Washington Has 5 Weeks and No Deal: Why the Farm Bill Stall Means Your Farm Needs Income Congress Can't Touch
Last updated: November 11, 2026. Based on Congress's schedule and reporting through November 8.
Rex Larsen's family has farmed in Utah County since 1869. Around 2017, drought, new houses creeping toward his fields, an aging workforce and jumpy markets were squeezing the farm. He asked his family for ideas, and his daughter said: build a corn maze.
Today that maze, plus a pumpkin patch, tours and a spring tulip festival, brings in about 10% of the farm's income. Larsen says it pays for itself, and he "wouldn't keep doing it" if it didn't help the family pay the bills.
Notice what is missing from that story: no vote, no committee, no deadline in Washington. He set the prices, picked the dates and opened the gate.
Short answer: Congress is back for about five weeks, and the farm bill is stuck on a fight over SNAP. If no deal comes, parts of your farm's rulebook stay uncertain into 2027. Visitor income (tours, farm stays, on-farm events) runs on prices and dates you set yourself, so it is the one income line a stalled bill cannot touch. |
What Congress Is Really Fighting About
Congress returned on Monday, November 9, for a lame-duck session of about five weeks. The farm bill is one item on a crowded list that also includes a funding deal to avoid a shutdown, the annual defense bill and the election of leaders for the next Congress.
The farm bill itself is stuck on one issue: how long states with high SNAP payment error rates can delay paying part of the benefit costs.
Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas, says a one-year delay is his final offer. Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the committee, says at least two years is needed.
As of the latest reporting, those two positions have not met, and the calendar is shrinking.
Here is the clock, from the day Congress returned to the day the new one is sworn in:
What Stops If There Is No Deal (And What Does Not)
Here is where most headlines get it wrong, so let me be careful. A stalled farm bill does not mean every farm program shuts off tomorrow.
The 2018 farm bill's latest extension expired on September 30, 2026. Crop insurance and SNAP keep running. Congress also put big money into the farm safety net and crop insurance in a law signed in July 2025, so a lot of the core support is not riding on this fight.
What is riding on it is the long list of everything else.
What | Where it stands |
|---|---|
Crop insurance and SNAP benefits | Still running |
Commodity and dairy support measures | Expire December 31 if Congress does nothing; USDA would revert to permanent law built on 1930s and 1940s price formulas |
Conservation, research, rural development, trade and energy programs | Funding uncertain without congressional action |
Three programs (biobased markets, biorefinery assistance, rural economic development) | Got no new funding in the 2025 law |
E15 ethanol expansion | A top farm bill priority, in doubt without a bill |
Sources for this table are listed at the end of the article.
Reality Check: Do not panic, and do not plan as if nothing could change. Boozman has said USDA can take administrative steps to keep programs operating through the end of the year. The honest picture is "uncertain," not "shut off." |
Will They Finish By Christmas?
Honest answer: nobody knows, and the experts disagree.
Randy Russell, CEO of The Russell Group, sees a very good chance of a deal if leaders cooperate. He expects Democrats to hold firm on two years.
The University of Illinois farmdoc team is far more doubtful. It points out that Congress is expected to be in session for fewer than 25 days, with funding, defense and a possible war supplemental all competing for time. It calls expecting a farm bill in the lame duck "unreasonable in the extreme" and says the most likely outcome is an extension, with the bill pushed to the new Congress in 2027.
There is a precedent for a late win. The 2018 farm bill was signed on December 20, 2018, by a lame-duck Congress after Democrats had won the House. But farmdoc notes a big difference: in 2018 both chambers had already passed their own versions before the election.
This time, the House passed its bill on April 30, 2026, by 224 to 200. The Senate Agriculture Committee reported its own bill in September, but the full Senate has not taken it up.
And a new Democratic Congress takes over in January, which already shapes every decision made this month.
The Real Cost Is Not The Bill. It Is The Planning.
Congress has not passed a full five-year farm bill since 2018. Since then, farmers have planned around extensions, patches and rumors.
