In an era of rapid consolidation in banking, the effect of mergers on the availability of credit to agricultural businesses is unclear. Commercial bank mergers have profoundly altered the urban credit marketplace and are positioned to do the same for the agricultural credit marketplace....

We search for evidence consistent with the notion that endogenous credit constraints play a role in cattle cycles. Beef cow inventories are found to be more sensitive to credit constraints during periods of falling than rising asset values. Inventories of heifer replacements exhibit only weak...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate a three-equation model of US commercial bank usage of the Farm Service Agency's (FSA) guaranteed operating loan and interest assistance programs. Also, to identify the key farm and banking variables that affect the decision to use loan...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply duration methods to a sample of Farm Service Agency (FSA) direct, seven-year operating loans to identify those variables that influence the time to loan termination and type of termination. Variables include both those known at time of loan...

This paper presents a detailed summary analysis of commercial bank, Farm Credit System (FCS), and other commercial lenders use of Farm Service Agency (FSA) guaranteed loan program over the time period fiscal 1993-2003. Key aspects of the guaranteed program are examined including the usage level...

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) direct farm loan programs provide credit to family-sized farms including beginning farmers and socially disadvantaged applicants. Approximately 37 percent of all U.S. farms are estimated to be eligible for FSA direct loans when farm size, credit needs, years of...