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Missouri farmers face tight margins as loan renewal season approaches

Ag economist Ben Brown with University of Missouri Extension says row crop farmers and ag lenders will have some difficult conversations in the upcoming loan renewal season.

“We’ve had three years now on the row crop side of negative to tight margins, financial margins, working down some of that working capital.”

He says the outlook for crop prices and profitability look better heading into 2026, but “That’s a long way away. A lot of things can change, and that doesn’t give cash to farmers right now. We’re still very much in this tight farm environment, tight farm economy.”

Brown says the farms that entered 2025 financially strong remain stable, while those who started the year weaker continued to see declining finances.

“A lot of those well financial positioned farms that we’re seeing in our farm level data are well established farms that are multi generation. In some cases, they have a combination of crops and livestock, and they’ve been relatively disciplined on their cost side,” he says. “They have a lower cash rental rate for instance.”

Brownfield interviewed Brown at an ag lending event in central Missouri.