Reconciling reconciliation: trying to understand the process whilst attempting to evaluate its potential impacts. Congress is working to advance a budget reconciliation process that may require cutting at least $230…

The data series in the Federal Reserve District Surveys of Agricultural Credit Conditions compiles selected statistics from quarterly surveys conducted by participating Federal Reserve Districts. These surveys collect responses each…

The deadline to finalize 2025 crop insurance decisions is now less than a week away (March 17th). The harvest futures contracts for corn (December) and soybeans (November) have moved below…

While the ERS projects a 3.7% ($19.8 billion) rise in farm sector debt in 2025, anticipated declines in interest expenses and other input costs may alleviate pressure on farm balance sheets. Our analysis of Illinois grain farms reveals that while large farms have historically reported higher interest expense ratios, all farm sizes have shown similar trends over the past two decades. Larger farms tend to utilize debt more extensively, resulting in slightly higher interest expense-to-gross income ratios.

A contingency plan is a course of action designed to help a business determine how to respond to possible future events. Common contingency plans used by a business relate to how to respond to the departure or absence of key personnel and how to respond to changes in projected cash flows. Given the expected drop in crop prices this fall, it would be prudent for a farm to examine the sensitivity of their cash flow and repayment capacity to changes in crop prices.

Grocery prices play a large role in the public’s perceptions of inflation. In this article, we discuss public expectations for the impact of tariffs on food prices from the most recent wave of the Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey and changes in tracked measures of public expectations about inflation. In summary, we find that the majority of respondents across political parties expect tariffs to raise their food prices and are worried about the impact on their grocery bills.