Iowa Farm Subsidy Data

Iowa has received $725M in cumulative USDA farm program payments between 1995 and 2024, including $464M in conservation payments (CRP, EQIP, CSP) and $216M in disaster assistance (CFAP, MFP, LFP, ERP). Net farm income for 2023 came in at $9.5B, sitting on top of $42.5B in gross cash income and $38.7B in total cash receipts from all commodities. The leading program category for Iowa is Conservation. These figures come straight from the USDA Economic Research Service Farm Income and Wealth Statistics release — the same source file that Congress, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Farm Service Agency use when they score Farm Bill proposals.

Iowa's agriculture is anchored by Corn ($12.9B in cash receipts), Soybeans ($7.3B in cash receipts), Cattle ($5.1B in cash receipts), with the top three commodities accounting for a significant share of the state's $38.7B in total cash receipts. The crop-insurance loss ratio — indemnities paid out divided by premiums collected — stands at 147%, with $$702M in premiums and $$1.0B in indemnity payments. A loss ratio above 100% means insurers paid out more in claims than they collected in premiums, a signal of significant yield or revenue shortfalls in recent years.

Reading Iowa's farm data correctly means holding three lenses at once: commodity cash receipts (which track market activity), government payments (which track federal policy), and net farm income (which tracks actual economic outcomes). These three numbers move independently — a bumper crop year can drive up receipts while depressing prices and triggering government payments; a disaster year can crush receipts while unlocking indemnities and disaster aid. Use the payment history, county table, and nearby-state comparison below to benchmark Iowa against its region before drawing conclusions about the health, resilience, or federal dependence of the state's agricultural economy.