Browse Ambrook’s collection of grants, loans, discounts, cost shares, easements, and insurance for harvest.

Apply at your county FSA office. There is no online application for a commodity loan.

The route, in FSA's own words: "To apply for Marketing Assistance Loans, producers must complete and submit a loan application to their local FSA office. The application process includes providing documentation of the eligible commodity, production records, and proof of compliance with program requirements. Detailed enrollment instructions and deadlines are available through the local FSA office."

A farmer looking for FSA's "Apply for a Loan" button should know it leads to the online farm-loan application, which is a different product line — commodity loans are not filed there. Go to the office.

Find your office. FSA's own "Find Your FSA Location" link: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/office-locator. To book a visit, the USDA Service Center locator is https://www.farmers.gov/working-with-us/service-center-locator.

Timing is per-commodity, not one national date. "Applications must be submitted by the final loan availability date for the commodity." FSA publishes no single program deadline — the final availability date differs by commodity, so ask your county office or check FSA's national deadlines page at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/news-events/national-deadlines. This is not rolling year-round intake: each commodity's window closes.

What to bring:
- Documentation of the eligible commodity — the crop is the collateral, so quantity, quality and storage all have to be evidenced.
- Production records.
- Proof of compliance with program requirements. Eligibility runs through "conservation and wetland protection requirements," certified through FSA.
- Proof you still own the crop. "For a commodity to be eligible for a marketing assistance loan or a loan deficiency payment (LDP), the producer must have beneficial interest in the commodity in addition to other eligibility requirements." Once you have sold it or given up control, it can no longer be pledged — so apply before you market the crop, not after.

Decide two things with the county office at the same time. First, loan or LDP: "in lieu of securing a MAL, producers may elect to receive an LDP" — the LDP is a payment instead of a loan, and it is not available for ELS cotton. Second, term: "MALs provide short-term loans with terms up to nine months," so the maturity date and your marketing plan should line up.

Who to ask. FSA routes application questions to the county office rather than a national line and publishes no farmer phone number for this program — use the locator above. For background before the visit, FSA links a "Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments" fact sheet and the 8-LP MAL and LDP Handbook from the program pages.

Marketing assistance loans provide producers interim financing at harvest time to meet cash flow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are typically at harvest-time lows.

[Read more about Commodity Loans](https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/price-support/commodity-loans/index)



Marketing assistance loans provide producers interim financing at harvest time to meet cash flow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are typically at harvest-time lows.
Read more about Commodity Loans

Individual producers qualify — this is a farmer-facing loan, taken out at your county FSA office. FSA's own eligibility statement: "Eligible applicants include producers of designated commodities who meet conservation and wetland protection requirements and provide sufficient documentation of their commodities. Producers must comply with all program requirements to qualify for a loan."

The binding tests:

1. You must have grown or sheared an eligible commodity. FSA's published list: barley, canola, chickpeas (large and small), corn, cotton (upland and extra-long staple), crambe, dry peas, flaxseed, grain sorghum, honey, lentils, mohair, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, rapeseed, rice (long and medium grain), safflower seed, sesame seed, soybeans, sunflower seed, wheat, and graded and ungraded wool. Unshorn pelts and sugar are also carried under the commodity-loan umbrella.

1. You must still own the crop. "For a commodity to be eligible for a marketing assistance loan or a loan deficiency payment (LDP), the producer must have beneficial interest in the commodity in addition to other eligibility requirements." If you have already sold the crop or given up control of it, you cannot pledge it.

1. You must be in conservation compliance — highly erodible land and wetland protection provisions, certified through FSA.

1. You must document the commodity — quantity, quality and storage — because the crop itself is the collateral.

Crop quality decides which loan you get, not whether you qualify: "Recourse Marketing Assistance Loans are loans for which the commodity offered as collateral does not meet the quality eligibility requirements according to U.S. grading standards." Recourse loans must be repaid in cash and the commodity cannot be forfeited to CCC; commodities that meet grading standards get non-recourse loans and the forfeiture option.

Geography: national, no state restriction. Loans are available "beginning upon harvest or shearing," and "applications must be submitted by the final loan availability date for the commodity" — the deadline is per-commodity, so ask your county office.

Not published on these FSA pages: any dollar cap per producer, any farm-size or income limit, any acreage minimum, and any audience restriction (beginning, veteran, socially disadvantaged). Statute extends the program "through crop year 2031."

A payment that must be returned to the provider following specified terms of repayment and interest rate.

