Farm bankruptcies

Chapter 12 bankruptcies are on the increase. But that statistic needs to be put into perspective, says Jackson Takach. He’s the chief economist for Farmer Mac is a farm. Bankruptcy is the chapter twelve, the specific chapter designed for America's farmers and fishers. They're up a little bit in twenty nineteen, so we've seen about 100 to one hundred twenty five more bankruptcies this year than we did in the prior year. It's been a little bit of an increasing trend. So there's some some concern there. Right. That's a it's a stressful situation for the families, for the farmers, for the lenders, everyone involved. It's not a fun thing to go through, but I will say is, although the percentage is sound alarming. So you hear numbers like 25 percent increase. They're still very small. So right now, we're experiencing about 2.7 bankruptcies per 10000 farms. And to put that into perspective, the last 10 years we've averaged two. So we've seen an increase of less than one farm per 10000 in entering bankruptcy.”

Farm bankers have observed that those who are managing their ag operations the best are the ones that have really taken to heart the farm business IQ. They understand that they're running a farm business. They're making business decisions, not emotional decisions. And they're working with the next generations from a succession perspective, planning, thinking ahead.