GREAT Gov't. program!!

[Anonymous-0]

There is a farm coming up for auction in my area(35,000+ acres). It is going to be split up into different tracts of MUCH smaller sizes. I call my banker about purchasing A very small portion of it. He tells me, "Yes,we can probably loan you the money, but your best bet would be to go through the FSA offices." Brother calls the FSA office, they tell him, "We don't do any loans until a purchase agreement has been signed." Brother asks, "Can we start the paperwork ahead of time?" He was told NO!! Brother asks, "So what happens if we get some of the land and the loan gets denied?" The gov't employee had no answer. Great program isn't it??

 

[Anonymous-0]

C-man,

Last summer I went into the USDA office in Columbia, TN, because I heard that there might be a program available to help distribute water to my pastures better. Because of the drought, all of my springs had stopped running and I was hauling city water to water troughs in my pastures for my cattle.

The lady there told me that there was indeed a program that provided for a partial reimbursement for well pumps and piping. It could be up to a 50% reimbursement. There were restrictions on it in that you had to use their approved pumps and had to have the system inspected by them, but if you did their stuff, you could get a reimbursement. The total cost of the project had to be about $2,000.00 to qualify.

I asked her for the paperwork and details about the program. She told me the same thing your gal told you. I had to put the system in and then apply for the reimbursement, and oh by the way, the program wasn't actually funded yet, but they expected it to be funded in next year's farm bill.

Thank you very much. Have a nice day. I continued to haul water until my springs started coming back. I'm still supplementing with city water since the springs aren't back to full strength yet.

I guess that's our government at work for us.

Tom in TN

 

[Goose]

The last year I farmed, we had a drouth during the summer and an early killing frost that got what the drought didn't. Our county was among a bunch that were declaired a disaster area, and the politicians blew a lot of smoke about making emergency disaster loans, otherwise known as EDL's.

I tried to apply and the loan officer in our local FSA office said in 12 years in the office, he'd seen only one EDL actually approved. Without going into long and infuriating detail, if you met their eligibility requirements, you wouldn't have been dealing with the government in the first place, you would have qualified for private lending.

I wrote a letter to my U.S. Representative and sent copies to two local newspapers, to the (then) Secretary of Agriculture, and to (then) President George H. W. Bush. One newspaper ignored me and the other one did a half page interview and feature. I got a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture blaming everything on the nnalert. Two days later, I got a letter from President Bush, identical except for the letterhead and signature. Obviously both letters were simply a form letter pulled out of the computer. I finally got a letter from my Rep., basically taking cluelessness to entirely new heights. Six months later, I did get a chance to chew the Rep. out in person.

As I said, that was the last year I farmed. I just said to heck with it. I commented later that two of the happiest days of my life were the day I started farming and the day I quit.

 

[georgeky]

FSA/ASCS has never loaned money for auction purchases. Lots of red tape when fooling with them. Will also likey make you obtain letters of credit denial from one or more private lenders before they even discuss a loan with you. They also like to meddle in your business once they loan you money. For instance, they will LOAN you more money to make barn/outbuildig repair, Fence repair and construction regardless of your need or ability to pay back. I would strongly recommend going back to your Bank, or maybe Farm Credit Association. I have enough people in my business as it is.

 

[georgeky]

One more thing, they don't actually loan you any money. They co sign for you at the bank. More or less. They call it a Guaranteed loan.

 

[Clint Youse MO]

I have a beginning farmer loan with FSA it is a pain in the a$$ to get fill out paper work for two months and then have to wait for approval and the only loan 50% have to have letters of rejection and then get the other funded by some one else but the 50% is no down payment and is the second lien holder so the other will then loan the money only thing I hear from them now is they want a balnce sheet every year.

 

[IaGary]

I agree with george try Farm Credit Services for a loan. May be called Farm Credit Association also.

