Federal Reserve Statistical Release E.15 - Agricultural Finance Databook

Section C:  Reserve Bank Surveys of Farm Credit Conditions and Farm Land Values

Data are from quarterly surveys of agricultural credit conditions at commercial banks.  Currently, these surveys are
conducted during each quarter in five Federal Reserve districts.  The surveys differ considerably in size, as is noted
in the information below.  They also differ in subject matter covered (as is evident in the tables), wording of basically
similar questions, and type of banks covered.  Most of the differences in wording are reflected in the use of different
column headings on the two pages of each table.  The states included in each District are indicated in the table headings;
states that fall only partly within a given District are marked with asterisks.

In the second quarter of 2002, the Kansas City and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Banks revised their surveys.
Questions were changed, and it was not always possible to match the data to the categories that were shown in
previous editions of the databook.  Whenever possible, the data from the revised survey were fit into the
older format.  Series that were discontinued show no data for the second quarter, whereas new series show no data for
the previous quarters.  When a significant break in the data occurred, the new data were included and a footnote was
to added highlight the changes.

In coming quarters, surveys from the Cleveland, Philadelphia, and San Francisco Federal Reserve Banks are expected to
be included in the Databook.

Research departments at each of the five Reserve Banks issue more-detailed quarterly reports on their survey results;
these reports are available at the addresses given below.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Box 834, Chicago, Illinois 60690
The sample includes member banks at which farm loans represented 25 percent or more of total loans as of June 1972
(a 10 percent standard is used for banks in the state of Michigan).  The sample has undergone periodic review. The
latest survey results were based on the responses of about 450 banks.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Federal Reserve P.O. Station, Kansas City, Missouri 64198
The original sample chosen in 1976 had 181 banks selected from banks at which farm loans constituted 50 percent or
more of total loans, with appropriate representation of all farm areas.  The sample was redrawn and significantly
expanded in 1987; roughly 280 banks responded to the latest survey.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota  55480
Before 1987, the sample provided a cross-section of banks of all sizes that were engaged in farm lending.  Members of
the Upper Midwest Agricultural Credit Council formed the core of the survey panel.  In 1987, the sample was redrawn
to include only banks at which farm loans represented 25 percent or more of total loans.  As outlined above, the
Minneapolis survey changed considerably beginning in the first quarter of 1994.  In recent surveys, about 120 banks
responded.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, P.O. Box 655906, Dallas, Texas 75265-5906
The sample is stratified regionally and includes banks at which farm loans are relatively important or that hold a major
portion of bank loans in their region.  The sample was enlarged in the first quarter of 1985 and was redrawn in the
second quarter of 1989.  The results for the most-recent quarter were based on the responses from about 200
respondents.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia 23261
The number of agricultural banks in this District is much smaller than that in the other Districts.  When the survey was
initiated in 1975, the sample consisted of forty-three banks of all sizes; banks with larger amounts of farm loans were
sampled more heavily.  More recently, the sample has consisted of about thirty banks, roughly three-fourths of which
typically respond to the quarterly surveys.

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