Think about what that does to a farm family at the kitchen table in November. You are deciding whether to renew the operating loan, buy seed, hire help, fix the roof on the barn. And a rulebook you cannot see is changing in a building you cannot reach.
If you have been reading this site, you have seen the same pattern in other countries. Europe keeps redrawing its subsidy rules, as we covered in Europe Is Redrawing Farm Subsidies Again. In Scotland, farm support has lost value over the years, a story we told in Scottish Farm Support Has Lost 27% of Its Value. And when an $8 billion fuel relief program was announced, we explained why it won't save your farm.
The lesson repeats: help from governments is real, but it arrives on their schedule, not yours.
How much of farm income depends on those schedules? In its September 2026 update, USDA's Economic Research Service forecast direct government payments to farmers at $47.4 billion for 2026, up $19.5 billion from 2025. Net farm income was forecast at $158.4 billion.
Do the math and about 30 cents of every net farm income dollar is a check written in Washington.
That is not an attack on those payments. Many farms need every dollar. It is a plain observation: when nearly a third of the sector's profit depends on decisions made far away, every extra dollar you control yourself is worth more.
And the same sector is under strain on the ground. We have been tracking it in a USDA corn report that left prices below insurance levels and in what survivors did differently before the bankruptcy filings.
Count Your Own Exposure: A 10-Minute Exercise
The sector number is 30%. What is yours? Most farm owners have never worked it out, and it is the best starting point for any plan.
Grab last year's farm records and your tax paperwork, then follow these four steps:
Add up every dollar that came from a government program last year. Include payments from farm programs, but leave out ordinary crop sales.
Add up your total farm income from all sources.
Divide the first number by the second. That is your share.
Ask one question: if that line changed or arrived six months late, what would break first?
Here is a made-up example to show the math. A farm that took in $200,000 and received $50,000 from programs has a 25% share. If a delay pushed those payments back half a year, the family would have to cover that gap with savings or borrowing.
Now add a fifth step. Write down how much of that gap a visitor product could cover, using your own price and a realistic number of guests. A $15 ticket and 1,000 paid visits is $15,000. That is not a rescue plan. It is a cushion you built yourself, and it keeps growing as your reviews and your list grow.
Field-Tested Play: Put your share on one sheet of paper, with your visitor target beside it. Tape it where you plan the year. When the next headline says "farm bill delayed," you will know exactly how much it matters to your own farm. |
Income Congress Cannot Touch
Now compare how a visitor dollar and a farm program dollar are decided.
Farm program income | Visitor income | |
|---|---|---|
Who sets the price? | A formula in a law | You |
Who sets the dates? | Congress and USDA | You |
Can a vote change it? | Yes | No |
Who pays you? | The government | Your guests, directly |
How fast can you change it? | Years | This week |
This is the whole angle of this article. You cannot control the vote. You can control your ticket price, your Saturday hours and your guest list.
How big is it? USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 28,617 US farms and ranches earning income from agritourism and recreational services. Together they took in $1.26 billion, and the average was about $44,000 per farm. Income from agritourism rose 12.4% from 2017 after adjusting for inflation.
Reality Check: That $44,000 is an average of gross receipts, not profit, and many farms earn far less. A USDA-funded survey brief posted by the University of Vermont found agritourism profit ratios averaged 48% against 28% for the whole farm. But the authors warn the data is self-reported, uses ranges, and that agritourism is not a silver bullet. It is real work. We lay out the honest numbers in How Much Can an Agritourism Farm Really Make?. |
Here is what "your price, your math" looks like. If you charge $15 a head, reaching $44,000 takes about 2,900 paid visits in a year. That is an illustration, not a forecast. Your price, your season and your location will change it.
Three Real Farms That Did Not Wait
Glen Ray Corn Maze, Utah. We started with Rex Larsen. The maze, the pumpkin patch, the tours and a tulip festival that uses five acres and 250,000 imported bulbs now bring in about a tenth of the farm's income. The key detail: it is self-sufficient. It pays its own way.
