Pub. 11 2016-2017 Issue 4

November/December 2016 29 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. USDA, through the Farm Service Agency, now provides a credible guaranteed loan program that has enabled banks nationwide to extend credit tomore than 35,000 farmers who would not qualify for credit without the guaranty. Demands for funding of the guaranteed loan programhit all-time highs in 2016, reflecting the expanded use of the programby bankers and perhaps increased scrutiny of farm loans by bank examin- ers. Expect to see continued high demand for this program. Bankers have access to better farm financial statements than ever before. Following the farm financial crisis in the 1980s, a group of bankers got together to try to standardize what constituted a standard set of farm financial statements and to reach some agreement on how to analyze them. The result, under the stewardship of the FarmFinancial Standards Council, is an industry-agreed-to set of financial statements for agricultural producers and an agreed-to set of financial ratios that bankers use to analyze the information. Agricultural lending is a key component of the success of many community banks, and it will remain so. Nebraska banks that have the desire and the staff needed to stay in agricultural banking will find new opportunities in this environment. It will not be easy, but it can be done.  John Blanchfield has been a frequent speaker at NBA events including the NBA’s Spring Agri-business Conference in Kearney, Neb. Blanchfield owns Agricultural Banking Advisory Services, an independent consultancy that works for agricultural banks and their customers. He oversaw agricultural banking policy for the American Bankers Association in Washington, D.C., for more than 25 years. He can be reached at john.blanchfield@verizon.net . While all of this economic data points to a rather grim reality, some mitigating factors will make the adjustments being made by farmers less painful.