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2013 Fourth Quarter

2013 Fourth Quarter


Farm income increased in the fourth quarter of 2013 from a year earlier according to a survey of 49 agricultural banks in the Eighth District. Quality farmland prices rebounded in the fourth quarter after falling modestly in the third quarter. Quality farmland prices in the fourth quarter were up 12.2 percent from a year earlier. However, proportionately more respondents expect farm income and quality farmland values to decline over the next three months compared with year earlier levels. Respondents also expect farm household expenditures and farm equipment expenditures in the first quarter of 2014 to be lower than a year earlier. This survey included two special questions. In the first, a modest majority of bankers believe that a reduced federal mandate for biofuel usage will lead to some reduction in quality farmland values. In the second, bankers believe that lower-than-expected commodity prices in 2014, by far, pose the greatest risk to the farm sector.