit, with the rest stored and sold frozen, dried or processed into juices and sauces.

If the USDA approves the program, any handler that uses more than 125,000 barrels would be required to dispose of 15 percent of their supplies gathered from this year’s crop, Hogan of the Cranberry Marketing Committee said. A barrel weighs 100 pounds, or 45 kilograms.

U.S. Crop

A bout of bad weather could also help to ease the fruit glut. American production is projected to fall 6 percent this year to 5.6 million barrels after some adverse growing conditions, the government estimates.

Cranberries are native to North America with about 75 percent of global production grown in the U.S. Wisconsin accounts for more than half the domestic harvest.

Copyright 2017, Bloomberg News

Trade talk with FPAA's Lance Jungmeyer

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 18:48:28 GMT

The Packer’s Tom Karst visited Sept. 11 with Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas .

Jungmeyer talked about developments related to Trump administration’s action setting out possible trade protection measures for domestic producers of seasonal produce commodities.

“We feel the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative decision was politically motivated,” he said. “The actions that are being contemplated by USTR and have been announced are, in my mind, contrary to the spirit of USMCA, and I’ve had many members call us at the association and say they feel that the evidence that was considered doesn’t really match up with the decision they’ve made,” he said.

Jungmeyer talked about the relative level of Mexican farm subsidies compared with the U.S. Since 1995, Mexico has averaged just 2% of permitted agricultural subsidies by the World Trade Organization, compared with 41% for the U.S., he said.

“That amount is nowhere near an infraction and, in fact, it just shows that there was a lot of political pressure that came to bear even to get us to this point because, there was no evidence to get us to a point to take action against Mexican produce.”

Jungmeyer also talked with Karst about wage differences between the U.S. and Mexico and ongoing improvements in the border infrastructure in Nogales, Ariz.

The Packer’s Winter Produce Coverage

The Packer’s Import Coverage

4 policy priorities on produce advocates’ radar right now

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 18:37:54 GMT

Hundreds of International Fresh Produce Association members descended on the nation’s capital for the Washington Conference, an annual fly-in for the produce and floral industry to hear from industry leaders and policy experts and influence policymakers.

Armed and informed with insights, advocates take to Capitol Hill to bring the produce industry needs and firsthand experiences to elected leaders making policy decisions and shaping the way the industry works for years to come.

Related news: Photos: IFPA’s Washington Conference

Top produce priorities in D.C.

At this year’s conference, the key priorities and talking points communicated by fresh produce advocates, according to a news release, included:

Farm bill — Produce should be half the plate, but the farm bill spends less than 8% on programs aimed specifically at specialty crops. Congress must provide a better balance of resources for produce and specialty crops in the upcoming farm bill.
Labor — The fresh produce industry cannot survive in the U.S. unless Congress passes meaningful immigration reform that ensures it access to an affordable, predictable and reliable workforce.
Food safety — FDA must follow through on its cultural transformation to modernize the agency, to be more collaborative, transparent, and effective. Congress must hold FDA accountable.
Nutrition — To expand healthy nutrition and grow produce consumption, the fresh produce supply chain must be used to end hunger and reduce diet related disease.

Related news: Crunch Pak named ‘Advocate of the Year’ at IFPA’s Washington Conference

WIC benefits on the chopping block

Nutrition was an especially hot topic during the Washington Conference with the looming showdown and severe cuts to benefits for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) set to take place at the end of the month. IFPA CEO Cathy Burns shared the importance of this benefit for the nutrition insecure, but also highlighted the potential $1 billion investment in fruit and vegetable sales at retail that is at risk with these proposed cuts, the release said.

The cuts seek to take the benefit, which is designed to provide supplemental nutrition to children up to 5 years old and mothers. It would cut the monthly benefit for women by 70% and for children by 56%. This cut would allocate just $11 per month to purchase fruits and vegetables for children. The cuts are severe, and members traveled to Capitol Hill with almost 200 baskets of $11 worth of produce to show legislators just how little that is, according to the release.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, took the stage with one of the baskets in hand and expressed the power of the visual, the release said.

Related: Learn more about the Washington Conference

30 Minutes With Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins In Her First Week On the Job

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:23:17 GMT

Since Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 , Brooke Rollins has been focused on how to build the teams and the plans that impact the trajectory of agriculture and rural America. On that day, while en route with her husband and four teenagers in their motor home to Auburn, Ala., for the Texas A&M football game, she got a call from now President Donald Trump. The purpose of his call: She was his top choice to fill his final significant cabinet position, Secretary of Agriculture.

Obviously, she had to wait for confirmation, which came last week on Feb.13 when the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed her as the 33^rd Secretary of Agriculture , but since that Saturday before Thanksgiving, she’s been on the go with an accelerated enthusiasm to understand the significant challenges facing rural communities that lost 147,000 family farms between 2017 and 2022 and why the cost of inputs are up 30% as exports are down $37 billion this year and likely to fall further in the months to come.

