WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2013 – Farm income, along with capital and household spending, in the seven-state Eighth Federal Reserve District increased modestly in the second quarter of 2013 as compared to the same period last year.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis quarterly Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions said bankers, across the district, expect farm income to fall over the course of the next quarter compared with the third quarter of 2012.
While the district as a whole reported a slight increase in farm income, survey respondents in the Louisville zone noted a decline in farm income of the second quarter. Notably, Louisville bankers feel that farm income will turn around and show an increase in the third quarter.
Household spending levels were higher in the second quarter than a year ago across all zones in the Eighth District. Respondents expect similar increases in the third quarter compared with a year earlier.
Quality farmland values across the district averaged $5,672 per acre in the second quarter of 2013, for an 11 percent increase from the first quarter.
Over the past four quarters, district quality farmland values increased by 20.6 percent. Quality farmland values over the past year appeared to increase the most in the St. Louis zone.
In the second quarter, cash rents for quality farmland average $183 per acre, 6.7 percent more than the first-quarter average and 12.9 percent more than four quarters earlier.
“Generally speaking, cash rents for quality farmland roses in the second quarter, while they fell for ranch or pastureland,” the survey said, noting respondents expect quality farmland and ranch or pastureland cash rents to increase during the third quarter from a year earlier.
On average, demand for agricultural credit across the district in the second quarter was roughly unchanged compared to a year ago.
The Eighth District includes all or parts of seven Midwest and Mid-South states.
The complete survey is available at http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/afm/2013/afmq2.pdf
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