The 2018 farm bill expired on September 30, 2024, and wheat growers say farmers — not USDA administrators or commodity traders — are carrying the cost of the legislative void as safety-net programs, conservation contracts and trade-promotion funding sit in limbo, according to Capital Press.

The headline from the Pacific Northwest agricultural newspaper frames the lapse as a margin problem for growers rather than an administrative inconvenience. With the statute's authority ended and only a stopgap funding measure in place, growers argue that frozen reference prices, paused conservation enrollments and uncertain export-promotion budgets translate directly into narrower returns at the elevator.

What the farm bill covers

The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 reauthorized the Federal Crop Insurance Program, set Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage reference prices, funded the Conservation Reserve Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and authorized the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program that U.S. Wheat Associates relies on to maintain overseas customers.

The September 30, 2024 expiration ended the statutory authority for several of those titles. Congress responded with a stopgap continuing resolution that extended funding for many USDA programs through September 30, 2025, but the patch did not update commodity-program parameters or address grower calls for higher reference prices.

Why the reference price matters

PLC payments trigger when the national marketing-year average price for a covered commodity falls below a statutory reference price. Wheat's current reference price sits at $5.50 per bushel — a level set under the 2014 farm bill and carried forward into the 2018 reauthorization. The National Association of Wheat Growers has publicly asked Congress to raise the trigger, arguing that the figure no longer reflects the cost of producing a bushel under current fertilizer, fuel, seed and cash-rent expenses.

Capital Press reported that growers view the existing parameters as the central pain point: the gap between the PLC trigger and the actual cost of production leaves farmers exposed to margin compression when cash prices dip below break-even.

What's at stake beyond PLC

The farm bill lapse reaches beyond the commodity title. Key wheat-relevant programs caught in the gap include:

• Federal crop insurance reauthorization and premium subsidy authority
• Conservation Reserve Program general sign-up authority
• Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding levels
• Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development appropriations, which underwrite U.S. Wheat Associates' overseas promotion work in Asia, Latin America and Africa

A short-term continuing resolution can keep some of those programs running on existing contracts, but new sign-ups and program expansions typically require a current farm bill.

How growers are responding

State wheat commissions in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas have passed resolutions calling for a clean five-year reauthorization. Capital Press reported grower testimony arguing that another stopgap patch would leave the cost-of-production gap unaddressed and force another round of lobbying in 2026.

Wheat growers are among the most vocal commodity groups pressing both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees for a markup. Whether committee leaders schedule a bill before the September 30, 2025 expiration of the current funding extension is the open question.

What comes next

The next deadline arrives September 30, 2025, when the current stopgap expires. If Congress has not enacted a new five-year farm bill or a further extension by that date, a wider set of programs — including crop-insurance authorities and conservation contracts — would lapse at the same moment fall wheat planting begins in the Pacific Northwest and winter wheat decisions lock in across the Great Plains.

Capital Press reported wheat growers expect to return to Washington in early 2025 to press the case for a clean bill rather than another short-term patch, with margins rather than payments at the heart of their argument.