Off-farm financial investments, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and certificates of deposit, can offer farmers significant opportunities for diversification. Moreover, deregulation of financial markets in the 1980s enhanced the ability of farmers to invest in these financial assets. This...

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 made permanent the interest assistance program for the Farm Service Agency's guaranteed loans, authorized a significant increase in funding for the program, and targeted funding for beginning farmers and ranchers. The research presented here...

The U.S. biofuel industry is striving to produce ethanol from cellulosic feedstock sources in an effort to augment its existing corn grain-based ethanol production infrastructure. Technology to commercially produce cellulosic ethanol is rapidly advancing due in large part to the availability of...

The performance of over 500 North Dakota farms, 1993-1995, is summarized using 16 financial measures. Farms are categorized by geographic region, farm type, farm size, gross cash sales, farm tenure, net farm income, debt-to-asset, and age of farmer to analyze relationships between financial...

End-of-year financial data from 700 farms enrolled in North Dakota Farm Business Management Education Program for the years 1992 to 1994 are analyzed according to 16 financial standards. All median profitability measures, median term debt coverage, term debt and capital margin, and median net...