Bridge Payments and a Leaner USDA Workforce
- Dave Price
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
As farmers wait to find out how much a new federal bridge payment could replace some of the income that they have lost from higher costs, lower market prices, and international trade complexities, they are assessing their finances for 2026.
Jerry Gulke is president of the Gulke Group, an Illinois-based research and information analysis firm that provides marketing strategies for agribusinesses. Gulke has also farmed corn and soybeans for the past 40 years, but he isn’t sure that a bridge payment will be enough – in light of current market conditions – for him to prioritize his corn crop in 2026.
Gulke said that an estimated $46-per-acre payment on corn will not be sufficient. “This is like a bridge to nowhere,” he told AgWeb.
Gulke said that the Trump administration continued the politically popular federal policy to try to get food prices more affordable for consumers, while keeping farmers in business. But he said that a $46 payment would barely cover the costs for his nitrogen fertilizer.
Other farmers like Cordt Holub, who grows corn and beans in Iowa, expressed more optimism about bridge payments and changing trade policies and what they will mean for the coming year.
“It’s Christmas early for farmers,” Holub said of the bridge payment.
“…With this bridge payment, we’ll be able to farm another year,” he added.
USDA Loses Nearly 20% of Workforce in 2025
Nearly one in five people who began the year working for the USDA will not start 2026 as an employee of the department, according to an Office of Inspector General report.
The staffing change in the department was a priority for the Trump administration as it shrinks federal workforce across the government and installs loyalists in key positions.
“The Peoples Department,” as President Abraham Lincoln once described the USDA in his final message to Congress while in office, is undergoing a massive transformation for the entity that has existed since 1862.
About one in every two Americans lived on a farm during the days of Lincoln. But these days only about one in 50 Americans lives on a farm.
Policies and focus of the federal government are changing.
The Office of Inspector General report broke down the numbers of the USDA staffing reductions:
January 11, 2025: 110,384 USDA employees
June 14, 2025: 90,078 USDA employees
The transformational change took place in about five months with more changes planned. Farm Journal laid out the percentage of staff reductions among the divisions of the USDA:
Rural Development at 36%
National Institute of Food and Agriculture at 35%
Office of Civil Rights at 35%
National Agricultural Statistics Service at 34%
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at 25%
Farm Service Agency at 24%
Agricultural Research Service at 23%
National Resources Conservation Service at 22%
Risk Management Agency at 17%
U.S. Forest Service at 16%
USDA Changes in 2025
The administration’s push to shrink the USDA has brought myriad stressors on the department.
Legal challenges about whether the administration could fire thousands of workers on its own
Questions about how Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative should be allowed to make changes
What the workforce would look like after the administration’s deferred resignation program
Scramble to shift existing and rehire former employees after the administration acknowledged noticeable gaps following the scores of departures
The agricultural sector will find out in 2026 whether the changes at USDA will mean better services for farmers and ranchers, while saving taxpayers millions of dollars, or if the departure of so many employees will weaken services and support.
