The CEO of Farm Credit Illinois says the ag economy continues to show signs of stress. Kelly Hunt says some difficult conversations took place during the cooperative’s loan renewal season.
“We’re probably seeing some of those extensions come out of the season a little bit more so than we have in the past.” She says, “It’s just a lot of uncertainty. There are a lot of the same conversations that we have been having now for two, three years.”
Despite that, Hunt tells Brownfield Ag News…
“I think that the way that we’re working with our members, and what we’re seeing our members do, and their ways of making adjustments where there need to be adjustments made, I have a pretty positive outlook on how they do navigate and end up coming out of this downturn,” she says.
Hunt says those adjustments range from taking additional steps to managing risk, diversifying operations, and fine-tuning operating budgets and efficiencies.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
This is not our first rodeo with the ag economy. During the extreme downturn in the 1980’s, farmers/ranchers learned a great deal about how to survive by taking quick, decisive remedial actions. In early 2010’s, a similar downturn took place, and once again the lessons from the past proved useful. The assessment from one of the leading financial lenders in ag is reassuring in the sense that farmers/ranchers are once again taking steps to mitigate the impact of tougher economic conditions. Yes, there will be some who do not survive, but the ones who do will be much stronger and wiser as a result of lessons learned and executed during this time.
As a reminder, one of the tools you have available to you is CADFI, which assists farmers with their business finances. A loan program which allows farmers to bundle purchases from you and our AgPack® partners. It matches payment schedules with income streams, be it monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or even annually. If you’re not familiar with the program, give us a call or look it up on our website or on the convenient dealer app available at your app store.
