Financial Programs Designed for the Ag Industry

Financial Programs Designed for the Ag Industry

Financial Programs Designed for the Ag Industry. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

One thing is for sure, to be a farmer you need to have a good line of credit and a financial institution that will work with you. Paul DeBriyn with AgStar Financial says that while farmers always need more money, right now they are doing pretty well.

DeBRIYN: We’ve got a lot of farmers that are pretty cash flush right now and, which is good, and we promote liquidity and having working capital because we have such volatile markets today and so in order to sort of endure the cycles that occur having liquidity and working capital are important so you are right. Farmers need cash and they need capital and they’re always very intensive as far as the investments they have to make in agriculture. So the need for capital and cash is a very important thing.

So where does AgStar Financial fit into this whole picture?

DeBRIYN: AgStar is a part of the Farm Credit system and so we provide loans; ag real estate loans, operating loans, all types of leases to farmers and so we help provide capital to finance their business.

I asked DeBriyn what he thought was the most important thing is right now for ag producers to think about when it comes to the financial side of their operation.

DeBRIYN: Well I think the most important thing is number one is agricultural producers and farmers need to understand their numbers and I think we have a lot of operations that have grown faster than what their record keeping system may be and so I think number one is they have to understand kind of what their numbers are overall and what their financial position is. And then secondly is to really take a look at risk management and how they can take and figure out how to market their products and also at the same time lock in their expenses so it’s also very much about risk management so I’d say really understanding their numbers - really about looking at risk management.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
 

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