Farm Supplies Wholesalers NAICS 424910

Jan 23, 2026 - $12 Billion in Aid to Farmers

• Long-awaited assistance for America’s struggling farmers, delayed by the government shutdown, arrived in December, The New York Times reports. At a White House event with farmers, President Trump unveiled a $12 billion rescue package with most of the relief funds coming from the USDA’s Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program. According to the Agriculture Department, the money will go to producers of corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, rice, wheat, and other row crops, with payments to farmers to be made by the end of February. When farmers receive direct payments, they typically spend first on essential inputs, benefiting farm supplies wholesalers. The aid will boost short‑term purchasing power for farmers, helping them cover rising input costs and likely increase demand for seeds, fertilizer, chemicals, equipment parts, and other farm supplies, ahead of the 2026 planting season.
• Leading indicators for the farm sector’s financial health all show elevated risk, according to the latest report from the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center. The report tracks 14 financial indicators organized in four classes: Farmer and banker sentiment; Farm income and balance sheet health; Farm machinery market dynamics; and Credit quality. The risk rating (on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being low risk and 10 high risk) is 6.2. The farm machinery market showed the biggest signs of deterioration, with a risk rating of 5.7, while farm income and balance sheet health, and credit quality carry a risk rating of 5.8 each, and farmer and banker sentiment at 5.9. The forecast shows a decline in net cash income for the two crop farm business types: a 1% decline for specialty crops farm businesses and a 14.8% drop for corn farm businesses.

• Industry pushback regarding the impact of pesticides on children’s health in the Make America Healthy Again Commission’s first report released in May, resulted in the removal of one of the only mentions of ‘reducing’ pesticide use in the final draft issued in September, Civil Eats reports. In the months between the two reports, agriculture industry groups criticized the mention of pesticide use as harmful and lobbied the White House for changes. Rather than restricting pesticide and toxic chemical use or taking a more precautionary approach to safety evaluations, the second report merely tasks the Environmental Protection Agency with working to reform the approval process for chemical and biologic products to protect against weeds, pests and disease. Critics of the revised report argue it abandons major reforms and the policy recommendations amount to a public relations campaign with few effectual changes, according to CE.
• Employment by farm supplies wholesalers dipped 0.4% in August compared to a year ago, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment by the industry is seasonal, typically peaking in the second quarter, coinciding with spring planting season, and declining in the fall as farm activity slows. The average wage at farm supplies wholesalers rose 2% year over year in August to $30.39 per hour, easing from its peak in June, BLS data shows. Sales by distributors of miscellaneous nondurable goods, which include farm supplies, increased 3.9% YoY in July but fell 5.6% versus June. Farm supplies sales typically peak in the spring as farmers plant their crops.