September 30 has long been one of the most consequential calendar days in U.S. agriculture. It is the final day of the federal fiscal year, the statutory sunset for many farm and food authorities, and the traditional moment when government data and dollars pivot into a new cycle. Over the past several decades, this date has repeatedly surfaced as a hinge point for farm bills, conservation and rural development programs, dairy policy, and market-moving reports.

Why September 30 matters

The modern farm policy architecture runs on overlapping clocks. The federal fiscal year ends on September 30, and many titles of five-year farm bills are written to expire on that date. If Congress has not renewed or extended the law, parts of the farm safety net can lapse, and some provisions are at risk of snapping back to “permanent law”—price support statutes dating to 1938 and 1949 that were designed for a very different farm economy. Meanwhile, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), USDA’s financing arm, closes its books and prepares fall disbursements; continuing resolutions often include a specific “CCC anomaly” so payments like commodity program benefits and conservation cost-shares can flow in early October. It is also when USDA typically publishes a pair of reports that can jolt grain markets, capping the marketing year for major crops.

Farm bills at the brink: September 30 through the years

Although Congress has renewed farm policy on time in some cycles, several notable lapses and eleventh-hour extensions have revolved around September 30. Those episodes underscore how the date concentrates leverage in budget talks while raising real-world uncertainty for producers, lenders, and rural communities.

2007: The 2002 Farm Bill sunsets

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 reached its scheduled expiration on September 30, 2007. Lawmakers kept programs afloat through a series of short-term extensions into 2008 while negotiating the next bill. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 ultimately became law in June 2008 after a veto override, retroactively restoring and revising authorities. For months, however, growers, conservation districts, and rural development projects operated under stopgaps and partial lapses—an early example of how September 30 can be a pressure point for farm policy.

2012: The “milk cliff” looms

On September 30, 2012, the 2008 Farm Bill expired. That triggered a cascade of deadlines, most visibly the threat that dairy policy would revert to permanent law at the turn of the year—a scenario dubbed the “milk cliff,” because parity-era price supports could have abruptly inflated government-backed milk prices. Congress defused the crisis in early January 2013 by passing a nine-month extension of the 2008 law through September 2013, buying time to finish a successor bill. The episode highlighted how lapses after September 30 can have spillover effects well into the marketing and calendar years.

2018: Orphan programs go dark

The Agricultural Act of 2014 sunset on September 30, 2018. While core commodity and crop insurance programs continued to function, several “no-baseline” initiatives—often called orphan programs—lost authority until the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 was enacted on December 20. During the gap, certain conservation, energy, trade promotion, and specialty crop initiatives were disrupted, illustrating how expiring authorizations on September 30 can create uneven coverage across the farm economy.

2023: A deadline met with an extension

The 2018 Farm Bill’s authorizations were scheduled to end on September 30, 2023. Congress later enacted a one-year extension in November 2023, carrying the 2018 law forward through September 30, 2024. That move avoided near-term program lapses and another round of dairy reversion risk, while signaling that major farm bill negotiations had shifted into the following year’s calendar.

What’s at stake when the clock strikes midnight

Because the federal fiscal year turnover coincides with key farm policy deadlines, September 30 concentrates operational and financial decisions across USDA and the countryside:

• Commodity programs and CCC operations: ARC/PLC payments and other fall disbursements are staged for release after the fiscal year closes. During continuing resolutions, Congress often includes specific authority so CCC can make timely payments in October.
• Dairy policy: When authorizations lapse past September 30 without an extension, permanent law reversion can threaten to reprice milk supports in the new year—an outcome Congress has repeatedly moved to prevent.
• Conservation and energy programs: Some initiatives rely on explicit, time-limited farm bill authority. Without reauthorization by September 30, sign-ups or new contracts for certain programs can pause until Congress acts.
• Rural development: Grants and loans for water systems, broadband, and community facilities are sensitive to both authorizations and appropriations timing at fiscal year-end.
• Nutrition assistance: SNAP’s underlying statute is permanent, but funding depends on appropriations and continuing resolutions. Fiscal year turnover can change benefit adjustments and administrative funding flows.
• Research, extension, and education: While flagship programs have ongoing authorization, competitive grants and some partnerships face year-end funding cliffs that hinge on fiscal agreements reached around September 30.

A data day for markets

Late September is also synonymous with market-moving statistics. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service traditionally releases its Small Grains Summary and the Grain Stocks report at the end of the month, providing final production estimates for wheat, barley, oats, and rye, along with September 1 inventories for corn, soybeans, and other crops. Because those numbers set the baseline for the new marketing year while closing the books on the old one, traders, merchandisers, and lenders often treat the late-September data drop as a pivot point for price discovery and basis planning.

September 30 and government shutdown risk

When appropriations lapse at the end of the fiscal year, USDA’s footprint narrows quickly. During the October 2013 shutdown that followed the September 30 deadline, most Farm Service Agency offices closed to the public, statistical releases were postponed, and economic research paused. Crop insurance claims continued because they are mandatory spending administered through private-approved providers, but many other services—from new farm loans to conservation technical assistance—were delayed, reinforcing how fiscal year brinkmanship ripples through farm country.

Harvest meets policy

In much of the United States, late September coincides with the start of corn and soybean harvest, sugarbeet campaigns in the northern Plains, and peak apple and specialty-crop runs. That timing magnifies the practical effects of a September 30 reset. Producers are marketing old-crop bushels, booking storage, and locking in basis just as USDA finalizes stocks data and federal programs roll into a new fiscal year. Elevators, co-ops, and rural banks, in turn, watch both the combines and the Capitol, because price swings and policy signals can change cash flow expectations overnight.

On this date: a brief timeline

• September 30, 2007 — The 2002 Farm Bill expires; Congress uses short-term extensions into 2008 before enacting the 2008 Farm Bill in June.
• September 30, 2012 — The 2008 Farm Bill expires; reversion to 1949 dairy law looms until a January 2013 extension averts the “milk cliff.”
• September 30, 2013 — Fiscal year ends without a new spending deal; a federal shutdown begins the next day, curtailing many USDA services.
• September 30, 2018 — The 2014 Farm Bill expires; several smaller, no-baseline programs lapse until the 2018 Farm Bill is signed in December.
• September 30, 2023 — The 2018 Farm Bill hits its scheduled sunset; a one-year extension enacted in November carries authorities through September 30, 2024.

The enduring lesson of September 30

If U.S. agriculture has a fiscal New Year’s Eve, it is September 30. The date gathers law, budgets, and data into a single inflection point at the height of harvest. Over time, the pattern is clear: when Congress hits its deadlines, farm country slides smoothly into the new year; when it does not, September 30 becomes a lever for policy negotiations—and a day when producers, processors, and rural communities must navigate uncertainty while the work of harvest carries on.