Berning Acres, Illinois. This second-generation dairy near Galena milks about 500 cows on 800 acres. Natalie Berning hosts farm tours, offered six days a week. Guests walk from the feed storage to where cows are born, raised and milked, and the tour ends with ice cream made from the farm's own milk. Visitors can also buy the farm's cheese and branded shirts and caps.
The farm makes most of its money from farming, and agritourism is supplemental income with room to grow. That is the right way to think about it. You do not need to replace your farm. You need a second leg to stand on.
Dairy is worth a note, because dairy support measures are among those set to expire on December 31.
Hadwick Family Farm, California. Heather and Bryon Hadwick, in Modoc County, attended a University of California agritourism workshop in 2016 and launched a pumpkin patch. It reached its 10th season in 2025. Heather says it brought more families to the farm and helped them diversify their income.
None of these stories is about a farm bill. Each is about a farm adding a second income line it controls.
Field-Tested Play: Pick one visitor product you can launch with what you already have. A farm tour, a seasonal event or a tasting. Keep the startup cost small, so a slow first season does not hurt. Our guide You Don't Need $100,000 to Start Agritourism shows how, and the startup cost breakdown shows what each activity really costs. |
Your Five-Week Plan While Washington Argues
The lame-duck window runs to mid-December. Use the same five weeks for yourself.
Week 1: List what you already have. Walk the farm with a notebook. Write down every animal, field, building, view and skill a stranger might pay to see or learn. Do not judge ideas yet.
Week 2: Choose one offer and set the price. One product, one price, one date. The price is your decision, so test it against what similar farms charge near you.
Week 3: Answer the paperwork questions. Use the checklist in the next section. Better to find a snag now than on opening day.
Week 4: Run a small test. December is perfect for it. Our guide to Christmas on the farm shows how farms turn trees, wreaths and a few hours of cheer into a paid event. Or try farm rides if you already have a tractor and a trailer.
Week 5: Tell the people who already like you. Email, text, a Facebook post, a sign at the gate. Warm customers are your first visitors, and their reviews become your proof.
Reality Check: Think hard before borrowing for a first test. With the 5.6% price of borrowing from Uncle Sam, the best first project is the one you can fund from savings or from what you already own. |
If a deal does pass, nothing in this plan changes. If it does not, you will have a new income line before Washington has decided anything.
Legal, Insurance And Paperwork: Questions To Ask First
I am not a lawyer or an insurance agent, and this is not legal advice. These are the questions to take to the people who are. Rules change by state and country.
Does your state have an agritourism liability law, and does it require a sign or a written warning? Start with Agritourism Laws by State.
Does your current farm insurance cover paying visitors, or does it exclude them? See what coverage you need.
Is your barn or building allowed to host the public under local codes? Read Is Your Barn Legal for Visitors?.
Does your county's zoning allow events, parking and signs on farmland?
Will your agricultural tax treatment change when you charge for visits? Ask your accountant before you open.
Do your animals trigger any license or health rules for public contact?
Write the answers down. They go straight into your business plan.
What I Know From My Own Farm
I am the founder of Bloopy Durians in Bentong, Malaysia. I farm a long way from Washington, so I cannot tell you what a farm bill does to your fields. I can tell you what it feels like to run income from a gate you control.
Durian season at Bloopy Durians lasts about four to five months a year, in two short windows. A short season is a good reminder that income you control beats income you wait for. Visitors come to the farm from all over the world, and many companies send their staff and management.
The tour price and the dates are mine to set. I also keep a WhatsApp list of loyal customers who buy durians whenever they are available. That list is a reliable source of income, and no vote can switch it off.
That is the same reason this article exists. A good visitor experience builds something you own.
If A Deal Passes Before Christmas
I will update this article with the outcome. If Congress agrees on SNAP and finishes the bill, the program uncertainty above will shrink. If it punts to 2027, the planning gap I described gets longer.
