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USDA Expands Payment Limitation and Payment Eligibility Provisions for Farmers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is expanding payment limitation and payment eligibility provisions that affect program payments including allowing for the equitable treatment of business entities. Additionally, producers will benefit from an increased payment limitation for certain programs, and a broader definition of farming income that will result in more exceptions to income limitations.   

“The 2026 program year will be a monumental change for farmers and ranchers who can now structure their farm entities to benefit from the legal protections of certain business structures without limiting their access to the farm safety net,” said Bill Beam, FSA Administrator. “Producers have had to make difficult decisions for far too long when it comes to structuring their operations. The administration is proud to give farmers and ranchers more options to build and protect their legacy for generations to come while receiving full support from USDA.”  

These changes were outlined in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act which provides a large investment in American agriculture by improving eligibility provisions, the farm safety net, disaster assistance, and price support programs. USDA previously announced that this fall, producers will benefit from increased reference prices for major commodities. Today’s announcement gives producers more flexibility in structuring their operations and provides a stronger safety net.

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Selling Hay for 40 Years: Fritz Trauttmansdorff, Dunlea Farms

Video: Selling Hay for 40 Years: Fritz Trauttmansdorff, Dunlea Farms



Fritz Trauttmansdorff came to Canada from Austria in 1980, bought a 45-cow dairy farm at Jerseyville, and within two years had more hay than he knew what to do with. He sold the quota in 1986, went debt-free, and built a hay business that has kept some of the same customers for forty years. Today Dunlea Farms runs about 2,500 acres — roughly 600 of it hay, the rest IP soybeans and grain corn — and Fritz makes the case that hay isn't the crop you grow when grain doesn't work. It's the crop that makes the grain work.

"If you grow corn, soybeans and wheat, you're on a three-wheeler. If you put hay in the rotation, you're on a four-wheeler."

WHAT WE COVER • Why the hay market moves independently of the Chicago Board — and what that does for farm-level risk
• The real cost of a mistake: five bushels in grain, versus the whole crop in hay
• Getting a second job out of the same iron — planting tractors that mow all summer, tillage tractors that bale
• How a grain farmer can get hay into the rotation without buying a single piece of hay equipment
• Drilling Timothy in the fall and double-cropping soybeans into it the next June
• What it actually takes to go all-in: roughly 500 acres, good sheds, and a baler you didn't buy used
• Local, regional and international hay markets — and choosing which one you're building for
• Why 40-year customer relationships are the asset, not the equipment