Secretary Rollins Signs Disaster Declaration for Pennsylvania Counties

May 28, 2026

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, along with U.S. Representative Rob Bresnahan, met with agricultural leaders today in Pennsylvania to announce U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assistance to help producers recover from recent freeze events. Secretary Rollins signed a disaster designation for 17 counties in Pennsylvania due to damage and losses caused by below-freezing temperatures that occurred April 19 through April 21, 2026.

“Fighting for our farmers means being there for them when Mother Nature hits, today we are showing that USDA stands with Pennsylvania agriculture — and we will continue working to ensure producers have the support they need to recover and move forward,” said Secretary Rollins. “This designation is a first step forward to help agricultural producers access emergency loans and programs in the aftermath of freezing temperatures. Under President Trump, USDA will continue to put farmers first and make sure they have the resources they need.”

“Our farmers cannot control the weather, but Washington can make sure they are not left to shoulder these losses alone,” said Rep. Bresnahan. “The April freeze devastated orchards and specialty crop producers across Pennsylvania, and this declaration will help get critical relief to the growers who keep our communities fed and our agricultural economy strong. I’m grateful to Secretary Rollins for working with us to deliver support for Pennsylvania farmers.”

This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans.

Source : usda.gov

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators