Speaking of farm welfare, the Farm Service Agency has already handed out over 80% of the tariff reparations Trump promised the commodity crop farmers he beat up with his illegal and fruitless trade war. According to the USDA’s Farmer Bridge Assistance dashboard, Uncle Sam has disbursed $8.849 billion of the $11 billion allocated on over 415,000 approved applications. That’s $21,300 per application.
South Dakota farmers have received $474.64 million, the eighth-highest state take in the nation. That’s more than twice the amount that the federal government sent South Dakota in 2024 to cover Medicaid expansion.
The FSA has approved and paid out on 16,571 South Dakota FBA applications, meaning South Dakota recipients are averaging $28,644 per app, 34% more than the national average. Twelve states have higher average payments per farm; FBA payments have topped $40K in Montana, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Dakota and $50K in Arizona. Four states—West Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, have average payouts of less than $10K.
According to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, South Dakota had 28,200 farm operations in 2025. The approved applications for Farm Bridge Assistance from South Dakota equal 58.8% of South Dakota farms. The only states with higher percentages of farms taking Trump’s latest handouts are North Dakota (59.0%), Kansas (71.1%), and Illinois (71.7%). Nebraska and Iowa are the only other two states where a majority of farm operations have taken FBA handouts.
Nationwide, 22.3% of America’s 1.865 million farm operations have received these bridge payments. Bridge payments have gone to fewer than 1% of farms in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. So far, Hawaii’s 6,500 farms have received zero FBA payments.
Here’s the full spreadsheet showing each state’s bridge payment disbursements as of now, number of approved and paid applications, average payment per application, number of farms in 2025, and approved applications as a percentage of farms:
| State | FBA disbursed (millions) | applications approved and paid | payment/application | farms in 2025 | apps/farms |
| Alabama | 68.08 | 2,240 | 30,392.86 | 37,000 | 6.1% |
| Alaska | 0.23 | 14 | 16,428.57 | 1,200 | 1.2% |
| Arizona | 12.52 | 234 | 53,504.27 | 15,100 | 1.5% |
| Arkansas | 309.94 | 8,903 | 34,812.98 | 37,000 | 24.1% |
| California | 21.01 | 693 | 30,317.46 | 62,100 | 1.1% |
| Colorado | 122.93 | 4,405 | 27,906.92 | 34,900 | 12.6% |
| Connecticut | 0.72 | 69 | 10,434.78 | 4,900 | 1.4% |
| Delaware | 10.83 | 521 | 20,786.95 | 2,150 | 24.2% |
| Florida | 13.44 | 442 | 30,407.24 | 44,000 | 1.0% |
| Georgia | 168.18 | 3,875 | 43,401.29 | 38,000 | 10.2% |
| Idaho | 58.01 | 2,700 | 21,485.19 | 22,400 | 12.1% |
| Illinois | 720.41 | 49,912 | 14,433.60 | 69,600 | 71.7% |
| Indiana | 367.39 | 20,703 | 17,745.74 | 51,500 | 40.2% |
| Iowa | 802.42 | 46,544 | 17,240.03 | 86,200 | 54.0% |
| Kansas | 719.26 | 38,959 | 18,461.97 | 54,800 | 71.1% |
| Kentucky | 123.93 | 8,450 | 14,666.27 | 67,700 | 12.5% |
| Louisiana | 116.61 | 4,397 | 26,520.35 | 24,300 | 18.1% |
| Maine | 2.2 | 130 | 16,923.08 | 6,900 | 1.9% |
| Maryland | 32.82 | 1,737 | 18,894.65 | 12,600 | 13.8% |
| Massachusetts | 0.14 | 43 | 3,255.81 | 6,900 | 0.6% |
| Michigan | 155.99 | 9,337 | 16,706.65 | 43,800 | 21.3% |
| Minnesota | 602.58 | 27,848 | 21,638.18 | 64,000 | 43.5% |
| Mississippi | 140.32 | 3,161 | 44,391.02 | 30,500 | 10.4% |
| Missouri | 363.79 | 21,395 | 17,003.51 | 85,500 | 25.0% |
| Montana | 219.66 | 5,393 | 40,730.58 | 23,300 | 23.1% |
| Nebraska | 549.04 | 25,484 | 21,544.50 | 44,100 | 57.8% |
| Nevada | 0.56 | 34 | 16,470.59 | 3,000 | 1.1% |
| New Hampshire | 0.27 | 45 | 6,000.00 | 3,850 | 1.2% |
| New Jersey | 6.06 | 447 | 13,557.05 | 9,900 | 4.5% |
| New Mexico | 14.1 | 429 | 32,867.13 | 20,600 | 2.1% |
| New York | 40.98 | 2,484 | 16,497.58 | 30,000 | 8.3% |
| North Carolina | 129.56 | 5,365 | 24,149.11 | 41,300 | 13.0% |
| North Dakota | 670.74 | 14,461 | 46,382.68 | 24,500 | 59.0% |
| Ohio | 282.38 | 21,281 | 13,269.11 | 73,600 | 28.9% |
| Oklahoma | 194.1 | 8,440 | 22,997.63 | 69,700 | 12.1% |
| Oregon | 23.51 | 1,237 | 19,005.66 | 35,400 | 3.5% |
| Pennsylvania | 52.44 | 4,330 | 12,110.85 | 48,400 | 8.9% |
| Rhode Island | 0.02 | 9 | 2,222.22 | 1,000 | 0.9% |
| South Carolina | 51.55 | 1,665 | 30,960.96 | 22,500 | 7.4% |
| South Dakota | 474.67 | 16,571 | 28,644.62 | 28,200 | 58.8% |
| Tennessee | 111.01 | 7,706 | 14,405.66 | 62,500 | 12.3% |
| Texas | 741.99 | 20,429 | 36,320.43 | 229,000 | 8.9% |
| Utah | 5.25 | 432 | 12,152.78 | 17,200 | 2.5% |
| Vermont | 1.97 | 140 | 14,071.43 | 6,300 | 2.2% |
| Virginia | 44.8 | 2,320 | 19,310.34 | 38,600 | 6.0% |
| Washington | 71.07 | 3,339 | 21,284.82 | 31,500 | 10.6% |
| West Virginia | 1.5 | 218 | 6,880.73 | 22,500 | 1.0% |
| Wisconsin | 220.01 | 15,856 | 13,875.50 | 58,000 | 27.3% |
| Wyoming | 8.19 | 600 | 13,650.00 | 10,500 | 5.7% |
| USA | 8,849.18 | 415,427 | 21,301.41 | 1,865,000 | 22.3% |
This first $11 billion is available to farmers who grow barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, and sunflower. The USDA is still working out rates for another $1 billion in disbursements to specialty crop farmers raising apples, beets, celery, garlic, grapes, horseradish, potatoes, rutabagas, Swiss chard, tomatoes, walnuts, watermelon, and other fruits, veggies, legumes, and spices.
The $12 billion total in Farm Bridge Assistance payments is roughly a third of the $34.6 billion that the Farm Bureau says America’s farmers lost due to tariffs in 2025.