Rural Issue

Farm debt growing but delinquency rates low

The gradual slowing of the farm economy is outlined in a new report from the Kansas City Federal Reserve. Omaha branch economist Cortney Cowley says further increases in farm debt are a growing concern in the Fed’s Tenth District.

“We’re not quite ready to say that the sky is falling, but most of the indicators we collect with our ag credit survey—covering credit conditions, farm income, farm household and capital spending, and farmland values—most of those indicators were down during the fourth quarter of 2015 when comparing to the fourth quarter of 2014, and then also in the first quarter of 2016, which our most recent report covers,” Cowley says.

The one positive, Cowley says, is that farm loan delinquency rates continue to remain historically low.