Either way, the point stands. Programs matter, but they are not the only leg a farm can stand on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the farm bill dead?
No. The House passed its version on April 30, 2026, and the Senate Agriculture Committee reported its own in September. They have not been reconciled, and the full Senate has not voted. Whether it passes this year is genuinely uncertain.
What happens if Congress does not pass a farm bill by the end of 2026?
Commodity and dairy support measures are set to expire on December 31. If Congress neither passes a new bill nor extends the 2018 law, USDA would revert to permanent law with 1930s and 1940s price formulas. Crop insurance and SNAP keep running.
What is the fight over SNAP cost-sharing about?
It is about how long states with high payment error rates can delay paying part of SNAP benefit costs. Senator Boozman calls a one-year delay his final offer. Senator Klobuchar and other Democrats want at least two years.
Why does E15 depend on the farm bill?
Expanding access to E15 ethanol fuel is a top farm bill priority. Without a farm bill, that expansion is in doubt.
Is the farm bill extension the same as a new farm bill?
No. An extension keeps the old rules going for a set time. A new farm bill rewrites programs, usually for about five years.
Can agritourism replace government payments?
Not for most farms, and it should not try. Think of it as a second income. Berning Acres, a 500-cow dairy, treats tours as supplemental income, and Glen Ray Corn Maze says its maze makes up about a tenth of its farm income.
How much can a farm earn from agritourism?
The 2022 Census of Agriculture found about $44,000 in average gross receipts per participating farm. Many earn less, and some earn much more. It depends on location, offer and price.
How do I know if my farm is ready for visitors?
Take the free Farm Readiness Quiz below to see where your farm stands today.
Sources
Agri-Pulse, "Washington Week Ahead: Farm bill faces lame-duck challenge," November 8, 2026: agri-pulse.com
Farm Policy News (University of Illinois), "Farm bill expires again as lawmakers continue negotiations," October 2, 2026: farmpolicynews.illinois.edu
farmdoc daily (University of Illinois), "Trying to Reason with a Midterm Election Earthquake," November 5, 2026: farmdocdaily.illinois.edu
RFD-TV, "Congress Faces Year-End Window For Farm Bill Completion": rfdtv.com
CSG South, "Farm Bill Reauthorization" (House vote of April 30, 2026): csgsouth.org
Farm Progress, "Senate farm bill stalls over SNAP cost fight," August 10, 2026: farmprogress.com
USDA Economic Research Service, Farm Sector Income Forecast (September 3, 2026 update): ers.usda.gov
USDA Economic Research Service, "2022 Census of Agriculture: The majority of U.S. counties generate some agritourism income": ers.usda.gov
Penn State NERCRD, "Agritourism and Recreational Services on US Farms," Data Brief 2024-1: nercrd.psu.edu
University of Vermont (USDA AMS cooperative agreement), "Brief Five: Profitability in Agritourism," 2026: uvm.edu
KUER, "Why some Utah farmers are turning fields into tourist attractions," April 7, 2026: kuer.org
AgNavigator, "More than milk: How Berning Acres is diversifying revenues with agritourism," September 28, 2026: agnavigator.com
Wine Industry Advisor, "Welcome to the Farm: UC ANR's Role in California's Agritourism Transformation," July 3, 2025: wineindustryadvisor.com
Take The Next Step
Washington may take weeks, or months. Your farm does not have to wait.
Start with the Farm Readiness Quiz. It takes a few minutes and shows where your farm stands today.
Then grab the free ebook 150 Ways to Unlock Hidden Wealth From Your Farm. Inside you will find 150 ways to earn from agritourism, sorted into categories. Each idea shows how hard it is, a possible price setup and its earning potential, so you can pick the one that fits the land and equipment you already own.
P.S. Rex Larsen did not wait for a vote to start his corn maze, and that maze now pays its own way. Whatever Congress decides this December, you can start your own version before the year is out.
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. This article is general information, not legal, tax, insurance or financial advice. Check the rules where you farm.
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