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Senate Marks Up the 2013 Farm Bill

With the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act, the era of direct payments is over. Instead of subsidies that pay out every year even in good times, the bill creates risk management tools that support farmers when they are negatively impacted by weather disaster or market events beyond their control.

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  • May 21, 2013
    blog

    Perspectives on U.S. Farm Debt

    There is considerable discussion among agricultural economists and lenders concerning the status and trends of U.S. farm debt. Let’s dig deeper into the subject and provide perspective....More
  • May 21, 2013
    blog

    Farmers’ Share of Losses

    With the farm bill in what could be the final stages before vote, there’s still some talk of cutting crop insurance subsidies. This led Tom Zacharias, president of National Crop Insurance Services to point out that before farmers received a dime in crop insurance indemnity payments, they had shouldered $12.7 billion in losses as part of their deductibles to crop insurance policies. In addition, the premiums paid by farmers totaled $4.1 billion – bringing their share of the disaster to $16.8 billion....More
  • May 16, 2013
    blog

    How Do You Define Success?

    Some define success as the long-term succession of your kids at the farm. Albert Schweitzer defined success as loving what you do. How you treat others, from family to strangers, is Barbara Bush's definition of success....More
  • May 16, 2013
    Article

    House Ag Committee Approves Farm Bill 


    Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN) issued the following statements after the House Agriculture Committee approved the farm bill, H.R. 1947, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013, by a large, bipartisan vote of 36-10. Committee members also adopted, by voice vote, an en bloc amendment....More
  • May 14, 2013
    blog

    Shock and Stress Testing: Analysis by Lenders

    One of the major financial shock tests that a lender must perform concerns concentration of credit. Regulators and oversight specialists are very concerned about this component as agriculture consolidates with fewer producers generating more of the revenue and carrying a larger proportion of the debt....More
  • May 13, 2013
    Article

    House Ag Committee Drafts Farm Bill

    On May 10, the House Ag Committee marked up their version of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM) Act of 2013. It is nearly identical to the bill marked up last summer....More
  • May 10, 2013
    Article

    Senate Marks Up the 2013 Farm Bill

    With the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act, the era of direct payments is over. Instead of subsidies that pay out every year even in good times, the bill creates risk management tools that support farmers when they are negatively impacted by weather disaster or market events beyond their control....More
  • May 9, 2013
    Article

    7 Questions About the Farm Bill

    Farm Bill markup likely will begin soon in both the Senate and House Agricultural committees. Much of the focus for traditional program crops will be around three programs: a revenue program, a target price program and a supplemental crop insurance program. While the exact nature of the programs will depend on negotiations, what is almost certain is that the programs' rationale will be risk management. Given a risk management focus, farm bill negotiations will need to debate and somehow resolve the following seven questions....More
  • May 7, 2013
    blog

    Financial Shock and Stress Testing

    The other day a young producer was concerned because he had difficulty obtaining his operating loan for yearly operations. He stated that the lender performed financial shock tests that raised concerns about his financial status. Let’s examine some of the financial shock tests that are top of mind with your lender, and particularly the regulators that provide oversight on agricultural loans....More
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