Gary

 

[tn terry t]

yep about the same ole song here in dickson county our very caring county said they would help us get hay said they got a grant from some where for 50.000$ they were gona really help us with our hay needs gona bring hay in here from out west BIG write up in the paper well all said and done county said hay would be 70$ a roll the problem being i had contacts out west too i could hay brought in here for : yep you guessed it 70 dollars a roll i wonder where that 50,000 grant went? i sold out except for one little white faced bull calf and one one little white faced hefier this spring i bought a new drum mower and a new v-rake from lynch equipment and didnt even wear the paint off drum blades

 

[kyplowboy]

You can't buy a farm at auction with an FSA loan. The only way you could pull it off would be to get some one else to buy it and you buy it from them. I was approved for my farm on March 8th. Closing was November 7th!!!!! 100% at 5.25% for 40 years is a good deal, but you are going to have to do hours and hours of paper work. The folder they have on me is about 2 inches thick, bank statmets, tax form, forms from my town job, statments on every loan I have ever had, two credit reports, all my production records for the last 3 years, copys of my last 3 tobacco contracts, and alot more forms with my signature that I do not know what are! You will have to let them put a lein on every thing you own. If I could swing a regular bank loan I would. If I buy any iron what so ever I have to give them all the info about it and they have a lein on it, for 40 years. The best thing I can tell you is if you want some ground and have to get a FSA loan, get your brother or some one to buy it and then sell it to you when the money comes. Best of luck.

Dave

 

[JoshuaGA]

Know the feeling. Went hunting on their Beginning Farmer loans, left with my tail tucked between my legs. Said to qualify, I would have to prove I'd been farming for 3 years, which, by the way they talked, was something akin to proving I could fly. Left a bad taste. I deal with the Extension and NRCS. Anybody else will come only on gov. order or "say it ain't so" inspections. Heck, when we built our chicken houses, whe had to rock the construction driveway to prevent tracking dirt onto a dirt road. Even EPD said it was stupid. The line from common sense to stupidity cannot be seen bu government. Sorry for the rant.

JoshuaGA

 

[georgeky]

Naw, Gary, I just wrote down the wrong thing. It is FCS. Use to be the old Production Credit Association.

 

[georgeky]

Dave, not only all that BS, but they can and may call in your loan at any time they deem you fit to obtain a loan from a private lender, regardless of your payment record with them. I have seen it done in several cases when interest rates soar. They can't afford for you to keep 4% money when interest goes to 10%. They have ruined many a farmer with all their so called help. Same deal with all those low rate disaster loans. If you can't pay your bills now, you certainly can't afford another loan regardless of how cheap the interest is.

 

[730 virgil]

when we bought our 30 acres we were told maybe we could get a loan thru fcs.
we filled our a bunch of papers and told we didn't meet the requirements to go to step 2.
why didn't they know this with what we told them to begin with?

 

[old]

Why do you think so much is wrong now days. The government either puts there hand where they shouldn't or they don't out them where they should. Look at the VETs it takes a person 6 month to get an appointment to see a doctor and by then there dead or what even was wrong is gone. The president can be in for 4 years and have a life pension but a vet has to be in for 20 years to get a half pension. ITS WRONG and we the people don't do any thing about it. Sorry about the rant but its true
Hobby farm

 

[kyplowboy]

Thats right, I forgot about the part where they look at your "work book" every year and if they think you can get a loan with FCS or a local bank they will call your note. You have to stay poor to keep the loan, that ain't a problem for me I am always going to be poor.

 

[shinnery]

The most terrifying words in the english language are "I am from the government and I am here to help."

 

[Anonymous-0]

Like many things in life, I think this comes down to "great idea, poor execution."

It seems like the Federal Govt. is always coming up with these grand plans to help out the common man. But, while everyone buys into the "grand plan," no one is spending enough time on the minute details to make sure that the plan even works. So you end up with worthless government programs that no one can use becasue you have to jump through so many hoops just to make something happen.

I shouldn't complain, as a consultant, my day job involves telling manufacturing companies how to keep their taxes low and get back money from the IRS.

 

[Spook]

Sounds pretty straight forward to me. You don't fit the requirements.

You haven't been denied elswhere. The program is set up for people who cannot get credit from banks.

You have to meet the requirements of being a farmer, having production records and proof of actually being in the business.

All the paperwork involved is common to any business loan. You have to document your ability to produce income to repay the loan.

Maybe the begining farmer program would be a better fit.

 

[Anonymous-0]

if you have to have the government to help you farm you need not farm.

 

[IaGary]

Thought thats what you meant george but I also thought maybe they called it that down there in Kentucky.

FCS is much more user friendly than what the old PCA was. They trimed a lot of the fat out of the offices and the ones that are left do a decent job.

Gary

 

[Anonymous-0]

You must have had you daddy help, huh

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sounds like a back door banker i would see another banker they all cant be that backward.

 

[MN Scott]

Quote "Look at the VETs it takes a person 6 month to get an appointment to see a doctor and by then there dead or what even was wrong is gone"

Don't feel bad Old under national healthcare we will all be in the same boat. Higher cost than now but no free choice and ratoining.

