An analysis of the characteristics of farm businesses by size of FCS direct lending association suggests that further consolidation of FCS lending should have limited negative impacts on credit availability. Commercial-sized farm businesses with FCS real estate debt appeared similar to those who...

Risks associated with guarantees of land contracts are expected to be greater than guarantees of loans made by commercial lenders. Farmers utilizing seller-financing have greater debts, less cash flow, less equity in real estate, and less solvency than farmers utilizing regular FSA guarantees....

Results of a study completed for Congress indicate direct program borrowers are more financially stressed than guaranteed borrowers and that many current farm loan program borrowers may not be able to continue farming, at least in the short-term, without access to government subsidized credit....

Agricultural credit markets are dominated by two institutional retail lender groups, the cooperative Farm Credit System (FCS) and commercial banks. Together these two lender groups supply 70 percent of the farm sector’s total credit needs. This analysis uses USDA’s 2001 and 2002 Agricultural...