Monthly index surges erases sharp negative reading
Survey finds financial conditions weakest in crop areas
Only Wisconsin saw an annual increase
Monthly banker survey turns even more
RLI survey finds 8.3% annual decline.
Rural Mainstreet Index Slides Lower
Mid-year survey
The annual increase is the smallest since 2020.
Rural bankers grow more sour on their economies.
Ag bankers note only slight gain in values from year earlier.

Mike Walsten

Mike Walsten has covered major business trends in agriculture for more than 35 years. From the southern corn leaf blight of 1970 to today’'s biofuels focus, he’'s lived, reported and analyzed the impact of volatile markets on farm and ranch businesses and on land prices. After growing up on a grain and livestock farm in Western Illinois, Mike graduated from the University of Illinois with an undergraduate degree in agriculture communications and a master’'s degree in business administration in the early 1970s. Since then he’'s covered business and management issues as well as price outlook and marketing issues in various positions with Farm Journal Magazine and Professional Farmers of America. He now applies his extensive background and analytical skills to today’'s surprising farm and ranch market as editor of LandOwner.