A survey of bankers in the 11th Federal Reserve District say that, that while loans for farm equipment fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2018, so did the loan demands in other areas of agriculture. The district covers all of Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico and 100 bankers responded the this most recent survey.

It wasn’t good news this summer to see ag producers’ pessimism when asked what they thought the future had in store for the value of their land. But it appears that within the last month or two they have become more optimistic about the future of their land values.

The number of bankers reporting third quarter declines was larger than 3 months ago and they expect farm income and expenditures to decline again in the fourth quarter.

The quarterly report shows the availability of funds for lending by agricultural banks was lower than in 2017 for the fifth quarter in a row. At the same time, the demand for non-real estate farm loans was higher than a year earlier.

Nathan Kauffman, vice president and Omaha Branch executive with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, says this is due to a number of reasons such as the gradual deterioration of ag credit conditions, intensifying trade disputes and low commodity prices. Kauffman dove deep into the numbers during a webinar presentation, hosted by Ag Equipment Intelligence. Kaufmann shared some key economic indicators for both the ag economy and the broader U.S. economy. The period of 2007-13 was definitely an economic low point for the aggregate economy, as consumer spending and the Federal Funds Rate (the interest rate banks lend to each other, as set by the Federal Reserve) declined during that period.