 

[Anonymous-0]

"you must have had you daddy help, huh?" I suppose I have had some help, but my brothers and I have helped him a LOT also! We all helped around the farm while we were growing up in grade school and high school, and NEVER did we get a regular "paycheck". Yes we did get a little spending money on the occasional time we did get to go to town to "play". Our summers were spent doing whatever kind of work was going on at the time: farming, haying, harvesting, fencing,etc. I think as a child we took 2 vacations. We all bought our own cars by doing odd jobs here and there. These were the vehicles we drove to high school. They were not given to us. Yes, we were given food and shelter, gas for our vehicle, but we were also expected to put in a day's work, which we did. So yes I did have daddy's help, but we are also helping our dad, with NO regular paycheck, so he is able to stay on HIS farm/ranch since he is no longer able to do all the work. Yes, we use some of his equipment and he uses ours. It is a win-win situation for us. But no, it is not like we were born with a silver spoon in our mouth, by any means, and "daddy" has given us the world. We have worked for what we have, like most all of the people on this board have. I did not need the gov't financing, but was told the interest rates would be much better and guarenteed for 30-40 years.

 

[fixerupper]

This is interesting. I obtained a grain bin loan from the FSA last spring. My credit is good and I could have gone to the bank for the money with no problem. I do realize a grain bin is not the same as land, but it's still the FSA and the money is being borrowed.

Anyway, the paperwork was a little mind boggling but I slogged through it and got a 85% loan at 4.65 percent interest for seven years. There are no leins.

Why should a grain bin loan be easier than a land loan of approximately the same size? If I walk away from the bin and they have to reposess it, they will be stuck with devalued property that would have to be moved away to somewhere else. Historically land increases in value so logic tells me the lender wouldn't have near the loss on a reposession of land as they would a tin bin. Jim

 

[Goose]

Speaking of the old Production Credit Association, back in the wheeling and dealing days of the 1970's, I borrowed money from the PCA for the stated intention of building a stock car. I told the loan officer up front that's what I wanted the money for.

He said, "Well, you live on a farm, and building a stock car is a form of production. How much do you need?"

I think those days are gone forever.

 

[rrlund]

Reminds me of a story a friend of mine used to tell. His Dad was on the board of PCA. HE said while they were milking the next morning after a meeting,he asked his dad how the meeting went. He said "well,I approved a lot more wants than needs".

 

[El Toro]

That's the reason I quit the VA and its going to get worse. These 2% cost of living raises are a big joke too when milk has nearly doubled in the last 2 years and I doubt if the dairy farmer got that much of an increase. Four years ago I was paying $1.50 for a gallon of gas and now that's over over $3.00. Could be $4.00 by mid Feb. Hal

 

[Jack a]

He's replying to Jughead 2.

 

[Jack a]

That don't always work either. I tried that on a 260 acre farm back in the 80's. There were only three applicants. Me and two others of whom I knew personally. They gave it to the one who didn't farm and actually lived in the Twin Cities. BTW his daddy was a golfing partner of the Federal Loan banker. He never farmed then and still has yet to farm today but his daddy still owns and operates the farm in his son's name of course and he gets separate governments payments under the son's name. Young Farmers Program.....LMAO.

 

[glennster]

another option, depending on your financial situation, is a line of credit from your bank. if you currently own any farm land, and it has equity in it, you can take a loan on that property for the equity value and use it to purchase another parcel. with the line of credit, you can go to the land auction, buy the property for up to the value of your line of credit and write a check on the spot. most land auctions i have been to want the money now as soon as the sale is done. real difficult for the average person as the hoops you need to jump thru take time.

 

[Jack a]

That is Ferderal Land Bank not Federal Loan Bank.

 

[WalJohn]

(quoted from post at 20:55:28 01/02/08) C-man,

Last summer I went into the USDA office in Columbia, TN, because I heard that there might be a program available to help distribute water to my pastures better. Because of the drought, all of my springs had stopped running and I was hauling city water to water troughs in my pastures for my cattle.

The lady there told me that there was indeed a program that provided for a partial reimbursement for well pumps and piping. It could be up to a 50% reimbursement. There were restrictions on it in that you had to use their approved pumps and had to have the system inspected by them, but if you did their stuff, you could get a reimbursement. The total cost of the project had to be about $2,000.00 to qualify.

I asked her for the paperwork and details about the program. She told me the same thing your gal told you. I had to put the system in and then apply for the reimbursement, and oh by the way, the program wasn't actually funded yet, but they expected it to be funded in next year's farm bill.

Thank you very much. Have a nice day. I continued to haul water until my springs started coming back. I'm still supplementing with city water since the springs aren't back to full strength yet.

I guess that's our government at work for us.

Tom in TN

You need to go back and talk to someone who has a clue about the program. I am having a well put in under the program, and it was approved before I had any work started. They come out and look at the site, where you want to put the well and watering outlet. You wait a few weeks, and get a letter telling you whether or not you have been approved, and the % they pay, along with the maximum payment. In my case they will pay 50% of up to $3000 for the well, and up to 275 feet of line at .097 per foot. I am having a watering ball put in to keep cows from watering in creek, and they will pay 50% of the cost of the ball, and the fencing to keep cows out of creek.

 

[Stinky Cheese]

I can wait a long long time for government health insurance!!!

Anyone that deals with the federal government can tell you... they would a lot rather not deal with them.

LOL Thank you nnalert, John and Osama, but NO THANKS!!!

 

[rustyj]

Yes, the Govment says yer cattle can't whiz in the creek, but where i live, the outflow from the sewage treatment plant, down by the Ohio River, goes right into the river. Some Govment wag showed how healthy the outflow was--said it was fit to drink!-- and drank some of it--or at least he said it was that water!(Sneaky things are done, to try and fool the public).
And then, that outflow mixes into the river water and it flows downstream to the next water intake for Ambridge, or Sewickley, or Rochester, Pa. and they send it thru their drinking water lines, ad infinitum!
I wonder what it tastes like, way down south!
And, the Govment complains about yer cows watering the creek----

 

[RodinNS]

Hmmmmm.... I looked at the sale bill for that operation too. It was posted on another board. With the exception of one or two parcels I'd think that anyone bidding on the remaining pieces would still need to be wealthy past the point of needing to borrow the money. Most of it was broken into pieces ranging from 2000 to 5000+ acres. A fella would need one darn good pair of stones to take that much on in one year and farm it, never mind go out and borrow the money to buy the land, and then probably borrow the money to buy gear or lease the gear to farm it.
I'd say not too many lenders would want to touch that, period.
I'm assuming that not too many people have that kind of excess capacity sitting around to cover that kind of ground...

It reminds me of a loan that the government did here a number of years ago for the local wild blueberry processor (the largest in the world at that.... for those who know who I'm talking about). He wanted to expand the plant and specifically his freezer capacity. They gave him the money. I forget how many million it was, but it was I believe in the tens of millions..... and hte catch? HE had to PERSONALLY GUARNTEE the loan. He had the fricken money anyway, but hey loaned it to him..... supposedly since it was AG, the banks didn't want to touch it.
Once he got his freezer space in place, another round of price control started, no doubt at the wholesale/retail end and inevitably at the farm end.
It was nice how our money was used to help lower our prices... That's the government; here to help.

Rod

 

[trucker40]

You know if you get sick,heart attack,diabetes,or something that could kill you,you dont have insurance anymore,or its so high priced you cant afford it.Yeah you dont want socialized insurance while you still have some,what do you do when you cant get any insurance?Plus everybody running around trying to stab each other in the back,nothing is the same as it was even last year.While we may have good health care,it got that way backwards.The big companies all have to get their money before they let a little technology(trickle down)or be used on you.While all of this went on the younger people who will end up paying the bill,argue with each other over how they are going to stab themselves in the back.
So what you get is,"them nnalert is for socialized medicine(so Americans can actualy get some medicine)so Im agin it,while the lily white nnalert is fer no medicine".ARE YOU FER THAT?
I dont care what side you claim to be on,people that work for a living should not vote for nnalert.Maybe they shouldnt vote for nnalert either.Lets all pick somebody we can vote for(cause we are the Government)and it dont need to be a nnalert or nnalert.
This aint got nothing to do with tractors,or anything,its a rant,its kind of cabin fever,but its true.
You poor people that vote for the slimy politicians that you agree with.Well they are gonna lie to you,they allready steal anything they can from you.They are gonna divide us,they are gonna keep us fighting each other so nobody sees them with their hand in the till.That is untill you fall over from a heart attack in your 40s because of all the food additives in your food that clog your arteries.Then you cant work,make your payments to the bank or whatever you are lucky enough to get a loan from.

 

[philcaseinWPA]

Hey RustyJ,

Where are you located? Sounds like you are in my neck of the woods. I'm between Monaca and Aliquippa.

And as they talk about cows crossing steams and paying to fence off steams to prevent erosion and pollution they should come up with some program to keep all the idiots with a half acre lot and a 450cc quad from riding all over private property and through the streams. On hilly land I own and adjoining land they trash one area or trail until they can't go there any more and then move to new trail. Meanwhile any time it rains everything flows downhill and eventually into the Ohio River but the government sure is worried about your cows crossing a stream. Sorry for the rant, maybe too much coffee this morning.

Phil

 

[Anonymous-0]

I would get the bank's agreement to lend the money before the auction. If you are the high bidder, I would then trek over to the FSA office and see what is available. Use the bank only as a backup if FSA doesn't come thru.

 

[georgeky]

You need to be very careful with this. Here is exactly what can happen. Once you accept help for this and fencing of the creek, when your cow gets out and pee's in the creek you are in violation of clean air and water laws, and can and will be fined for polluting the creek. I looked into some of the fencing programs a couple years back. They wanted me to bulldoze 50 feet on each side of the creek, then build the fence on each side and plant back trees. Then if my cows ever got in the creek again I could be held liable for the pollution they deposited in the creek. Now how stupid is it to push down nice mature trees, and then plant back new trees after disturbing the soil on both sides and loosing lots of it to erosion while waiting on new trees to grow. No Thank You. They can stay out of my business and off my farm.

 

[georgeky]

Yep, my local office only has one loan officer and he is his own receptionist, book keeper and everything. If I need it, I just call him, and he gets the ball rolling. Stop by in a day or so, and sign the note. I remember when banks use to operate that way. I have noticed the local banks here are now running adds on TV trying to get farmers back. I guess all those boats, campers, jetskis and so on aren't paying off like they hoped, In 94 when I bought my new 7610 Ford, I went to my bank, and was told that all farm loans now had to be approved by the board of directors. Was also told that they really didn't want to loan any money for new equipment as it was to easy to move out of state. I thanked him and headed for the door. He then proceeded to tell me that if I needed a new boat or home equity loan he would be glad to fix me up. I gave him a good speech, and closed both my accounts with them on the way out. I have never heard of a pleasure boat/4 wheeler/jet ski making one red cent. I went right down the street to Farm Credit, and all he ask me was if I had one picked out yet. I told him yes, and he called the Ford dealer, and they delivered the tractor the next day. 2 or 3 days later I signed the note, and carried the check to the dealer.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Think about it.If someone had that kind of money would they be buying farm ground to farm it?

 

[WalJohn]

(quoted from post at 11:14:29 01/03/08) You need to be very careful with this. Here is exactly what can happen. Once you accept help for this and fencing of the creek, when your cow gets out and pee's in the creek you are in violation of clean air and water laws, and can and will be fined for polluting the creek. I looked into some of the fencing programs a couple years back. They wanted me to bulldoze 50 feet on each side of the creek, then build the fence on each side and plant back trees. Then if my cows ever got in the creek again I could be held liable for the pollution they deposited in the creek. Now how stupid is it to push down nice mature trees, and then plant back new trees after disturbing the soil on both sides and loosing lots of it to erosion while waiting on new trees to grow. No Thank You. They can stay out of my business and off my farm.

Our guvmint rep suggested I put a gate in the fence to give the cows access to the creek in case the well goes out for extended times. I do not have to clear any property along the creek, just plant 5 trees. It is based on how much property I am giving up. Since it is all of .04 acre, I only have to plant 5 tress. I will also get a very small annual compensation check for the .04 acres.

 

[RodinNS]

Not likely....
That doesn't change the fact that any bank would want to know how you plan to pay the money back.
The potential pool of buyers that would have the management skills to take on even a chunk of that land in one lump like that are few. Given the margins involved and the general risk in that business, I can't imagine a bank being too receptive...
You'd almost have to buy it at a firesale price for the bank to even consider it.... for the simple reason that the bank might be doing the same thing one year from now.
I believe the sale bill for that operation was at something over 36000 acres with grain storage totaling something like 1.3 million bushels. Tis just a wee little operation....

Rod

 

[georgeky]

That ain't what they told me when I looked into some of the fencing programs here in KY. I only wanted to fence one side of the creek, but they flat out rejected that. Told me they would pay 1.90 per foot to put up the new fence on both sides, but had to do these things I mentioned, and my cows would never be able to use the creek at all. I told them where to put their money, and done it to suit me.