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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.
Farm Credit’s Lax Standards
Congress needs to act. The FCS has shown, repeatedly, that it cares more about profits than it does farmers, especially young, beginning and small farmers. Congress, take action: keep the FCS in line by cracking down and making sure that a certain percentage of loans are for small, young and beginning farmers. Future Americans will thank you.
Let’s Really Help Farmers
The FCS has neglected the credit needs of young, beginning and small farmers for at least a decade. Instead of making loans to the people who need credit the most, FCS lenders have dominated the agricultural real estate lending market, holding over half of all real estate loans.
Big Surprise! Farm Credit Faced Yet Another Oversight Hearing
The Farm Credit System (FCS) and the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), only a month after being exposed at the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee oversight hearing, were called before the House Committee on Agriculture for a “review”. Review is a bit of an understatement; if the FCS and the FCA have any more reviews like this then they’ll suffocate under the weight of the criticism.
Farm Credit Faced an Oversight Hearing – Again
Rep. DeLauro has said what many have thought: Congress desperately needs to reform Farm Credit. So far, multiple committees in both the House and the Senate have decided that Congress needs to take a closer look at the FCS and the FCA. And it should, because the FCS is on the precipice: it is growing larger every day, small farmers are being neglected and the FCS continues to make loans outside of its mission. Congress needs to act now.