Federal Farm Credit System - FFCS

The Federal Farm Credit System (FFCS) is a U.S. network of banks that give not-too-shabby financing deals to farmers and agribiz-folk.

Why the special network? Because farming and agriculture are considered high-risk by normal channels of loans. Crops don’t always turn out right (or at all)...there’s just a lot of room for things to go wrong. Temperatures too high one day? A disease kills all the crops? Maybe a tornado or a federal government change in quotas, imports, or exports? All of these factors make it hard for farmers to get loans.

The FFCS has been around since 1916, back in the day when farms were tiny. It was created, including the Federal Land Banks and the National Farm Loan Associations, via the Federal Farm Loan Act. In 1968, all of the money borrowed through the FFCS was repaid, making the entire FFCS system farmer-owned.

Boo-yah. No, wait...moo-yah.

There have been a lot of changes to the FFCS and the agricultural industry since then, but today, the FFCS includes 72 Agricultural Credit Associations (ACAs), three Farm Credit Banks (FCBs), the Federal Land Credit Association (FLCA), and the Agricultural Credit Bank (CoBank).

Can you dig it? Because farmers sure can.