Kansas City Fed
High interest rates discouraging farmers from borrowing money
Ag bankers say farmers are tapping their savings from recent boom years instead of borrowing money at what are the highest interest rates since 2007. The average operating loan issued this past summer was nearly 20 percent smaller than the average a year ago, the lenders said in surveys by regional Federal Reserve banks.
Some signs of softening farmland values, says Fed economist
Although farmland values are strong, some ag bankers report a downturn in prices in the central Plains after a three-year run-up in values, said senior economist Cortney Cowley of the Kansas City Federal Reserve on Wednesday. The majority of bankers, however, expect farmland values to hold steady or increase moderately.
Operating loans drive decline in ag lending
With federal pandemic aid in their hands, farmers and ranchers borrowed far less money than usual from ag bankers during the opening months of this year for equipment, livestock, and operating expenses, according to a Federal Reserve survey of commercial lenders.
Strongest farm outlook in years, say ag bankers
Federal payments offset declines in farm revenue
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.
Trump tariff payments bolster farmer income
Although ag bankers in the Midwest and Plains say the administration's multibillion-dollar trade war payments were a boon to farmers and ranchers, some lenders are still concerned about underlying weaknesses in the sector.
As tariffs pressure crop prices, farmers lean on bankers
For three decades, the cycle was predictable for agricultural bankers: Farmers would use money from the sale of crops harvested in the fall to pay down their debts during the winter. But this year broke the pattern. Farm debt increased during the first quarter, said the Federal Reserve in a report that pointed to trade disputes and burdensome crop stockpiles as the likely causes.
Muted impact as bankers raise interest rates on loans to farmers
Agricultural bankers are slowly raising the interest rate on loans to farmers and ranchers, with the largest increases on the short-term operating loans that account for 60 percent of new, non-real estate farm loans at the banks, said the Ag Finance Databook published by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. "Although farm debt also has continued to rise alongside higher rates, the increase in interest expense has remained relatively small."
The dominant request bankers hear from farmers: An operating loan
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.
Farmland values stabilize in Midwest, sink in western Plains
For the first time since the summer of 2015, farmland values in the Midwest are holding steady, says the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. In a quarterly survey, agricultural bankers told the regional Fed that they expect land values to remain stable through spring.
Fed banks report weak farm credit conditions
Agricultural credit conditions throughout the Tenth Federal Reserve District of western Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and northern New Mexico continued to deteriorate in the second quarter of 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported, and bankers "expect farm income to remain weak in the third quarter."
Slump in commodity prices pulls down Farm Belt land values
Farm bankers across the Midwest and Plains say that the persistent slump in crop and livestock prices pulled down farmland prices, with further declines expected through spring.
High demand by farmers for short-term operating loans
With farm income down in 2015, persistently high need by farmers and ranchers for short-term loans "amplified concerns about farm sector liquidity moving into 2016, especially if farmers' profit margins remain low," said the Ag Finance Databook published by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. The book, produced quarterly and looking at agriculture nationwide, said, "Loans used to finance current operating expenses remained at record levels, while most other types of non-real estate loans declined slightly."
‘Further tightening in the agricultural economy’ – Fed
U.S. inventories of corn, soybeans and wheat more than doubled on average since 2013 while consumption has stagnated, says the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. "The outlook for the agricultural economy has continued to become more pessimistic."
In downward cycle, Ag’s impact felt on Main Street
Main Street businesses in the Plains are feeling the pinch of lower commodity prices while producers throughout the Farm Belt are watching their pennies, said quarterly reports from three regional Federal Reserve banks.
As crop income falls, farmers borrow more operating money
Farmers in the Midwest and Plains - the major regions for corn, wheat and soybean production - are borrowing money to pay short-term operating expenses because shrinking crop income makes it harder to pay cash, according to a survey of ag bankers.
Economist predicts break-even farm revenue for years to come
After the fall-off from record-high corn, soybean and wheat prices in 2012, Purdue economist Mike Boehlje says growers can expect to "bounce along close to break-even for five to 10 years," reports DTN.
Weaker farm income to pull down land value in Plains
Farm bankers in the central Plains "expect cropland values to fall alongside reduced expectations for farm income" this year, said the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in its quarterly Agricultural Credit Conditions report.