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Young, Beginning, and Small Farmer/Rancher Lending

Congress has mandated that the Farm Credit System serve the credit needs of young, beginning, and small (YBS) farmers and ranchers. The future of agriculture depends on the financial success of young and beginning producers, and the diversity of the agricultural products we enjoy depends in part on the financial success of small producers.

Each FCS bank is required (by section 4.19 of the Farm Credit Act of 1971, as amended, and section 614.4165 of the FCA regulations) to direct each association board to have a program for furnishing sound and constructive credit and related services to borrowers in each of the three YBS categories.

In addition, each institution is required to report to FCA yearly on operations and achievements under its YBS program and to disclose YBS data in its own annual report. For YBS lending data for a specific institution or district or for the Farm Credit System as a whole, see the Consolidated Reporting System Reports.
 
To learn more about the extent to which the FCS is lending to YBS producers, see “Serving Young, Beginning, and Small Farmers and Ranchers,” a chapter in the most recent FCA Annual Report on the Farm Credit System. Also see FCS’s Young, Beginning, and Small Farmer Mission Performance: 2007 Results (PDF, 14 pages, 915 KB).