Farm Stress From The Perspective Of An Ag Lender

When talking about stress in the farm sector, what do Ag lenders see?

"I would say that weather has amplified and already tenuous Ag situation," said Shane Haynes, CEO of Kansas-based Hertland Tri-State Bank.  "Banks are restructuring loans with real estate. The bad weather has reduced real estate values locally in some markets and that makes it difficult to restructure and inject working capital. Farmers are becoming more financially stressed and farm loan credit portfolios are beginning to show it. AG portfolios are deteriorating."

Haynes added the numbers dramatically tell the story farmers face.

"The median gross farm income in 2012. It was $189,000 was $28,600 in 2018."

That's an 85% drop.  Lenders said things would be worse this year if not for government trade payments, crop insurance, and higher limits on the amounts farmers can from FSA.