Loan

Weekly Commodity Rates
- Pulse Crop LDP Rates (Excel)
- Peanut LDP Rates (Excel)
- Wool and Mohair LDP Rates (Excel)
- Cotton LDP Rates (Excel)
- Rice LDP Rates (Excel)
- Monthly CCC Honey Survey Prices (pdf)


Business Plan

Cash Rent

Refinancing

Transition

Succession

This is short-term harvest financing, not a grant. You pledge your stored crop as collateral and FSA advances you the national loan rate per unit. FSA: marketing assistance loans "provide producers interim financing at harvest time to meet cash flow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are typically at harvest-time lows."

2026 National Average Loan Rates (per unit) published by FSA:
- Wheat $3.72/bu; Corn $2.42/bu; Grain sorghum $2.42/bu; Barley $2.75/bu; Oats $2.20/bu; Soybeans $6.82/bu
- Rice: long grain $13.21/cwt; medium/short $11.79/cwt
- Oilseeds (canola, crambe, flaxseed, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, sunflower) $11.10/cwt
- Dry peas $6.87/cwt; lentils $14.30/cwt; small chickpeas $11.00/cwt; large chickpeas $15.40/cwt
- Graded wool $1.15/lb; non-graded wool $0.55/lb; mohair $5.00/lb; honey $1.50/lb
- Upland and ELS cotton, peanuts and sugar: "To Be Announced"
County loan rates differ from these national averages, and premiums/discounts apply by quality grade.

How repayment works: most loans are non-recourse — "the commodity is pledged as loan collateral and producers have the option of delivering the pledged collateral to the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) in satisfaction of the repayment of the outstanding loan." You also get marketing-loan relief: "Market loan repayment provisions specify, under certain circumstances, that producers may repay loans at less than principal plus accrued interest and other charges." Instead of taking a loan you can elect a loan deficiency payment (LDP) — except for ELS cotton, where "LDP provisions do not apply and ELS cotton marketing assistance loans must be repaid at the loan rate plus interest."

Recourse loans (collateral that fails U.S. grading standards) "must be repaid at principal plus interest" and the commodity cannot be forfeited to CCC.

Not published on the FSA pages: the interest rate charged on commodity loans, the loan maturity period, service fees, and any dollar cap per producer. Eligibility requires beneficial interest in the commodity. Loan rates are reissued annually, so check the current-year PDF before budgeting.

Marketing assistance loans (MALs) and loan deficiency payments (LDPs) are marketing tools available during harvest or shearing. 

Marketing assistance loans provide interim financing at harvest time to help agricultural producers meet cash flow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are typically&#x2004;at harvest-time lows. This enables producers to delay selling the commodity until more favorable market conditions emerge. Storing production at harvest (or at shearing for wool and mohair) allows more orderly commodity marketing throughout the year.

Producers may obtain MALs or receive LDPs on all or part of their eligible production anytime during the loan availability period which runs from when the commodity is normally harvested (or sheared) until January 31st, March 31st or May 31st (depending on the commodity).



Marketing assistance loans (MALs) and loan deficiency payments (LDPs) are marketing tools available during harvest or shearing. 
Marketing assistance loans provide interim financing at harvest time to help agricultural producers meet cash flow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are typically at harvest-time lows. This enables producers to delay selling the commodity until more favorable market conditions emerge. Storing production at harvest (or at shearing for wool and mohair) allows more orderly commodity marketing throughout the year.
Producers may obtain MALs or receive LDPs on all or part of their eligible production anytime during the loan availability period which runs from when the commodity is normally harvested (or sheared) until January 31st, March 31st or May 31st (depending on the commodity).

To be eligible for a MAL or LDP, a producer must: 
- Comply with conservation and wetland protection requirements; 
- Submit an acreage report for all cropland on all farms as applicable; 
- Have and retain beneficial interest in the commodity until the MAL is repaid or CCC takes title to the commodity; and 
- Meet adjusted gross income limitations (described in a later section).

Eligible Commodities
Eligible commodities include wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, extra-long staple cotton (eligible for MAL only), long grain rice, medium grain rice, soybeans, other oilseeds (including sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxseed, mustard seed, crambe and sesame seed), dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas, large chickpeas, graded and nongraded wool, mohair, unshorn pelts (eligible for LDP only), honey and peanuts. Commodities harvested as other than grain may also be eligible for a LDP. The commodity must: 
- Have been produced, mechanically harvested or shorn from live animals by an eligible producer and be in storable condition; 
- Be merchantable for food, feed or other uses, as determined by CCC; and 
- Meet specific CCC minimum grade and quality standards for MALs.

