FISHER, Ill. (RFD News) — With planting season in full swing, many farmers are taking a closer look at their finances, and new data from the Illinois Farm Bureau suggests conditions may not be as difficult as they first appear.
The bureau’s record-keeping service reports the average farm debt-to-asset ratio in Illinois held steady in 2025 at a historically low 18 percent.
Still, there are some growing concerns.
Debt per acre has risen to nearly $900, driven largely by equipment purchases and land acquisitions.
Vice President of Data Analysis Bradley Zwilling says higher debt loads, combined with rising interest rates and increased reliance on operating loans, have significantly increased interest expenses in recent years.
“Our interest expense is growing over the last couple of years because we know that the interest rates, we were in such a low-interest rate environment. Now that those rates are back up, I don’t want to say to normal, but a little bit higher range than we’re used to, and so that debt per acre, because of the debt, the amount of debt we’ve got, and a little bit higher interest rates, has caused that debt per acre to go from about $30 an acre to now $50 an acre in 2025.”
More than half of the average farm’s net worth is tied up in long-term assets like farmland, which Zwilling says makes succession planning an increasingly important part of long-term financial stability.
While operating income margins remain below ideal targets, overall liquidity stabilized last year.
