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Farm Credit system holding up in down ag economy

The farm credit system seems to be holding up during the down ag economy.

Rod Hebrink is CEO of farm credit institution Compeer Financial.

“The farm credit system is doing very, very well. And I think there are a number of reasons for that. One, all of us have, or at least for those of us who were around through the 80’s still remember that period of time. I think it changed the lending industry in total.”

After the 80’s farm crisis, he tells Brownfield lenders went away from basing loans on assets and instead focused on cash-flow.

“And you come into this period of time (and) that (change) is serving the needs of our clients well also because they have less debt than they otherwise have had. Their debt has been structured appropriately around the long-term income producing capacity of their operations.”

Hebrink describes the farm credit system as healthy, well-capitalized, and says lenders like Compeer are in an excellent position to meet the needs of farmers across the country.