On Monday night, October 19, at a campaign rally in Park City, Kansas, President Trump announced that the Department of Agriculture 'will be launching a new Harvest Fuel Relief Program, providing our farmers with $8 billion in support to offset diesel costs during this harvest season.' He credited Sen. Roger Marshall, the Kansas Republican whose re-election the rally was for: 'Roger got it to happen. Good job, Roger.' USDA put out the program late the same evening. The money is one-time payments to farmers, funded under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and run by the Farm Service Agency, 'to provide relief during temporary market disruptions and increased input costs.' Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the president 'the most pro-farmer president of my lifetime' and said the $8 billion 'will help bring certainty to our farmers during this harvest.' It is the administration's second multibillion-dollar farm payment of the year, after the $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program that USDA says reached more than 560,000 farmers, and Trump reminded the crowd of his own numbers: 'I just gave the farmers $12 billion, and in my first term, I gave them $28 billion.' For trucking there is nothing in it. The same day, the Energy Information Administration's Monday diesel survey, the benchmark most fuel surcharges are written against, rose 9.7 cents to $6.276 a gallon, ending two weeks of declines; AAA's daily national average stood at $6.32 on Tuesday morning, 75% above a year ago.
How the farm program works
What USDA has published so far
Who: producers who incurred losses during the 2026 crop year. The payments are not a fuel rebate; they cover 'a portion of modeled losses,' with diesel and other input costs folded into the model.
How much: a single national formula, proportional to each farm's share. The loss average is built from Farm Service Agency planted acres, Economic Research Service cost-of-production estimates and the yields and prices in USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.
When: commodity-specific payment rates for Title I crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, sorghum and the other program commodities) come in November. Specialty crops, fishermen and other non-Title I producers get a separate method 'at a later date' and are asked to send fuel-cost data to HarvestFuel@usda.gov.
Paperwork: crop insurance is not required. The application window has not been announced; USDA says producers with a Login.gov account linked to their farm records will get pre-filled applications.
Where the money comes from: the Commodity Credit Corporation, USDA's standing borrowing authority, which does not need a new vote in Congress. For scale, CQ Roll Call estimated last week that U.S. farms would spend about $8 billion more a year on diesel at early-October prices than at Inauguration Day 2025 prices; USDA has not said how it arrived at its own $8 billion.
The politics are not hidden. The rally was for Marshall and for Ty Masterson, the Republican running for governor, and Sabato's Crystal Ball and the Cook Political Report both rate the Kansas Senate race a toss-up. Roll Call reported last week on Republican Senate campaigns in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas running against the price of diesel, quoting a Nebraska farmer who now pays $160 to fill his pickup, and noting that Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP Senate candidate in Iowa, had called in September for a diesel relief program for truckers and farmers. The program announced Monday has the farmers. Trump told the crowd the real fix is elsewhere: 'Even without that, as soon as that war ends, you're going to see a plunge because there's so much oil and diesel around.'
What truckers have instead
Trucking's relief so far is procedural, not cash. The executive order Trump signed on October 5 at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, defers the 24.4-cent-per-gallon federal excise tax on red-dyed diesel used on the highway from October 5 through December 31, without interest or penalties, and suspends the dyed-fuel penalty for that window; the IRS confirmed on October 14 that it will not impose the penalty, retroactive to October 1. It does not touch state fuel taxes, which the International Fuel Tax Association says still have to be reported on the IFTA return for every mile run, and it does not lower the price of the fuel itself: dyed diesel was about $2.94 a gallon in January 2025 and $5.77 at the start of October. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association called the order 'minimal relief' for small carriers, who pay for fuel up front and wait on surcharges. The other federal measure is FMCSA's 90-day hours-of-service waiver for drivers hauling gasoline and diesel, in force since September 16 and running to December 16, which the agency amended last week to make clear it also covers fuel ethanol; it lets tank drivers run up to 16 hours in 24 with a minimum rest break and does nothing for anyone hauling anything else. Beyond that there is a patchwork of state orders on dyed diesel, weight limits and tax holidays, and the Russian diesel deal, whose first tranche is less than one day of U.S. consumption. ATRI's survey released in Charlotte on Saturday put fuel prices as the industry's No. 1 issue, up from 18th a year ago.
The diesel numbers behind Monday
EIA's national on-highway diesel average for October 19 is $6.276, up 9.7 cents from $6.179 on October 12 and $6.199 on October 5. The record is $6.529 on September 21. AAA's daily average on Tuesday, October 20 was $6.32, against $6.28 a week ago, $6.51 a month ago and $3.62 a year ago. For a truck getting 6.5 miles to the gallon, Tuesday's price is 97 cents a mile in fuel, versus 56 cents a year ago: about 41 cents more on every mile, or roughly $41,500 a year more per truck running 100,000 miles. ATRI's 2025 cost benchmark, published in July, puts the industry's non-fuel operating cost at $1.854 per mile, so fuel alone is now more than a third of what it costs to move a truck.
What to do with this
For owner-operators and small fleets
If you also farm, or haul your own crop, the $8 billion is for you: set up a Login.gov account linked to your FSA farm records now, and send fuel-cost data to HarvestFuel@usda.gov if you grow anything outside the Title I list. Do not wait for November to register.
If you only drive, the only federal cash on the table is the 24.4-cent deferral on dyed diesel, and only if a retailer near you sells it for highway use and your state has suspended its own penalty. Check your state's order before you fill, and keep the receipt; the federal tax is deferred, not forgiven.
Fuel surcharges reset off the EIA Monday number. This week's reset is up, after two weeks down. If your surcharge table lags a week, you are paying this week's fuel at last week's rate; read the contract and bill accordingly.
Fuel haulers: the hours-of-service waiver now clearly covers ethanol loads. Carry a copy of the amended waiver in the cab; it still does not apply to carriers with a conditional rating or to drivers under an out-of-service order.
Fuel is the industry's No. 1 issue in ATRI's own ranking, and so far the only 'diesel relief program for truckers' is a September social-media post by a Senate candidate. If you want a trucker program next to the farm one, the comment windows and your association are where the number of drivers gets counted.
Agriculture got $8 billion in one evening because its losses could be modeled, acre by acre, and because Kansas votes in two weeks. Trucking's losses are just as real and considerably larger, but they show up as surcharges, parked trucks and closed carriers rather than planted acres, and nobody in Washington has written a formula for that. The diesel price does not know the difference.
Diesel, surcharges and the rules that move the price, every week
Qrylo tracks the EIA number, the waivers and the relief programs that decide what your next load actually pays.