Some South Dakota agriculture producers aren’t expecting much from federal relief dollars recently announced by the federal government.
On. Dec. 8, President Donald Trump announced $12 billion in one-time bridge payments to assist farmers with recent market disruptions. The United States Department of Agriculture press release announcing the funds placed blame on Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
The funds are coming through the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, a program that provides relief to U.S. row crop farmers who produce barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower.
The funds come at a time when producers have been hit hard by tariffs and retaliatory tariffs from foreign nations. Soybean producers have seen uncertainty in the past year, amid a U.S.-Chinese trade war in which China hasn’t bought many beans. The country has traditionally made up over half of the U.S. soybean export market.
Wayne Soren, a producer who farms corn and soybeans and runs a cow calf operation south of Lake Preston, said while farmers welcome the payments, it’s not the way farmers want to do business. They want their money coming from the markets, not the government.
“But when Washington D.C. goes out there, and they put tariffs on and have tariff wars, and stuff like that, I don’t think you’ll find a farmer that doesn’t understand when somebody puts a tariff on, the first thing they go after is food,” Soren said. “I mean, that’s what all the countries do. And who does that impact but farmers and ranchers? And so we take the blunt of it every time.”
Soren added that he doesn’t expect much from the funds.
“I have not heard what the actual formula’s going to be, but as much as our expenses are, it probably is not going to impact us a lot,” Soren said. “I think the bankers are going to like it because it’ll be another payment we can make to the bank, keep our operations afloat.”
Another producer, Jeff Kippley, agreed.
“A lot of them are banking on this for their bankers to get that next year’s operating loan to help pay back this year’s operating loan,” Kippley said.
Kippley is the Vice President of both the South Dakota Farmer’s Union and the National Farmer’s Union. He also runs a cow calf operation and grows corn and soybeans. He said the assistance is needed right now in the Northeastern part of the state because 100% of their beans go to the Pacific Northwest and then into China and Asia.
“The beans didn’t leave. We didn’t see a single bushel get on a train this year, which then resulted in all the under-roof storage being soybeans,” Kippley said. “We have piles of corn all over on the ground and uncovered, so we’re just seeing a lot of crop at risk of going to spoilage here within our elevator system up there.”
He said there’s some excitement that China is set to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans, which made the price tick up to above $10/bushel in many areas. However, since China is purchasing slower than farmers would like, the deal has been extended until February rather than the end of the calendar year.
“ We’ve seen that price drop all the way back down. We’re back under $10 [per bushel] at our local price again. The rally was there, and now it’s gone. We’re back to a lot of very low prices and a lot of wait-and-see,” Kippley said. “Let’s see if China actually comes through. If you look back 4 years ago, they were going to buy a lot of beans from us, that was the agreement, and they probably only bought 60% of those beans.”
Kippley said that’s fueled skepticism from farmers both locally and around the country. He said none of his beans have left yet.
Wayne Soren is also skeptical of the U.S.-China agreement.
“The thing with China is they may be a communist country, but they know how to work capitalism. They will not buy it at the high price,” Soren said. “When something happens and the market goes down, that’s when they’re going to jump in. They’re going to buy it at the very lowest price they can.”
Soren said while that’s not something farmers and ranchers want to hear, it does sell some soybeans which should help the markets go back up eventually.
However, not all farmers are at a loss right now, including Soren. That’s because many sold ahead, anticipating negative impacts from tariffs and other factors.
“This year I forward contracted some, and I thought, ‘Well, if this is the bottom, this isn’t going to be too bad. I’m going to break barely even, but I’ll do that,’” Soren said. “And as it turned out, what I forwarded contracted is the best price you could’ve gotten this year.”
That’s a big reason farmers have advocated for the bridge payments: many are at risk of big losses this past year despite some record crop outputs.
Kippley said with that, it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions—while producers are excited to get the funds, there’s anxiety over who will receive them.
“As we wait for rules, everybody’s kind of concerned to find out how the money’ll be distributed. We hope that it’s distributed equitably and that it’s going to family farmers,” Kippley said. “We’d hate to see it go to the corporate monopolies like what we’ve seen in the past in these programs. The proof is in the pudding, so until we see the details I think there’s just a lot of concern out there. It’s very well needed. It’s kind of desperate times for a lot of farmers.”
Kippley added the bridge payments should bring some positives to farmers, but maybe not as much as they’d like.
“Realistically, I’m afraid it’s not going to get a lot of guys to breakeven. Hopefully it gets them to a point where they can do it again next year. And that’s a concern, mental health is really popping its head here,” Kippley said. “Hopefully this will at least be that hope to keep people going and to be able to do it again next year.”
Prior to his remarks at the South Dakota Farmers Union Convention in Huron earlier this week, Gov. Larry Rhoden praised the Trump Administration for the funding in an interview with SDPB.
“So, I think this aid will be a tremendous help getting the farmers past some of this short-term, until hopefully the trade deals the president’s been working on come to fruition and we get back on track,” Rhoden said. “I think the key element to that is I’m still optimistic that we’ll come out of this on the other end better off than we were when we started with the Biden-flation. That was really the component that’s put us in the condition we’re in right now.”
Rhoden said he doesn’t see a large fiscal impact on the current FY26, which has seen lagging revenues.
“So, as a rancher and understanding the farm economy, I don’t look that that’s going to be some windfall for farmers spending more money that they don’t have. It’ll come at a time when they’re planting their crops and have a lot of input costs, and it will be a tremendous help for the farmers,” Rhoden said. “But, what I think it’ll represent is less money that they’re borrowing for their operation during an expensive time of year during the planting season.”
Qualifying farmers can expect payments to be released by the end of February. The USDA said eligible farmers “should ensure their 2025 acreage reporting is factual and accurate by 5pm ET on December 19, 2025. Commodity-specific payment rates will be released by the end of the month. Crop insurance linkage will not be required for the FBA Program; however, USDA strongly urges producers to take advantage of the new OBBBA risk management tools to best protect against price risk and volatility in the future.”
All of the funds will be administered by the Farm Service Agency. Questions on the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program can be directed to [email protected].
