BRIDGE PAYMENTS ARE FLYING OUT

(SPRINGFIELD) On February 23rd, two months ago today, the USDA opened enrollment for farmers who planted program crops during the 2025 crop year. The deadline to submit a completed FBA payment application to USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) was last Friday, April 17th. As of earlier this week, nearly $9.6 billion in FBA payments have been disbursed, with nearly 500,000 applications approved by the FSA. It was last December, USDA announced $12 billion in one time bridge payments, with $11 billion set aside for row crop producers and the remaining $1 billion reserved for specialty crop and sugar growers.