Agricultural Finance Databook

Government payments have improved the outlook for farm finances, but like the general economy, that outlook remains highly uncertain amid the pandemic, said a Federal Reserve report on Thursday.

Farm lending has stabilized in the face of low agricultural profit margins, says a quarterly Federal Reserve report on ag banks. Operating loans, to pay day-to-day expenses, have accounted for nearly 60 percent of non-real-estate loans for the past year, "the highest in the 40 year survey history," says the report of conditions nationwide.

Low crop prices and high production costs depressed profits for farmers in the closing months of 2014, "leading to a sharp rise in farm-sector borrowing and a slight decline in farmland values," said the Agricultural Finance Databook produced by the...

Agricultural banks say loan volume for feeder livestock rose by 50 percent in the second quarter of this year after rising by 13 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve in its Agricultural Finance Databook.