A coalition of more than 600 agricultural banking and insurance organizations -- including ABA -- and other ag industry constituents signed onto a letter to members of the Senate urging them to oppose any harmful amendments in the 2018 Farm Bill that would increase the cost of, reduce or limit participation in, or harm private sector delivery of crop insurance.

By a narrow vote of 213 to 211, the House today passed the 2018 farm bill, a crucial step toward ensuring the well-being of the nation’s farmers and ranchers and the 2,000 farm banks that serve them.

Despite the Farm Credit System’s supposed emphasis on lending to young, beginning and small farmers and ranchers, data in the FCS’s annual information statement for 2017 documents the declining importance of small borrowers to the FCS over the last several years. Although total FCS lending from year-end 2015 to year-end 2017 increased $22.9 billion, or 9.7 percent, the total amount ...

Farmer Mac reported $372.1 million in net new business for the first quarter of 2018, bringing its outstanding business volume to $19.4 billion.

By Bert Ely Several readers noted that last month’s Farm Credit Watch, issue #240, marked the 20th anniversary of the monthly publication of the FCW, which triggered a look-back at the FCW’s accomplishments over the last 20 years, and there have been a few. Perhaps the most significant has been educating bankers and other readers about what the FCS — ...

In a joint letter with the Independent Community Bankers of America yesterday, ABA wrote to leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees thanking them for their efforts to craft the 2018 Farm Bill.

To access the full 2017 Farm Bank Performance report, click here. 

The nation’s farm banks increased agricultural lending by nearly 6 percent, or $5.9 billion, to $106 billion in 2017, according to the American Bankers Association’s annual Farm Bank Performance Report released today.

By Bert Ely As last month’s Farm Credit Watch reported, the major tax bill Congress enacted at the end of last year added a new section 199A to the Internal Revenue Code, one portion of which would greatly benefit agricultural cooperatives at the expense of investor-owned grain companies of all sizes — not only Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland but ...

A little after midnight this morning, the Senate voted to pass a $1.3 trillion spending bill that will fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.