Farmer Mac Guaranteed Securities and USDA Guaranteed Securities - Trading Securities (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017
Schedule of Trading Securities and Other Trading Assets [Line Items]
Available-for-sale Securities, Continuous Unrealized Loss Position, 12 Months or Longer, Accumulated Loss	$ 2,093	$ 2,106
USDA Securities [Member]
Schedule of Trading Securities and Other Trading Assets [Line Items]
Trading, at fair value	10,237	13,515
USDA Guarantees [Member] \| USDA Securities [Member]
Schedule of Trading Securities and Other Trading Assets [Line Items]
Trading Securities, Debt, Amortized Cost	10,585	13,888
Trading, at fair value	$ 10,237	$ 13,515
Trading Securities, Weighted-Average Yield	5.23%	5.33%

Trading Securities, Weighted-Average Yield

No definition available.

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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=82897076&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=82897076&loc=d3e27337-111563

+ Details

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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=82896770&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=82896770&loc=d3e26610-111562

+ 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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- Details

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