News

Managing interest rates

A financial adviser says farmers should consider locking in their interest rates to help manage their risk. Roger Smith is a senior financial credit officer with Farm Credit Mid America in Central Ohio.

“I’ve encouraged my customers specifically to look at fixing interest rates on their term debt so that they don’t get any surprises down the road” says Smith.

Smith says many farmers he deals with lived through the ag economic crisis of the 1980’s.

“A lot of the farmers who remember that have done a lot to fix their interest rates and take away some of that risk of interest rates creeping up on them in the future” says Smith.

Smith says interest rates have slowly increased the last few years while prices and revenues have not.  Brownfield spoke with Smith at the 2017 Ohio Pork Congress.

Audio: Roger Smith, Senior Financial Credit Officer, Farm Credit Mid-America, Utica OH