FFAI API v4.0

Free, open access to the Farmers First Ag Index: what U.S. farms are paid against what they pay, every quarter since 1995. No API key. No rate limits. No auth. Just JSON.

Endpoints (v4, current)

Current Quarter

Historical Time Series

Historical Time Series (CSV)

Method & Validation

Embeddable Badge

Response Format

current.json

loading…

Fields

history.json and history.csv also carry label and real_time for each quarter. real_time is true only for quarters scored live, from Q2’26 (the v4 launch) on; earlier quarters were filled in after the fact, and 1995-2019 are in-sample (ranked against a period that includes later quarters). In the CSV they are the last two columns.

Stability: within v4, existing fields keep their names; new fields may be added, so ignore fields you do not know. A change in meaning gets a new version number. One exception, version 4.1 (Oct 2026): the old labels (STRESSED, GUARDED, FAVORABLE, STRONG) sounded like farm income, were never tested, and read STRESSED in every quarter from 2020 on. regime now carries the new label and equals label; the old value is in label_legacy, with its lines in label_legacy_thresholds. score, ratio and all other fields are unchanged.

Only the all-farms score was validated (against USDA net farm income, year over year). Sector scores are descriptive. Details in meta.json and the methodology.

Code Examples

JavaScript (fetch)

fetch('https://farmers1st.com/api/v4/current.json')
  .then(r => r.json())
  .then(d => {
    console.log(`FFAI: ratio ${d.ratio} (${d.ratio_change_vs_year_ago_pct}% vs a year ago); score ${d.score}, ${d.label} vs ${d.label_vs}`);
    console.log(`Crops: ${d.sectors.crops.score}`);
    console.log(`Livestock: ${d.sectors.livestock.score}`);
    console.log(`Dairy: ${d.sectors.dairy.score}`);
  });

Python

import requests, pandas as pd

h = requests.get('https://farmers1st.com/api/v4/history.json').json()
df = pd.DataFrame(h['quarters']).set_index('date')
print(df[['ratio', 'score']].tail())

curl

curl -s https://farmers1st.com/api/v4/current.json | python3 -m json.tool

R

library(jsonlite)
ffai <- fromJSON("https://farmers1st.com/api/v4/history.json")
plot(ffai$quarters$ratio, type="l", main="Prices received / paid")

Embeddable Badge

Add the FFAI reading (ratio, change from a year earlier, score and label) to any website with two lines of HTML. The badge fetches current data from the API and renders itself. Every div with the attribute data-ffai-badge (or the older id="ffai-badge") becomes a badge; load the script once per page.

Standard

<div data-ffai-badge></div>
<script src="https://farmers1st.com/api/v4/badge.js"></script>

Full (with sectors)

<div data-ffai-badge data-size="full"></div>

Compact

<div data-ffai-badge data-size="compact"></div>

One Sector (Dairy)

<div data-ffai-badge data-sector="dairy"></div>

Dark Theme

<div data-ffai-badge data-size="full" data-theme="dark"></div>

Notes

CORS: GitHub Pages serves all files with permissive CORS headers. Fetch from any origin.

Rate limits: None. It’s static JSON on a CDN.

Update cadence: Quarterly, after USDA NASS has published all three months of the quarter (about a month after the quarter ends). The generated field in each response tells you when.

Revisions: the score is measured against a fixed 1995-2019 base, so published values change only if USDA revises its own data.

FFAI v3 (retired, frozen)

FFAI v3 (Federal Reserve series, Q1 2008 – Q2 2026) was retired in October 2026 after testing showed its composite mostly followed the Fed Funds interest rate. As promised when v3 launched, its endpoints stay online with their last values: /api/v3/current.json, /api/v3/history.json, /api/v3/meta.json, /api/v3/badge.js. They will not be updated. Each v3 JSON file now carries "status": "retired", "superseded_by": "/api/v4/current.json" and a retired_note, so its old values cannot be read as current. The v3 badge now shows a short retirement notice instead of the frozen score, because the last v3 reading (Q2 2026, 70 FAVORABLE) disagrees with v4 for the same quarter (11, LOW vs 1995-2019).

Contact

Questions, integrations, or just want to say hi:
Sig Lindquist | sig@farmers1st.com | 715-797-2428
Farmers First Agri Service, Chetek, WI