Hello again,
Things are starting to really grow now and we hope your fields and livestock are, too!
Don’t forget that the crop reporting deadline for spring-planted crops is July 15, and it will be here before you know it. To avoid paying a late-file fee, call your local FSA office and make sure you get in there before July 15. We don’t like charging a late fee any more than you like paying it! Make your appointments today for crop reporting, if you haven’t already.
June has been the month to talk to you about some of the FSA loan offerings, so I thought we would continue that theme to close out the month.
Farm loans
FSA has loan options that are designed to help a beginning farmer with a down payment and a joint financing loan. A beginning farmer with FSA is someone who has not operated a farm for more than 10 years. That will include more producers than you may have thought — maybe even you.
If you are looking at a loan for farm ownership and are a beginning farmer, you cannot own a farm already that is greater than 30 percent of the average farm in the county when you apply. You also need to have been involved in the business end of the farm operation for three of the last 10 years.
For the down payment program, we need you to be able to put down 5 percent of the purchase price. The maximum loan amount for this down payment program is not going to be more than 45 percent of the lowest value of the following: The full purchase price of the farm, the appraised value, and is capped at $300,000.
We can provide this loan for 20 years and the interest rates are really low. If the rest of the farm loan is through a commercial lender, we can even guarantee up to 95 percent.
The joint financing option is just as enticing. FSA can lend up to 50 percent of the amount financed when the other 50 percent is provided from another lender. Those funds can be used for any farm ownership approved purchase. Again, we can offer really low interest rates and a maximum term of 40 years.
Farm loans and what they can be used for can be a clumsy thing to try to describe in a small article. I hope this month we have been able to tell you a bit more about some of the loan tools that we have available for you at FSA.
If you have any questions or are interested in a farm loan, give your FSA office a call. We have many options that can help you with just about any farm financing need. Our farm loan team is able to explain this much better than I can.
That’s all for now,
FSA Andy
