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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteMinnesota recorded 13 Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings in calendar year 2025, up from four in 2024. Across the Midwest, filings reached 121, a 70% increase year over year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s analysis of U.S. Courts data. These cases point to mounting pressure in parts of farm country, but they are not a count of every distressed farm—and a Chapter 12 filing does not necessarily mean a farm has closed.
How much did farm bankruptcies rise in Minnesota and the Midwest?
The American Farm Bureau Federation reported 315 U.S. Chapter 12 filings in 2025, 46% more than in 2024. The Midwest accounted for 121 of those filings, a 70% increase from the prior year. Minnesota’s count rose from four to 13.
The neighboring-state comparison shows why both the number of cases and the rate of change matter. A large percentage increase can result from a small starting count; the values below are calendar-year 2025 filing totals, not measures of each state’s overall farm distress.
| State or region | Chapter 12 filings in 2025 | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Iowa | 18 | Not stated in the American Farm Bureau Federation analysis |
| Nebraska | 17 | Not stated in the American Farm Bureau Federation analysis |
| Missouri | 16 | Not stated in the American Farm Bureau Federation analysis |
| Wisconsin | 16 | Not stated in the American Farm Bureau Federation analysis |
| Minnesota | 13 | Up from 4 in 2024 |
| Kansas | 11 | Not stated in the American Farm Bureau Federation analysis |
| Midwest | 121 | Up 70% from 2024 |
| United States | 315 | Up 46% from 2024 |
State totals and percentage changes are from the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2026 report on U.S. Courts data: Farm bankruptcies increase in 2025.
What pressures are associated with the increase?
The Farm Bureau points to a combination of weaker farm receipts and higher expenses across the Midwest. It identifies crop losses and weakening dairy, hog and poultry markets among the pressures, and says farmers have been taking larger operating loans and needing longer to repay them. These are sector-wide explanations, not proof that any one factor caused a particular filing.
Farm finances differ by type of operation
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’s 2025 Ninth District analysis describes slumping farm incomes and worsening financial conditions, while stressing that experiences vary by farm type. Stronger cash holdings in aggregate may be concentrated in more lucrative markets, such as cattle; crop-only producers can have weaker working capital. A favorable picture for one segment can therefore obscure strain in another.
The Minneapolis Fed also describes farms borrowing against land to move short-term obligations into longer-term debt. That can ease an immediate cash crunch, but it can leave the operation with larger payment burdens later. Iowa attorney Joseph Peiffer, who works on Chapter 12 and farm debt restructuring, told the Fed: “Things haven’t been good the last couple of years, so what they’re doing is that they’re borrowing money on the land,” and, “All we do at that point is increase the amount of payments we’re going to have to make next year.” The analysis is available from the Minneapolis Fed.
Minnesota Farmers Union vice president Anne Schwagerl told the Minnesota Reformer that members were facing “a second year in a row of negative margins.” That account describes what the organization was hearing from members; it should not be read as a measure of every Minnesota farm’s finances. Minnesota Reformer coverage.
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Chapter 12 is a bankruptcy reorganization option for eligible family farmers and fishermen. It is designed to let qualifying operations restructure debts and potentially continue operating. A farm may need to downsize or sell some assets as part of that process, but filing is not itself evidence that the farm has ceased operating.
Eligibility involves requirements including earning more than half of gross income from farming in the preceding tax year, meeting debt limits and satisfying other conditions. Those thresholds can change, so an undated dollar limit should not be treated as current guidance. The Farm Bureau’s overview explains the chapter and its eligibility framework: Farm bankruptcies increase in 2025.
Chapter 12 filings are also an incomplete, lagging indicator of farm distress. Some farms may not qualify, may close without filing, or may seek relief under another bankruptcy chapter. The count says something important about cases reaching court, but it does not measure all farms struggling to pay bills, and it is not a tally of foreclosures or closures.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What newer 2026 data says—and what it cannot show
A September 25, 2026, analysis by Elizabeth Rumley in Southern Ag Today describes a broader agricultural-bankruptcy dataset developed by the National Agricultural Law Center and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture with SAS. It uses PACER case information cross-referenced with USDA Farm Service Agency data to identify agricultural entities.
For January 2021 through June 2026, the project identified 1,401 agricultural bankruptcies: 1,200 Chapter 12 cases and 201 Chapter 11 cases. In the first half of 2026 alone, it identified at least 208 cases—177 Chapter 12 and 31 Chapter 11. The project warns that its dataset does not capture every agricultural bankruptcy or all farm distress; its described current dataset also excludes Chapters 7 and 13 and cases it did not match.
The project estimated approximately 416 agricultural bankruptcies for all of 2026 by assuming the first-half pace continued. That is a conditional projection, not a final annual count. The analysis does not establish state-level 2026 comparisons, so it cannot be used to infer Minnesota’s 2026 total or rank. Read the project’s description and limits in Southern Ag Today.
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