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Ag banker concerned about lengthy downturn in farm economy

An ag banker is concerned about a prolonged downturn in the farm economy.

Ed Elfmann is with the American Bankers Association.

“USDA is predicting a 27 percent drop in farm income over the next year, who knows what next year will look like into ’25.”

He tells Brownfield agriculture is cyclical.

“We’ve seen these cycles before, 2012 to 2014. The early 90’s we had a downturn. The 80’s is its own outlier, special case.”

Elfmann says in times like these farmers need solutions and the association supports the ACRE Act in Congress because it would lower interest rates on farm real estate loans.