MANAGEMENT

In 1954, my grandfather bought a new International pickup truck to be used on the family farm. It was a unique green color and had all of the traditional features expected in a working farm truck.

In ordinary times, dairy farms would only apply manures to alfalfa fields before they were seeded to build fertility and then rely on commercial fertilizers, when needed, for annual top-dressing.

“Alexa, order me a pizza and find me a custom harvester.” Alexa, the voice-controlled virtual assistant created by Amazon, has skills. It’s entertaining, can play Jeopardy with you and can definitely order a pizza, but it likely won’t find you a custom harvester (not yet, anyway).

In part 1 of “9 things your banker doesn’t want to hear,” we discussed praying really hard for rain, paying employees cash, winning the lottery, bouncing checks and balance sheets (all such fun topics, am I right?). But I promised you nine items; so true to my word, here are the rest of the things your banker doesn’t want to hear:

Financing a farm or ranch is usually stressful – no matter on which side of the banker’s desk you sit.

Earlier this year, ag economists noted shrinking commodity prices and the lowest ag incomes since the recession – all in the midst of a trade war with China. And now the Federal Reserve is ending a prolonged period of low interest rates, and as a result, banks pushed the fixed rate on farm loans to a five-year high of 5.6 percent.

Appraising farmground isn’t an exact science, but the approaches and the details that can separate one property from a neighboring property are the same.