Wheat

Corn

Barley

Upland Cotton

Long Grain Rice

Medium Grain Rice

Soybeans

Rapeseed

Canola

Safflower

Flax

Mustard

Dry Peas

Lentils

Chickpeas

Wool

Mohair

Honey

Peanuts

Sorghum

Durum Wheat

Hard Red Spring Wheat

Sweet Corn

Grain Corn

Malting Barley

Sheep Wool

Goat Fiber

Camelid Fiber

Bison Fiber

Musk Ox Fiber

Yak Fiber

Rabbit Fiber

Alpaca Fiber

Angora Wool

Apiary

Merino Wool

Row Crops

Cotton

Rice

Fibers

Peas

Pulse Crops

Specialty Livestock

Specialty Crops

Other Commodities

Livestock

- Marketing Assistance Loans and Loan Deficiency Payments 2020 Fact Sheet

Trade Relief

Certification

Distribution

Diversification

Events

Trade Show

Certified Organic

Marketing

Infrastructure

Interest:

The interest rate charged on a commodity loan is set at one percentage point above CCC’s cost of borrowing on Jan. 1.

Accrued interest is the amount of interest that accumulates while a loan is outstanding, starting with the day the loan is made. Accrued interest is calculated by multiplying: (i) the applicable interest rate times, (ii) the ratio of the number of days under loan (starting with the initial day and continuing through the day prior to the day a loan is repaid) to the number of days in a year (i.e., 365) times, (iii) the loan principal. 

Loan Repayment 
MALs mature on the last day of the ninth calendar month following the month in which the MAL is approved, except all seed cotton loans mature on May 31 the year following when the cotton was planted. A producer may repay an outstanding MAL:
- Before maturity period by repaying the MAL, or;
- Upon maturity by settling or forfeiting the commodity to CCC. The commodity is transferred to CCC to repay the loan. For all loan-eligible commodities except extra-long staple (ELS) cotton or any recourse loan, a producer may repay a MAL any time during the loan period at the lesser of the:
- Loan rate plus accrued interest and other charges, or; 
- Alternative loan repayment rate as determined by CCC. For wheat, feed grains and oilseeds, the CCC determined alternative loan repayment rate is often referred to as the posted county price (PCP). PCPs are established and available at each local USDA Service Center. PCPs are based upon market prices at appropriate U.S. terminal markets, adjusted to reflect quality and location. PCPs are announced daily for wheat, feed grains, soybeans, canola, flaxseed and sunflower seed, and weekly for other oilseeds. For peanuts, CCC determines national posted prices (NPP) for four types of peanuts and announces them weekly. For dry peas and lentils, CCC determines and announces regional posted prices weekly. For wool and large and small chickpeas, CCC determines and announces an NPP weekly. For honey, CCC determines and announces the national survey price monthly. For long and medium grain rice and upland cotton, a producer may repay a MAL any time during the loan period at the lesser of the:
    - Loan rate plus accrued interest and other charges, or;
    - Adjusted world price (AWP). The AWP is the prevailing world market price adjusted to U.S. quality and location. Separate AWPs for long grain, medium grain rice and upland cotton are announced weekly.

This is not a competitive application. A producer enrolls by contacting Feeding Pennsylvania or their regional food bank to plan a donation and the costs to be covered (see contact). Small farms are explicitly encouraged.

Tom Mainzer

PASS reimburses Pennsylvania's agricultural producers, packers, and processors for the costs of harvesting, packaging, processing, and transporting surplus/donated food products that are redirected to the charitable food system. The Department of Agriculture contracts with Feeding Pennsylvania to administer the program through a network of 13 regional food-bank distributors serving 2,700+ charitable partners across all 67 counties. Established by the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System Act (Act 113 of 2010).



Pennsylvania agricultural producers, packers, and processors who donate PA-produced food. Three participation paths: Contract Planting (plan a portion of production for donation with Feeding Pennsylvania and your regional food bank); Surplus Items at Harvest (excess end-of-season product in acceptable condition); and Value-Added Products (dairy, meat, eggs, and shelf-stable items using PA-sourced ingredients). No acreage, revenue, or entity-type restriction is published.

A payment that requires some percentage of matching contributions by the recipient.

