Farmer Mac In Trouble Too?

Farmer Mac (Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation), said it too is suffering from bad investments in Fannie Mae and Lehman Brothers. National Farmers Union President Tom Buis said, “The nation’s financial troubles will affect farmers and ranchers. And the cost of money, the availability of money — you know, these capital markets, oftentimes, well, they’re generated at Wall Street. The availability of credit is really important, especially with the high input costs producers are dealing with.”

Doug Stark, President and CEO of Farm Credit Services of America, said FCS is in a good spot as a government sponsored entity. “We have strong options for producers. We’re able to access the credit markets very effectively yet, and obtain funding. The FCS also has good net income and is well positioned to help serve the credit needs of American’s ag producers.”

Farmer Mac is a federally-chartered ag lender that resells pools of farm loans on Wall Street and says losses from bad investments could drain more than $90 million from its capital base.