Number of U.S. farm bankruptcies increasing

Nov 04, 2019

More than 500 farmers filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy in one year

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

More U.S. farmers are filing for Chapter 12 bankruptcy, new data suggests.

The number of Chapter 12 (a specific chapter for farms and fishing operations) filings increased to 580 between September 2018 and 2019, data from the U.S. Courts says.

That number is up from 498 in 2018, but shy of the 676 filings in 2011.

Just about every state had at least one farm bankruptcy filed.

Only Nevada, Utah and New Mexico had none.

The states with the highest number of Chapter 12 filings include Wisconsin (48), Nebraska, Kansas and Georgia each had 37, and Minnesota had 31.

Multiple issues have contributed to the rise in bankruptcies.

“Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies continue to increase as farmers and ranchers struggle with a prolonged downturn in the farm economy that’s been made worse by unfair retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agriculture as well as two consecutive years of adverse planting, growing and harvesting conditions,” John Newton, chief economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), said in an article on the organization’s website.

One reason for the bankruptcy trend is cash flow.

“I think that is the key, (farmers) have been reducing expenses for the last five years, so we’re keeping expenses down,” Galen Larson, president of Platte Valley Ag Credit Co. at the Platte Valley Bank in Scottsbluff, Neb., told KTIC. “It’s just taking advantage of when the market presents itself to take the price.”

Farms.com has reached out to the AFBF for comment.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.