Cost Share

Local Food

Farmers Market

Food Systems

PASS covers the costs associated with harvesting, processing, packaging, and transporting donated Pennsylvania-produced food; amounts are negotiated per arrangement with the regional food bank (no per-recipient cap or pool is published). A sub-initiative, Bid. Buy. Donate., uses PASS funds to cover transportation, processing, and packaging when a youth-livestock-auction buyer donates an animal (beef cattle, hogs, sheep, goats) to a food bank.

Apply through your ADEA regional office; applicants must be registered in AgroPerfil (agricultura.pr.gov).

Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture - Oficinas Centrales

A wage/payroll subsidy administered by the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture (ADEA) that reimburses agricultural employers a portion of their qualifying wage and payroll-tax costs, helping producers retain agricultural labor.



Puerto Rico bona fide farmers / agricultural employers who employ agricultural workers and pay at least $5.25/hour (the wage guaranteed by Ley 60), and who meet employer obligations (employer Social Security, unemployment insurance, and state insurance fund). General ADEA program requirements also apply (legal farm operation, current Merchant Registration, Agricultural Insurance Law compliance, AgroPerfil registration, and a completed General Survey).

Training

Socially Disadvantaged

Historically Underserved

Reimburses 50% of the hourly rate paid by the employer per certified hour worked, capped so it does not exceed 50% of the federal or state minimum wage, with a guaranteed minimum of $2.72 per certified hour worked (since July 1, 2021) and up to a maximum of about $250,000 per year, subject to annual budget (Código de Incentivos de Puerto Rico, Ley 60-2019; the law sets no fixed cap so long as budget permits). Sector-specific wage subsidies also apply: dairy $0.022 per quart certified by ORIL; broiler producers $5.55 per 1,000 lbs of certified chicken; egg producers $1.40 per 30-dozen case plus $0.15 per certified pullet; coffee harvest $1.50 per almud of ripe Arabica (max $1,200 / 800 almudes); and a Christmas bonus (Bono de Navidad) of $165–$235 for workers earning over $200 in certified agricultural wages.

Applications for the 2026 cycle ran February 15 – March 29, 2026 and are now closed; check back for future rounds. Enroll via California Waterfowl.

Jason Coslovich

California Waterfowl's Delayed Cereal Grain Harvest Program incentivizes farmers to delay harvesting cereal grain fields, allowing ground-nesting birds to hatch and fledge safely. Cereal grain fields, such as winter wheat and triticale, can play an important role as 'surrogate uplands.' It is a sub-program of the Nesting Bird Habitat Incentive Program (NBHIP).



Eligible crops are wheat, triticale, oat, barley, and rye. Eligibility criteria: minimum 20 acres; at least 75% crop cover with 8+ inch average height; summer water within 1 mile of the field; and located in Central Valley planning regions. Fields must not be harvested before July 15th.

Air Quality

Carbon Capture

High Tunnel

Landscape

Regenerative

Soil Health

Wildlife & Pollinator Habitat

Certified Grassfed

Cover Crops

Reduced Tillage

Conservation

Incentive payments (2025 season) by monitoring level: Standard $50/acre (biologist monitoring from levees/roads only); Monitoring A $65/acre (on-foot rope-drag nest searching); Monitoring B $75/acre (ATV-based rope-drag nest searching).

Completed applications with all required supporting documentation are submitted by email to NJDA.Grants@ag.nj.gov by the annual deadline. The FY27 round closed at noon (12:00 P.M. EDT) on July 31, 2026; incomplete or late submissions are ineligible. Check the program page for the next funding round.

William Conners

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture, using funds under the State Food Purchase Program, supports gleaning and seafood-recovery activities through the Gleaning Support Program. Funds may be requested by eligible New Jersey nonprofit organizations that glean surplus produce from New Jersey farms, orchards, and gardens or recover surplus seafood from New Jersey sources, and distribute that food to New Jersey organizations helping to feed food-insecure residents.



Eligible applicants are 501(c)(3) nonprofit entities formed and operated in New Jersey that either glean from New Jersey farms or recover seafood from New Jersey sources and distribute the food to New Jersey hunger-relief organizations. A Letter of Determination from the IRS documenting nonprofit status is required, along with an implementation plan describing how the grant would support the organization's gleaning or seafood-recovery activities. Individual farmers are not eligible applicants; this program funds nonprofit gleaning and recovery organizations (it benefits producers indirectly by moving surplus farm product).

A lump sum of money for a specific purpose that does not need to be paid back.

Grant

A total of $518,000, subject to the availability of funds, is anticipated to be available to eligible nonprofit applicant organizations for the round. Per-recipient award amounts are not published.

List of Agricultural Funding for Harvest