Minding Ag's Business

In the 1980s, when times got tough, many farmers went to town to find jobs or drove a truck in the winter to pay the farm's bills.

"There's no job we could go to, if we come up short, to make ends meet" in today's job market, said Ryan Bivens, a first-generation farmer in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

If a farmer took a job now with an average salary, which is about $66,000 per year according to the Social Security Administration, it wouldn't be enough to cover the interest payment on a $1-million operating note at today's rates.

What's more, as competition for farmland grows and prices rise, it's harder for farmers to buy the asset that could ultimately lead to better profit margins by lowering land costs.

"I'm afraid we're getting ready to lose a generation of farmers," Bivens said. Part of his fear is that bankers with experience from the 1980s farm crisis are retiring.

Bivens is grateful that his lender worked on special assets, another term for troubled loans, in the 1980s, because it gave his banker long-term perspective.

"We're losing that institutional knowledge," Bivens said, adding that crop operations that worked through their debt in the 1980s emerged on the other side as bigger, stronger operations today. Bivens explained how his banker helped him grow the farm from an FFA project into a 10,000-acre operation in "Lessons From a Bank Breakup," in the Progressive Farmer October 2025 magazine issue. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

At the same time, farmers have more financing options than ever before. Beyond traditional banks and Farm Credit organizations, private equity-backed lenders offer terms that rely on things like crop insurance and hedging strategies. Input supplier and vendor financing can free up operating notes to pay other bills. You can read more on the evolution of agricultural financing in "Shop for a Lender," in Progressive Farmer October 2025 magazine issue. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

The change in agricultural finance has been stark, not just since the 1980s but even in the last decade, said John Mamam, Nutrien Financial's senior director of North America.

"We have a lot more tools and resources to be more successful," he said. "We have better transparency to see all of our finances."

Katie Dehlinger can be reached at katie.dehlinger@dtn.com

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