With the agricultural downturn persisting into its fourth year, many Iowa farmers will need to become more proactive about working with lenders and others to address their long-term financial situations, according to lenders who spoke last week at a land values conference at Iowa State University (ISU).

The year-on-year trend of low commodity prices has started to take a toll on many once-sterling farm balance sheets, said Mike Hein, vice president of Liberty Bank and Trust in Durant, who was on a lenders’ panel at the ISU Soil Management and Land Values Conference.

"I think that 2017 is going to be a critical year, especially from a balance sheet perspective," Hein said. "It’s certainly not everybody, but we...