Headline Stack
💰 FSA bridge payment deadline is tomorrow — apply by April 17
🌱 Farm Bureau survey: 70% of farmers can't afford sufficient fertilizer for 2026
📊 April WASDE holds corn at 2.1B bushels, raises wheat stocks, adjusts soybeans
🔍 USDA opens farmer input process in DOJ fertilizer price collusion probe
⛽ Ethanol exports reach 1 billion gallons for 2025/26 marketing year, up 13%
Top Story
💰 The FSA bridge payment window closes tomorrow. — LINK
Most commodity producers have until April 17 to submit FSA bridge payment applications through their county FSA office; specialty crop producers have a separate April 24 cutoff. Producers who miss their deadline forfeit the payment — there is no extension. "So we're at $696, almost $697 million have been paid out, and we have right around 1,100 contracts that we still need to get done this week where producers have not walked through our doors," said Brandi LaFromboise, North Dakota FSA State Executive Director. FSA offices are making a final push to reach those remaining applicants.
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🌱 Farm Bureau: 7 in 10 farmers can't afford enough fertilizer — LINK
A Farm Bureau survey of more than 5,700 farmers found 70% say fertilizer prices are too high to afford adequate supplies for the 2026 season, with nitrogen prices up more than 30% since Middle East tensions escalated.
"Without the necessary fertilizers, we'll face lower yields, and some farmers will reduce acres altogether," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall.
94% of farmers report their financial situation has worsened or stayed the same compared to last year; many respondents said they may skip fertilizer applications this spring in hopes prices ease before key growth stages.
📊 April WASDE: corn steady, wheat up, soybeans mixed — LINK
The April WASDE pegged corn ending stocks at 2.1 billion bushels for 2025/26, with supply and use figures largely unchanged — Allendale strategist Rich Nelson characterized the report as "a mostly quiet WASDE."
Wheat ending stocks were raised to 938 million bushels; soybean crush was revised upward while export estimates were trimmed.
U.S. soybean export shipments have missed the USDA's prior weekly goals in 9 of the past 11 weeks, according to Nelson.
🔍 USDA seeking farmer testimony in fertilizer price probe — LINK
The DOJ is investigating whether fertilizer producers colluded to raise prices; USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said he has met with officials at the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to discuss lines of inquiry.
"We need farmers to help provide us with that information on a confidential basis, so that that can help inform the investigations that are ongoing," Vaden said at the North American Agricultural Journalists' conference in Washington Monday.
A handful of companies account for most of the U.S. supply of crop nutrients; fertilizer prices never fully recovered from Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the war on Iran has sent prices higher still.
⛽ Ethanol exports already at 1 billion gallons for the marketing year — LINK
USDA data show ethanol exports have reached 1 billion gallons for the 2025/26 marketing year to date, up 13% from the same point last year.
The current pace puts the industry on track to exceed 2.1 billion gallons for the full year, which would represent a new annual record for US ethanol exports.
Canada leads all destinations at 432 million gallons, up nearly 17% year over year; the European Union has nearly doubled its imports to 252 million gallons.
70% of farmers surveyed by the Farm Bureau say they cannot afford sufficient fertilizer for the 2026 growing season, with nitrogen prices up more than 30% since Middle East conflict escalated.