“This is a crisis, and this is something that I understand inherently,” Rollins said to kick off Top Producer Summit in Kansas City on Tuesday. “My promise to you is this, and my commitment will never waver, that every minute of every day for the next four years I will do everything within my power, with hopefully God’s hand on all of us and our work, to ensure we are not just entering the golden age for America, as my boss, President Trump, likes to say, but we are entering the golden age for agriculture.”

What Has Rollins Been Up to the Past Four Years?
Secretary Rollins and President Trump have worked together for almost eight years. She was in the West Wing with him for years two, three and four of his first term running his domestic policy agenda.

“This real estate guy from New York City brought that vision to life, and then in the last term, was able to really do some remarkable things,” Rollins said in regard to President Trump returning power to the people who just want a chance at the American dream. “I call it the great pause, the four years in between term one and term two. But I think the great pause allowed very intentional planning. It allowed a courageous and bold leader in President Trump to become a fearless leader and to do everything he can to bring America back to greatness.”

In the “dark days of January 2021,” as she described, Secretary Rollins helped launch the America First Policy Institute, a think tank established by former Trump officials to promote conservative policies. The idea was that those policies that made America great in Trump’s first term would continue indefinitely, not just for a second term, but for four years, eight years or 36 years, Rollins described.

First Week On the Job
Since being confirmed last week, Secretary Rollins has been in the Washington, D.C., USDA office for a few hours, but most of her time has been spent in Kentucky at National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville and Gallrein Farms and in Kansas visiting Finney’s County Feeder, High Plains Ponderosa Dairy and the National Beef Packing Plant .

Describing herself as “a reader and a studier,” Rollins seems adamant to hear firsthand from farmers and ranchers. She referenced her visits to the dairy farm and National Beef facility as inspiring, in a good way but also in a way that helps her understand the real challenges at hand.

Speaking to the crowd at Top Producer Summit, she shared her appreciation for the “entrepreneurial American game changers” who are doing their part to feed the world.

“It is so inspiring and a reminder of the very beginning of our country.” Rollins said. “Our revolution was fought by farmers, our Founding Fathers, like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The backbone of the great American experiment is this community.”

Thank you @topproducermag for hosting @RogerMarshallMD and me in Kansas City, Missouri, with 1,000 of the Top Producers from across the US to talk about issues like expanding trade access and cutting regulatory red tape for farmers.

Biden’s ZERO trade deals and inflationary… pic.twitter.com/ejMxKxkRMG
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) February 19, 2025

Farmer Q&A
Watch and listen to what Secretary Rollins, as well as Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, had to say on stage at Top Producer Summit about these 7 topics:

Trade and tariffs — “ Let’s go barnstorm the world , and let’s go find some more trade partners and access [to market opportunities],” Rollins said.
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts and modernizing USDA — “DOGE is a very valid and important effort across all government. The stories of waste and abuse were really just, not USDA specific but across government, beginning,” Rollins said.
Federal programs, such as CSP and EQIP — “Our commitment is that if there have been commitments made, those will be honored. Getting our arms around all of that right now is really, really, important. Again, going back to the President’s heart and commitment to our farmers, I feel confident we will be able to solve any issues that are in front of our ag community, that are potentially being compromised by the DOGE effort, while at the same time recognizing how very, very important it is,” Rollins said.
Future of USDA — “There’s no question USDA needs some modernization. I’m just beginning to lean into that as well,” Rollins said. USDA has 106,000 employees and 29 departments. “The Secretary is taking over a department where only 6% of the [D.C.] people work in the office,” Marshall added.
Renewable fuels — Prior to President Trump’s first term, he was “the first major candidate to support biofuels, and I think that carried him through Iowa in many ways. … We’ve got E15 year-round. I think that gives us some certainty as well. … The President is supporting that. I think we’re trying to figure out how to save 45Z, but we can’t let China benefit from it. Right now, China is benefiting more from [45Z] than my farmers and ranchers are, so we’ve got to fix that,” Marshall says.
Immigration policies and availability of long-term labor — “I have a full-bodied understanding of the challenges within the labor market, and I believe the President does too. … I believe that we will very soon be talking about it again. Clearly, the H-2A program needs significant reform, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, she’s going through the [confirmation] process right now. … Hopefully she’ll get her vote very soon. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Rollins said.
Trump’s cabinet members — “Our cabinet is comprised of people that have been working together and have been friends and colleagues for years, with a few exceptions. Bobby Kennedy is a new friend, but Lee Zeldin and I worked together in America First Works and America First Policy Institute for the last almost four years, Linda McMahon in education and John Brooks — these are our people,” Rollins said.