Wisconsin Farmer Woes
While the economy in general struggles with credit crunches and hard times, an oft overlooked sector of the economy has been having it double tough. About ten percent of the farmers in Wisconsin right now are facing significant repayment problems, debt that is piling on and threatening to take their farms down (according to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank). This means that again, about ten percent of the farmers in Wisconsin can’t get a farm loan that they may need to keep the business going.
Simple operating loans are a way of life for these farms. Without a good loan at the right time of the year, seeds may not be planted, fertilizer applied, or sprinklers kept running—which makes any return on investment at the end of the growing season unlikely.
Dairy has it the worst, which is worth noting as dairy farming is as core to Wisconsin as the Packers and Cheese hats, representing the state’s single largest source of farm revenue. With diminishing farm equity, bad credit, and little federal help these farms are in a tough spot, a problem easily twice as severe as in Iowa or other non-dairy centric states.
While this depleted present is making securing new loans difficult, it is also making it hard for farmers to make any headway paying off long term expansion or start-up loans, which are almost requisite for the business. This is resulting in farmers stepping in and dropping their own personal savings to keep the fields planted. While the government is stepping in to keep places open, getting them back to a profitable state seems unlikely for the near future.
