COVID-19 Response: Farm Credit Steps Up in Even the Most Challenging Times | Farm Credit Skip to main content

Farm Credit is committed to helping America's producers identify and cope with stress. Learn more about our Rural Resilience training.

☰
Home

Mobile Navigation

  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • How We're Structured
    • Our History
    • One Mission. Many Voices.
  • Our Customers
    • Agricultural Producers
    • Young, Beginning & Small Farmers
    • Rural Infrastructure Providers
    • Farmer-Owned Cooperatives & Agribusinesses
    • Rural Homebuyers
    • Agricultural Exports
  • Community Engagement
  • Issues
    • Farm Bill
    • Fly-In 2021
    • Crop Insurance
    • Rural Infrastructure
    • Regulatory
  • In Your State
Login
Members Area
Edit Profile
Logout

Secondary Menu

  • Search
  • Careers
  • News & Media Resources
  • Take Action
Home

Secondary Menu

  • Search
  • Careers
  • News & Media Resources
  • Take Action
Login
Welcome | Members Area
Logout
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • How We're Structured
    • Our History
    • One Mission. Many Voices.
  • Our Customers
    • Agricultural Producers
    • Young, Beginning & Small Farmers
    • Rural Infrastructure Providers
    • Farmer-Owned Cooperatives & Agribusinesses
    • Rural Homebuyers
    • Agricultural Exports
  • Community Engagement
  • Issues
    • Farm Bill
    • Fly-In 2021
    • Crop Insurance
    • Rural Infrastructure
    • Regulatory
  • In Your State

COVID-19 Response: Farm Credit Steps Up in Even the Most Challenging Times

May 26 2020
Farm Credit associations across the country support farmers, ranchers and rural communities in good times and bad, and the COVID-19 crisis is no exception.

The novel coronavirus compounded an already challenging time for agriculture. Low commodity prices, trade wars and frequent extreme weather events have kept farmers and ranchers scraping by for several years. Understanding these underlying issues, Farm Credit lenders intensified their focus on working with individual customers to help in these unprecedented times.

A global crisis felt locally
News reports remind us daily of the immeasurable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture. In cities and towns across America, people are out of work, increasingly food insecure and without many options. And the food supply chain? Stretched and strained beyond any point imaginable. 

Farmers across the industry face challenges 
While all farmers are struggling, dairy producers have felt the impact acutely. Again, coming off five or more very challenging years, the loss of sales to restaurants and schools created even more problems. While plenty of production exists on farms from coast to coast, the processing plants that fill the typical grocery store-sized containers cannot keep up with demand. This has caused farmers to dump milk while consumers have limits on purchases or see empty coolers at the stores. 

The situation has been similar for produce growers. While they may have ample food in the fields ready for harvest, due to social distancing recommendations to keep employees safe, there simply aren’t enough hands to harvest all the produce all before it rots. The result? Some farmers feel they have no other option but to plow under fields and fields of once-edible, but now disintegrating, fruits and vegetables. 

Livestock producers face perhaps an even more challenging decision. With nowhere to take their market-ready animals as meat packing plants both close and decrease production due to the spread of the virus, some livestock producers are faced with the challenging decision to ethically euthanize their animals.

Consumers, on the other hand, are stuck at home with nowhere to go, which means that their need for ethanol to fuel their vehicles has plummeted. This sudden change has hit farmers in the Grain Belt hardest, as already-low commodity prices are driven even lower. Meanwhile, nursery crop producers were just gearing up for the spring planting season when COVID-19 hit, leaving them with a season’s worth of plants and no one to buy them. 

Fuel to the fire
This laundry list of challenges come at a time when many farmers have already been struggling to make ends meet. Always looking for ways to stay on the farm regardless of the pressure it may put on their finances, many producers had grown dependent on off-farm income to sustain their families and their ag businesses. Those jobs also provide healthcare for many families. However, as unemployment rises in the face of the pandemic, those benefits and income have become less secure, if not nonexistent, compounding farmers’ already challenging circumstances. 

Farm Credit associations support their customers via flexibility 
Whether you milk cows, grow cabbages, raise cattle, harvest corn or grow nursery crops, farmers across the agriculture sector are hurting. And Farm Credit institutions have done what we always do. In the face of great challenge, we have stepped up, working day and night to do everything we can to support customers through this unprecedented time. 

First and foremost, Farm Credit associations have continued to meet farmers’ and ranchers’ financing needs despite work-from home mandates and the social distancing practices put in place to protect the health and safety of both customers and employees. 

Understanding the vitality of flexibility amid the chaos, Farm Credit associations have implemented emergency measures for their customers such as interest-only payment agreements, payment deferrals and loan restructuring. 

If there has ever been an instance when widespread support from Farm Credit is crucial, that time is now. And we’re here, we’ve been here, and we will continue to be here, prepared and ready to help. 

This is the first blog post in the series, “Farm Credit COVID-19 Response.” Read on for information highlighting Farm Credit’s efforts to help our customers access federal emergency funds. 
 

Stand Up for Agriculture!

Sign up to help Farm Credit advocate for issues important to farmers, ranchers and the rural communities they call home.

Related Blogs

SEE ALL
Blog
Agriculture Future of America Engages Students in Conversations about Diversity in Agriculture
March 18 2021
Blog
Agriculture in the Classroom Teaches More Than You’d Think
March 16 2021
Blog
Supporting the Future of Ag Via Experiential Learning
February 19 2021
Blog
“It’s okay to not be okay” Destigmatizing mental health conversations in rural communities
February 10 2021
Blog
Becoming a Financial Superhero at the 2021 FFA Horizon Conference
February 04 2021
Blog
Air Force Veteran-Turned-Sheep Farmer with Help from Farm Credit
February 02 2021
Blog
Farm Bureau Announces 2021 Ag Innovation Challenge Winners
January 20 2021
Blog
2020’s Twelve Days of Farm Credit
December 25 2020
Blog
Top Ten Entrepreneurs Gear up for the 2021 Ag Innovation Challenge
December 24 2020
Blog
Native Students Propose Projects for the Continued Growth of Indian Ag
December 02 2020

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • …
  • Next page ›
  • Last page Last

Footer

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Investor Information
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
facebook twitter instagram