09/25/08 Economic crisis and it's ag impact

With the US economy in crisis and Congress talking bailouts American Farm Bureau's economist Jim Sartwelle says the credit market has tightened and more restrictions have been added. SARTWELLE "We are very reliant across agriculture on lines of credit because we only sell our products once a year. Agriculture for several decades now manages to clear their books at the end of the year where the rest of us seem to let debt pile up around our ears." Many farmers have to depend on a bank for a loan so that they can put seed into the ground and prepare crops for harvest later in the year. They are also paying record high prices for their inputs especially fuel and fertilizer. Now the investment business folks have retreated somewhat and that has taken money away from the agriculture commodity markets. SARTWELLE "It's lowered commodity prices some and we've seen the prices of almost all of our crop and livestock deals go down. As oil prices creep back up over a hundred dollars that is going to have an effect on the margins for our producers out there of crop and livestock both." Sartwelle says American agriculture 'has been very responsible.' Coming out of the ag credit crisis of the 80's the debt to asset ratio is very low. He says agriculture is in a better position to weather the economic storm we're in. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott