U.S. Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings rose to 315 in calendar year 2025, up from 216 in 2024 and 139 in 2023, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That 46% year-over-year increase signals heightened financial strain among some eligible farm operations. It does not mean 315 farms closed: Chapter 12 is designed to help qualifying family farmers reorganize debts and potentially keep operating.
What the 2025 numbers show
The U.S. Courts reported 315 Chapter 12 filings for calendar year 2025 in a release published February 4, 2026. The count was 46% higher than in 2024, calculated from the reported totals of 315 and 216. The 2023 total was 139. These are filing counts, not a count of farms that ceased operating. Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts: “Bankruptcy Filings Rise 11 Percent”.
| Period | Chapter 12 filings |
|---|---|
| Calendar year 2023 | 139 |
| Calendar year 2024 | 216 |
| Calendar year 2025 | 315 |
What Chapter 12 bankruptcy means for a farm
Chapter 12 is the bankruptcy chapter tailored to eligible family farmers and fishermen. It allows a debtor to propose a court-supervised plan to repay creditors over three to five years. Depending on the case and plan, debt may be reduced, repayment extended, or interest rates lowered. The aim is reorganization, which can allow an operation to continue, rather than automatic liquidation.
Eligibility is narrower than simply being a farm business. Among the requirements described by USDA’s Economic Research Service is that more than half of gross income in the relevant prior tax year or years must come from farming. Because many farms do not qualify, the filing count should not be divided by the total number of U.S. farms and presented as an eligibility-adjusted bankruptcy rate. USDA Economic Research Service: “Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Rates Have Increased in Most Agricultural States”.
Why filings are not the same as farm closures
A filing records a request for bankruptcy protection; it does not establish the eventual outcome. A Chapter 12 case may involve restructuring debts, downsizing, or selling some assets while the farm continues operating. The filing total alone does not reveal how many operations later closed, recovered, or completed a plan.
USDA ERS reported that the Chapter 12 bankruptcy rate increased 46% between 2014 and 2019, while remaining below rates observed throughout the 1980s and 1990s. That historical comparison offers context, but it is not a direct comparison of the 2025 filing count with earlier decades: rates and raw counts are different measures.
Financial pressures discussed by experts
Experts have pointed to a mix of pressures affecting farm finances, including weak income, rising debt, uneven working capital, commodity prices around levels seen in 2018–19, persistent input costs, trade uncertainty, and weather challenges. These conditions may help explain why some eligible operators seek court protection, but available reporting does not isolate any one factor as the cause of the national increase.
In a July 2025 University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture article, extension economist Ryan Loy described the renewed pressures as resembling those seen in 2018 and 2019. The article cited 259 Chapter 12 filings from April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025—a rolling 12-month period, not calendar year 2025. University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture reporting reproduced in a U.S. House hearing document.
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How to compare bankruptcy figures accurately
Bankruptcy totals can appear to conflict when they cover different time periods, chapters, or geographies. Check what each number measures before comparing it with the 315 calendar-year 2025 Chapter 12 filings.
- Calendar year: The 315, 216, and 139 figures above each cover January through December of the stated year.
- Rolling 12 months: The 259 figure cited in the Arkansas reporting covers April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025.
- Fiscal year and all chapters: The U.S. Courts reported 557,376 total federal bankruptcy cases in fiscal year 2025, including 24,039 business petitions. These totals include all bankruptcy chapters and are not comparable to calendar-year Chapter 12 farm filings. Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts: “U.S. Bankruptcy Courts — Judicial Business 2025”.
- National versus regional: The Minneapolis Fed reported increases in Ninth District filings in the first two quarters of 2025, while describing levels as low by historical standards. That regional finding is not a national count or a state-by-state ranking. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: “Farm bankruptcies have increased in the Ninth District, keeping some farmers afloat”.
- Counts versus rates: A raw filing count is not a rate among farms eligible for Chapter 12. USDA ERS’s state analysis addresses historical rates, including 2019; it does not establish a 2025 state ranking.
What the increase can—and cannot—tell farm households
The rising national count is a warning that more eligible farm operators sought Chapter 12 protection in 2025 than in the previous two calendar years. It cannot, by itself, show the scale of losses across all farms, prove a nationwide farm crisis, identify the causes of each filing, or predict whether a particular farm will survive. For a household weighing financial options, the distinction matters: bankruptcy filing data describe use of a legal restructuring route, not a final verdict on an operation.
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