About PlainFarmData

Our Mission

We believe the American public deserves transparent, accessible information about how federal farm programs spend taxpayer money. Every year, the USDA distributes billions of dollars in commodity payments, conservation incentives, crop insurance subsidies, and disaster assistance — but the data behind these programs is scattered across dense government spreadsheets that few people outside agriculture policy circles ever see.

PlainFarmData exists to make this data accessible to everyone: farmers evaluating program participation, journalists investigating subsidy patterns, researchers studying agricultural policy, taxpayers asking where the money goes, and policymakers comparing program effectiveness across states. We present USDA data as it is — no editorializing, no advocacy, just clear presentation of public records.

Our Data Sources

USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)

All data comes directly from the USDA Economic Research Service Farm Income and Wealth Statistics. This is the official source for state-level agricultural economic data in the United States. The ERS compiles data from multiple USDA agencies — the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Risk Management Agency (RMA), and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) — into comprehensive state-level summaries.

The dataset provides:

  • State-level farm program payments (1995–2024) including commodity, conservation, and disaster programs
  • Net farm income and cash receipts by commodity for all 50 states
  • Crop insurance premium and indemnity data with loss ratios
  • Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC), Price Loss Coverage (PLC), and Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments

Official source: USDA ERS Farm Income and Wealth Statistics

How We Process the Data

We download the USDA ERS bulk CSV files and process them through our ETL pipeline:

  • Parsing and normalization: Raw CSV data is parsed into structured records with consistent state identifiers, program names, and time periods.
  • Program categorization: Payments are organized by program type (commodity, conservation, disaster, crop insurance) and specific program name (ARC, PLC, CRP, EQIP, etc.) for structured browsing.
  • Time series construction: Multi-year payment data is organized into time series allowing trend analysis from 1995 to the most recent release year.
  • Derived metrics: We calculate per-farm averages, year-over-year changes, state rankings, and program-level comparisons from the raw payment data.

All dollar values are presented in thousands of dollars ($1,000 units) as reported by USDA ERS. Year references are fiscal years. No data is modified, interpolated, or editorialized — we present the government's numbers directly.

Data Currency

PlainFarmData currently displays data from the USDA ERS Farm Income and Wealth Statistics, released February 5, 2026. This includes farm program payment data through fiscal year 2024 and forecast estimates for 2025.

The ERS updates Farm Income data three times per year — typically in February, August, and November — with each release incorporating revised estimates for recent years and new forecasts. We update PlainFarmData within 30 days of each new release. Like all federal statistical programs, there is a lag between the fiscal year and final data availability, with preliminary estimates revised as administrative records are finalized.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainFarmData is compiled by our editorial team from official source data. Raw data from USDA and related agricultural agencies is reformatted into readable profiles by our editorial team and verified against the source. before publication. The PlainFarmData editorial team, operating under Kiznis Studio, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from farms, producers, or any agricultural entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense — advertisers do not influence which entities we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Limitations & Disclaimers

PlainFarmData is an informational resource. Farm program data should be one input among many when evaluating agricultural policy or making farm business decisions.

  • State-level aggregation: Data is aggregated at the state level. Individual farm payments, county-level breakdowns, and individual recipient information are not included in the ERS dataset we use.
  • Fiscal year vs calendar year: Payment data follows the federal fiscal year (October–September), which does not align perfectly with crop years or calendar years.
  • Estimates vs final data: Recent years may contain preliminary estimates that are revised in subsequent releases. Always note the release date when citing specific figures.
  • Not program guidance: This data shows historical payments, not current program eligibility, rates, or enrollment procedures.

PlainFarmData is not affiliated with the US Department of Agriculture or any government agency. For official program information, eligibility determinations, or payment calculations, contact your local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) office or visit usda.gov.

Editorial Team

PlainFarmData is published by PlainFarmData Editorial, a small independent team that builds public-data portals so that government agricultural records remain accessible to the people they describe. Our editorial work on PlainFarmData is led by editors with backgrounds in agricultural-data analysis, public-records journalism, and farm-policy research — disciplines that combine to vet what USDA publishes, surface its limitations, and translate technical taxonomies (USDA ERS Farm Income and Wealth Statistics, NASS Census of Agriculture, FSA program records, EPA agricultural monitoring) into language a farmer, journalist, or policy analyst can actually use.

We do not employ practicing farmers and do not publish original farm-policy advice. Instead, our editorial standard is verification, citation, and transparency: every data field we surface is traceable to a USDA, FSA, or EPA publication, every caveat (lag time, scope exclusions, self-reported acreage) is disclosed at the page level, and every methodology decision is documented at /methodology. When source data has known shortcomings — for example, USDA Census reporting can lag by up to four years — we say so on the page where the data appears, not buried in a footer.

Editorial questions, fact corrections, and source-attribution issues should go to hello@plainfarmdata.com. We are accountable for what we publish: every correction we make is reflected in the next data refresh, and our update schedule is documented at the top of this page so readers can see how recent the underlying figures are. PlainFarmData does not accept paid placement, sponsored listings, or any incentive that would compromise the neutrality of how programs and recipients appear on the site.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or feedback? Email us at hello@plainfarmdata.com.

We welcome:

  • Questions about data sources or methodology
  • Reports of apparent data errors
  • Suggestions for additional data or features
  • Media and research inquiries

PlainFarmData is published by ", a data intelligence company that builds free, public-interest data portals.