in July 2025 after massive DOGE layoffs of the USDA they did the annual farm crop yield estimates. Corn was underestimated by 4.5 million acres, the largest mistake in an estimate in FDA history. The primary reason was the combination of not enough USDA people to do surveys, and farmers distrust of the Trump admin led to a historic low of 36% participation rate in the survey.
When they revised the numbers in Jan of 2026 the shock to the system caused futures prices to fall 5%, which crushed the farmers who are already being destroyed by tariffs
So the Trump admin proposal to fix the problem is... wait for it... more bailouts to farmers. So to "save" money they're going to end up doing another massive bailout to farmers.