Latest News
Reform Farm Credit 2017 Year in Review
Happy New Year! Reform Farm Credit (RFC) has been hard at work for three years, making sure that the Farm Credit System (FCS) follows the rules, Continue Reading
Farm Credit Deposits Are Unlawful, Uninsured and At Risk
Before and after its bailout in the 1980s, the Farm Credit System’s (FCS) M.O. has been to expand its activities beyond what Congress has authorized. Continue Reading
Farm Credit’s Unfair Edge on Appraising Creates Conflicts of Interest
The details are everything. One gritty detail, often overlooked, is that Farm Credit is allowed to have in-house appraisers Continue Reading
Lone Star Ag Credit’s ‘Irregularities
The Farm Credit System (FCS) can’t seem to shake its reputation for shoddy accounting and questionable deals. Continue Reading
The Farm Credit System Is Not Meeting Its Goals
Farm Credit associations are mandated by law to track their loans to young, beginning and small (YBS) farmers. Continue Reading
When Will Farm Credit Help Beginning Farmers
Leave it to the Farm Credit System (FCS) and its defenders to say the obvious and do little to actually bring it about. Young, beginning and small farmers across the country are hungry for credit, and the FCS has an abundance of resources to lend to them. According to Farms.com, the Farm Credit Council’s (FCC) Mark Hayes recently said “If someone is going to get started in farming they need to be able to get to the point of being commercially viable.”
Huge FCS Merger Leaves Compeer Financial High on the Hog
On June 27, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) Board gave approval for the creation of Compeer Financial through a merger of Badgerland Financial, 1st Farm Credit Services and AgStar Financial Services. “The merger, proposed last September, was finalized on July 1 after 18 months of discussion and voting by the new organization’s 43,000-plus member-owners, of whom about 16,000 are in Wisconsin,” reported The Wisconsin State Journal. “Its ‘bread and butter service’ is lending, though Compeer also provides crop insurance, appraisals, and tax and accounting services in Wisconsin.”
The issues arising from this merger are manifold.
Cap and Frown: FCS targets bankrupt college
Farm Credit Mid-America, an association of the Farm Credit System (FCS), is there to offer “unique solutions” for their customers’ needs. And Farm Credit Mid-America was there for its client, to the tune of a $27 million loan
Sound strange? It should.
Credit where credit’s due
If it were a bank, the Farm Credit System (FCS) would be the seventh largest in the country. At $320 billion in total assets, the FCS has grown beyond its mission. How did it get there?
There are many reasons, but one’s certain: it has neglected the credit needs of young, beginning and small farmers.