About This Project

What this is

This site presents a research package on U.S. Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings from 2016 through 2025, with 2026 outlook data. It is intended as a durable reference for journalists, researchers, policy analysts, agricultural lenders, and farm operators who need sourced, structured data on farm financial stress.

The data was compiled from primary government sources (U.S. Courts, USDA ERS, Federal Reserve), the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual Market Intel series, and peer-reviewed and extension research. All sources are listed on the Sources page.

Who built it

This project is published by Black Mesa Research Labs (BMRL), an independent research operation. BMRL produces structured datasets and long-form analysis on public-interest topics. This is not affiliated with any farm organization, lender, or government agency.

How to cite

For academic or journalistic use, cite as:

Black Mesa Research Labs. U.S. Farm Bankruptcies: A 10-Year Deep Dive (2016–2025). Compiled April 2026. Available at: https://farm.blackmesalabs.org

For specific data points, cite the primary source listed in the relevant CSV row or in the sources list. BMRL compiles and structures the data; the originating data belongs to U.S. Courts, USDA ERS, AFBF, and the Federal Reserve.

Data update schedule

Source	Cadence	Next expected
U.S. Courts — Q1 2026 filings	Quarterly	May 2026
USDA ERS — Farm Income	Feb / Aug / Nov	August 2026
AFBF Market Intel — Annual recap	Annual (February)	February 2027
FRED — Ag loan delinquency	Quarterly (~60-day lag)	July 2026

License

The compiled dataset (CSV files and analysis) is released under CC BY 4.0. You may share and adapt it for any purpose with attribution. Underlying federal government data (U.S. Courts, USDA, Federal Reserve) is in the public domain.

Caveats

The 2016 national filing total (~461) is an estimate. State-level figures marked ~ in the source CSVs are AFBF estimates rather than published court totals. The 2019 Family Farmer Relief Act raised the Chapter 12 debt cap to $10M, making pre/post-2019 comparisons imperfect. See the Methodology section of the full analysis for complete detail.