Trends in the U.S. Farm Balance Sheet: A New Data Tool for Tracking Financial Strength
by Josh Strine
Discussions about farm financial conditions often focus on income and margins. While those measures matter, the balance sheet provides a broader picture of long-term financial health—capturing changes in assets, debt, equity, and leverage over time.
To support better understanding of these trends, the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture has launched Trends in the U.S. Farm Balance Sheet, an interactive data visualization built using USDA Economic Research Service Farm Income and Wealth Statistics. The tool is designed to make national balance sheet data easier to explore, compare, and apply.
What the Tool Shows
The visualization highlights long-run trends in U.S. farm assets, debt, and equity, allowing users to:
– Explore changes by asset type, debt category, and lender
– Track key financial ratios over time
– View mapped state-level farm real estate values
All charts and figures can be downloaded, along with the underlying data, based on the user’s selected filters.
The new data tool is based on the USDA Economic Research Service Farm Income Team’s visualization, Digging into the U.S. Farm Balance Sheet. The data visualization will be updated with each release of the USDA ERS’s Farm Income and Wealth Statistics.
How to Use the Tool
This tool is especially useful for farmers, lenders, advisors, educators, and analysts who want to:
– Put current financial conditions in a longer-term context
– Examine how debt structure and leverage have changed over time
– Compare asset growth and equity trends across periods
– Support teaching, presentations, or financial discussions with downloadable visuals
Users are encouraged to adjust filters, switch between views, and download figures that are most relevant to their questions or audiences. The tool is intended to complement—not replace—farm-level analysis by providing a national benchmark and historical perspective.
Explore the Data
The Trends in the U.S. Farm Balance Sheet tool provides a clear, data-driven way to monitor the evolving financial position of U.S. agriculture. The new tool can easily be accessed from the Center for Commercial Agriculture website by navigating to the dropdown under the Publications & Tools on the main menu.
👉 Explore the interactive tool here: Trends in the U.S. Farm Balance Sheet
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