webinar<\/a> on the data that a continued slump in crop prices is driving farm incomes down.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re seeing, overall, the market conditions are sort of dominating,\u201d Mahon said during the presentation. \u201cStrong production should offset some of (the lower prices), so that\u2019s good news to farmers. But we\u2019re not necessarily seeing that balance out in terms of higher income because prices are so low.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rene Johnson, senior vice president of agricultural lending at Lake Ridge Bank, told WPR that the farmers she works with in southern Wisconsin are eager to see what their balance sheets look like at the end of harvest.<\/p>\n
Producers who were able to lock in a profitable sale price at the start of the year or who found discounts on fertilizer and other inputs will be better off, she said. Like most industries, farmers have felt the squeeze of higher prices for labor, fuel and equipment thanks to inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe profit margin is tighter than it has been in a long time,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
But Johnson said lower repayment rates or more loan renewals don\u2019t mean that farms are unable to pay their bills. She said the farmers who she works with are simply being more conservative with the cash they do have by making minimum payments on their loans instead of paying ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson said some producers have sought out ways to add income to their farm through trucking services or finishing beef cattle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are being very creative and adding things that they can add easily to their farm without a lot of investment,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re also looking at non-productive assets that maybe they could sell to generate cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found nearly half of surveyed bankers are predicting an increase in forced sales or liquidations of farm assets in the next three to six months compared to a year ago. The report highlighted that one banker in Illinois suggested profit losses in 2025 could lead to \u201cliquidation of farmland to inject additional working capital into farming operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Federal Reserve surveys found that farmland in the region has held steady despite tougher market conditions. In southern, central and eastern Wisconsin, lenders reported good farmland was 4 percent higher than the same time last year. Bankers in western and northern parts of the state reported a nearly 5 percent decline in land values, but Mahon cautioned that lower survey response rates in the region could affect the accuracy of that number.<\/p>\n
Johnson said strong land values have provided more equity for farms to balance their books during a challenging market. And she said low crop prices haven\u2019t held back the demand for land in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still farmland selling, and there\u2019s still qualified buyers out there who are able to buy it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2025, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Agricultural bankers in Wisconsin and neighboring states report feeling pessimistic about farmers\u2019 profitability at the end of 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-318908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}