Ag Credit Conditions Recover in the Third Quarter

Dec 04, 2020

By Cortney Cowley

Third Quarter Federal Reserve District Ag Credit Surveys

Farm loan demand moderated in all Federal Reserve districts for the first time since 2013 in the third quarter. Although a majority of bankers in the Dallas District have reported lower lending activity since 2016, the third quarter was the first time in seven years that bankers reported a decline in the credit needs of farm borrowers in all districts (Chart 1).

The pace of growth in available funds, however, continued to increase in most districts. In all Districts, funding at agricultural banks was likely supported by higher deposits and an influx of liquidity from Federal Reserve and government programs following the outbreak of COVID-19 (Chart 2). In fact, in the second quarter, 85% of bankers in the Kansas City District reported that deposits were higher than a year ago.\

Alongside reduced lending activity, agricultural credit conditions improved somewhat in the third quarter. Although most bankers continued to report that farm income and repayments rates were lower than a year ago, the pace of decline slowed in all districts (Chart 3). Compared to last year, farm finances seemed to stabilize the most in the Chicago and Minneapolis districts, where corn and soybeans make up a larger share of farm revenues.

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Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.