Farmers Are Finally Ready to Put the Paper Check out to Pasture

The only thing bigger than the agriculture sector’s contribution to daily sustenance could be its reliance on paper payments.

In 2023, agriculture, food and related industries contributed a staggering $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP, representing about 5.6% of the total economy. Despite this major economic role, farmers — who contributed $203 billion to that figure — are still primarily relying on an outdated method of handling their finances: paper checks.

“One big paper check at a time is what we’re still doing in agriculture,” Jake Joraanstad, CEO at Bushel, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster.

These checks, representing the last bastions of traditional financial processes in a digital world, are a hallmark of how farmers manage their financial transactions.

Farmers, as Joraanstad explained, have a unique relationship with paper checks. They don’t rely on a regular paycheck. Instead, they draw from lines of credit throughout the year to cover expenses, and when they do get paid — often with one massive check for millions of dollars — it’s primarily to repay these loans.

Because of this setup, many farmers fail to see the need to switch to a faster, digital payment method.

But slowly yet surely, digital payments are helping to thaw the inertia of the long-standing practices and generational resistance to change that characterize the agricultural industry.

Mind of a Farmer

The goal of agricultural modernization across payments is to eliminate the friction caused by paper checks and bring the farming industry into the digital age.

The challenge is one of innovation over tradition.

“Farmers don’t think there’s anything broken because it doesn’t matter to them whether the check is deposited today, tomorrow, or four days from now,” Joraanstad explained.

As Joraanstad pointed out, end-user education is a crucial approach: showing farmers that while relying on paper checks may not seem broken, that doesn’t mean the system is efficient.

Farmers often wait days, if not weeks, for paper checks to clear, not realizing that the quicker access to funds through digital payments could help them avoid paying unnecessary interest and maximize their cash flow. However, in tighter economic conditions, every dollar counts. By speeding up the process, farmers can better manage their finances and improve profitability.

“If it was easy, PayPal and Stripe would’ve already had the solution available,” Joraandstad said.

But the complexities of agriculture require specialized digital tools. Tools like Bushel Wallet, he said, a solution that allows farmers to receive payments digitally, a feature that benefits both the agribusinesses buying from farmers and the farmers themselves.

That’s because, according to Joraanstad, the buyers of farmers’ crops and products are themselves eager to move away from paper checks. Every transaction has two sides, at least, and these large agribusiness corporations — often dealing with hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in transactions — can clearly see the inefficiencies created by paper checks. Key to introducing digital payments to agriculture, Joraanstad said, lies not just with farmers but with agribusinesses, too.

Better Payments Build Better Agribusiness

While agribusinesses may be keen on adopting digital payments, farmers are slower to embrace the change. One of the biggest barriers, according to Joraanstad, is the cumbersome process of setting up ACH payments. Most farmers bank with multiple institutions, and if their banking information changes, they have to manually update these details with every company they work with.

By automating this process through the Bushel Wallet, Bushel simplifies the setup for farmers. Instead of filling out paper forms for each company, farmers can now update their banking information in one place. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors, such as checks being sent to closed accounts.

Security is another major concern. Handling sensitive account and routing numbers on paper introduces a risk of fraud. Bushel’s platform mitigates this by using a more secure, digital process, which transfers only the necessary information and keeps farmers’ accounts safe.

The wallet allows farmers to receive payments digitally, a feature that benefits both the agribusinesses and the farmers themselves. For the buyers, it reduces processing time and administrative costs, while for farmers, it provides quicker access to their funds. As Joraanstad noted, “The agribusiness does want to write less checks. They don’t prefer it. They’ve got to have check printers at all these locations.”

Younger farmers in particular, as well as their younger buyer peers, are driving this shift. While the average age of U.S. farmers is in the 60s, younger generations are taking over family farms and are more digitally savvy. These younger farmers are more open to using digital tools, and as they take control of operations, the industry is slowly moving toward greater adoption of digital platforms.

Farming’s Future

Bushel’s vision for the future goes beyond simply digitizing payments. Joraanstad sees the Bushel Wallet as a tool that could transform agribusiness. By creating a digital account that farmers can use to both receive and make payments, the functionality opens the door to a range of possibilities.

One prospect is partnerships with companies that sell to farmers, such as John Deere or agricultural chemical suppliers. These companies could offer incentives or loyalty programs tied to the digital wallet, encouraging farmers to use the platform for their purchases.

And that integration could only grow more important. With rising costs and lower commodity prices, many farmers could see their incomes decrease by 15% to 30%, making cash management more critical than ever. In tough economic years, faster access to funds and better financial management could mean the difference between a profitable year and a loss.

“Farmers spend a lot of money, and nobody’s really focused on a tool set that serves the farmer,” Joraanstad said, adding that it’s about time that money and the tools started working for them, too.

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