ABSTRACT
The financial conditions of farms vary along several dimensions. First, analysts can order standard financial variables from those causing least stress to those causing most stress and then classify farmers, in any given year, according to those categories of stress. Secondly, analysts can identify reasons for experiencing stress in a given year. Thirdly, in a given year, a certain kind of farm, or a certain farming region, may experience greater financial stress than other kinds or places. Finally, the size-profit relationship creates another systematic variation in stress. A taxonomic system of that kind can account for the complexity of the farm financial situation. It allows students of farm policy to rank farms on a scale of financial stress both for individuals and for the entire sector. The notion cash flow problem, which agricultural economists typically use in accounting for the problems of financially stressed farmers, may obscure more than it reveals.
