USDA expects to set crop payment rates for $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief program within a week

By Julian Westerly

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department expects to finalize payment rates for major row crops under its $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief program within about a week, a senior official said Monday, as the Trump administration moves to offset the diesel costs farmers have faced during this fall’s harvest.

Richard Fordyce, USDA’s under secretary for farm production and conservation, told Brownfield Ag News that rates for Title I commodities, which include corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice, should be set in the next week. “Fuel is captured in cost of production data, the Economic Research Service has probably the richest data related to that,” he said.

President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the program Oct. 19, saying the one-time payments would “provide relief during temporary market disruptions and increased input costs,” according to the USDA announcement. “This $8 billion dollar investment will help bring certainty to our farmers during this harvest so they can continue to feed our nation,” Rollins said.

The White House has described the payments as part of a broader effort to bring down fuel costs. A White House release on Sunday said that “gas and diesel prices will soon drop rapidly thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s bold actions,” citing an executive order on diesel costs for truckers and farmers, the use of the Defense Production Act to expand refining and deals with other countries to release more than 130 million barrels of diesel from their stockpiles.

How the payments will work

The payments are authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency, USDA said. Like the earlier Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which paid $12 billion to more than 560,000 farmers this year, the new program will use a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled 2026 losses based on planted acres reported to FSA, Economic Research Service cost-of-production estimates, and USDA yield and price projections, according to the department.

Producers will not have to carry crop insurance to qualify. Pre-filled applications will be available online to producers who link a Login.gov account to USDA, the department said. Payment methods for crops outside Title I, including specialty crops and fisheries, will be announced later, and USDA has asked those producers to send fuel-cost data to HarvestFuel@usda.gov. Alfalfa, hay, sugar, dairy and livestock are not Title I commodities, Brownfield noted. Fordyce said those decisions would come “not a great long time” from now but gave no timeline.

Fuel prices

The national average price of diesel was $6.32 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA figures reported by CBS News, up 74% from a year earlier. Gasoline averaged $4.29. Diesel peaked at just over $6.50 in mid-September as harvest began, Farm and Dairy reported, as the conflict with Iran and Russia’s war in Ukraine disrupted global supplies.

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order that temporarily allows untaxed off-road diesel to be used on highways and defers the 24.4-cent federal excise tax on diesel, according to Farm and Dairy. On Thursday, he said the administration would use the Defense Production Act to spend $150 million to boost gasoline and diesel production, CBS News reported. Some energy analysts told CBS that move was unlikely to lower prices quickly.

Reaction

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who chairs the Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittee, said that between the new program and changes to commodity programs that took effect this month, “producers are receiving meaningful assistance to help them cover their increased input costs during harvest,” The Fence Post reported.

Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, called the program “another band-aid on a gaping wound” and said “the fastest way for the president to provide farmers with meaningful and durable relief is to end his war with Iran and stop picking fights with our closest trading partners,” in a statement. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said USDA assistance “is always welcome” but that the president should end the war.

National Farmers Union President Rob Larew said the aid “will be helpful for some farmers” but that “one-time payments can’t provide the stability they need to plan for the future,” and raised questions about specialty crops, in a statement. National Association of Wheat Growers CEO Sam Kieffer said the relief “is welcome” but that high input costs “continue to squeeze farm margins,” Farm and Dairy reported.

The Washington Inquisitor is seeking comment from the White House and USDA; this story will be updated with any response.