Montana Farm Subsidy Data

Montana has received $305M in cumulative USDA farm program payments between 1995 and 2024, including $71M in conservation payments (CRP, EQIP, CSP) and $210M in disaster assistance (CFAP, MFP, LFP, ERP). Net farm income for 2023 came in at $2.1B, sitting on top of $5.9B in gross cash income and $4.9B in total cash receipts from all commodities. The leading program category for Montana is Disaster Assistance. 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.

Montana's agriculture is anchored by Cattle ($1.9B in cash receipts), Wheat ($1.1B in cash receipts), Corn ($48M in cash receipts), with the top three commodities accounting for a significant share of the state's $4.9B in total cash receipts. The crop-insurance loss ratio — indemnities paid out divided by premiums collected — stands at 222%, with $$140M in premiums and $$311M 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 Montana'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 Montana against its region before drawing conclusions about the health, resilience, or federal dependence of the state's agricultural economy.