Chicago | Reuters — The chair of the U.S. Senate’s agriculture committee warned on Tuesday that farmers were suffering heavy losses, while more than two dozen former industry leaders sounded the alarm about the risk of a “widespread collapse of American agriculture” ahead of a $12 billion government bailout expected to reach growers this month.
For three years, the costs of seed, fertilizer and other farm inputs rose, while plentiful grain supplies limited profits for farmers, economists said. Then, President Donald Trump returned to office last year, sparking trade disputes that disrupted U.S. crop exports and immigration crackdowns that increased labor costs and left some farms with crops rotting in fields.
Read Also
Bunge forecasts 2026 profit below estimates on macroeconomic uncertainty
Bunge Global on Wednesday reported a 2026 profit outlook below analysts’ expectations.
Many farmers are now bracing to potentially lose money for a fourth consecutive year. Tough credit conditions are forcing those with limited cash flows to make decisions about what acres to plant and how much fertilizer to buy, economists said.
By the numbers
Former USDA and industry officials said in a letter to U.S. lawmakers that Trump administration policies harmed farmers.
The Trump administration announced the $12 billion aid program last year, but it will only cover a fraction of farmers’ losses, agricultural economists and bankers said.
The USDA said in a statement to Reuters that Trump was using every tool available to support farmers and ensure they have what they need to continue farming operations.
U.S. Senator John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a webcast of a conference of state agriculture officials in Washington on Tuesday that farmers growing crops are “losing money, lots of money.”
Jump in operating loans
Bankers reported a nearly 40 per cent jump in new farm operating loans in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to a year earlier, according to a Federal Reserve survey.
The average size of such operating notes was 30 per cent bigger during 2025 than a year earlier, according to an analysis of the data by Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City staff.
The percentage of farmers expecting bad financial times in the next year jumped to 59 per cent in January from 47 per cent in December, according to a survey released Tuesday by Purdue University and CME Group.
The percentage of producers who thought U.S. agriculture would have widespread bad times during the next five years climbed to 46 per cent from 24 per cent a month earlier, the survey found.
