Farmer Mac Guaranteed Securities and USDA Guaranteed Securities - Trading Securities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Schedule of Trading Securities and Other Trading Assets [Line Items]
Available-for-sale Securities, Continuous Unrealized Loss Position, 12 Months or Longer, Accumulated Loss	$ 2,436	$ 7,633
USDA Securities [Member]
Schedule of Trading Securities and Other Trading Assets [Line Items]
Trading, at fair value	14,864	20,388
USDA Guarantees [Member] \| USDA Securities [Member]
Schedule of Trading Securities and Other Trading Assets [Line Items]
Trading Securities, Debt, Amortized Cost	15,296	20,737
Trading, at fair value	$ 14,864	$ 20,388
Trading Securities, Weighted-Average Yield	5.36%	5.44%

Trading Securities, Weighted-Average Yield

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- Definition

Amount of accumulated unrealized loss on investments in debt and equity securities classified as available-for-sale that have been in a continuous loss position for twelve months or longer.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 6
-Subparagraph (a)(2)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=73527792&loc=d3e27290-111563

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 7
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=73527792&loc=d3e27337-111563

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of investments in debt and equity securities and other forms of securities that provide ownership interests classified as trading.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=66010992&loc=d3e26626-111562

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 942
-SubTopic 210
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.9-03.4)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6876686&loc=d3e534808-122878

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=66010992&loc=d3e26610-111562

Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Glossary Trading Securities
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6526789

+ Details

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- Definition

Amortized cost of investments in debt securities classified as trading.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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