Farm loan package checklist

How a farm lender thinks

Farm lending is balance-sheet lending. Land values, equipment and inventory sit on one side, debts on the other, and the lender watches how the difference changes from year to year. Earnings swing with prices and weather, so a lender looks at several years together and at whether the farm could service its debt in an ordinary year.

There are two basic loans.

• Farm real estate loans buy or refinance land and buildings. They are long-term. See farmland loan. Lenders on this site hold $128B FDIC call reports and NCUA 5300, Jun 30, 2026 of them.
• Operating loans pay for seed, fertilizer, feed, fuel, rent and labor, and are repaid when the crop or livestock is sold. They are short-term and usually revolve each year. See farm operating loan.

Equipment and breeding livestock are financed with intermediate-term loans between the two.

The package

Financial statements

• A balance sheet dated within the last few months, at market values, listing every asset and every debt
• Balance sheets for the last three to five year-ends, ideally on the same date each year
• Income statements or Schedule F for three to five years
• Federal tax returns for the same years, for the farm and for each owner
• A debt schedule: lender, purpose, balance, rate, payment, due date and collateral
• A cash flow budget for the coming twelve months, by month or by quarter

Year-end balance sheets on a consistent date let the lender measure the change in working capital and net worth without guessing. If you have never kept them, build the last three from your records before you ask for a loan. Farm tax returns are usually prepared on a cash basis, and a lender will adjust them for changes in inventory, receivables and payables, so the balance sheets matter.

Production

• Acres by crop, or head by class of livestock, for each of the last three to five years
• Yields per acre or production per head, by year
• Prices received and how the crop or livestock was marketed
• Contracts for the coming year: forward sales, production contracts, integrator agreements
• Crop insurance: policy type, coverage level and your yield history on record
• Government program payments received, by year and program
• Input plans and costs for the coming year

Land

• A list of land owned: acres, location, tillable and non-tillable, irrigation, improvements, and any loan against each tract
• A list of land rented: owner, acres, rent, cash or share, and the term of each lease
• Copies of written leases
• For a purchase: the contract, legal description, maps, soil information and water rights where they matter
• Real estate tax bills
• Conservation, easement or program contracts that restrict the land

A farm that rents much of its ground depends on those leases. A lender will ask how long they run and how secure they are.

The operation and its people

• Who owns the farm and in what entities, with an ownership chart
• Who manages it day to day, and their experience
• A succession or transition plan, if the owners are near retirement
• Off-farm income, with pay stubs or returns
• A machinery list with year, make and estimated value

How the loans are sized and secured

Real estate. The lender orders an appraisal of the land and lends a share of the value under its own policy. Banks work under the interagency supervisory loan to value limits, which are covered in the supervisory loan to value guide. The lender also tests whether the farm’s earnings over several years can make the payment, because land that will not pay for itself from farming is being bought with other income.

Operating. The line is sized on the cash flow budget: total inputs for the year, less what the farm pays from its own cash. It is secured by the crop, livestock, equipment and receivables, with a lien filed under the Uniform Commercial Code. See UCC lien. The lender expects it to be repaid from the year’s sales. A lender will ask about any operating balance that was carried over into the next year.

Worked example (hypothetical). A grain farm is buying 160 acres next to the home place for $1,600,000, or $10,000 an acre. It puts down $480,000 and asks for a $1,120,000 loan, which is 70 percent of the price.

Payment. At 7 percent over 25 years with annual payments, the payment is about $96,100 a year.

From the land alone. The 160 acres would rent for $300 an acre, or $48,000 a year. That covers half the payment ($48,000 divided by $96,100 is 0.50). The land does not pay for itself.

From the whole farm. Over the last five years the farm averaged $310,000 a year available for debt service after family living and taxes. Existing term debt payments are $130,000. Adding $96,100 brings payments to $226,100. Coverage is 1.37 ($310,000 divided by $226,100). In the poorest of the five years, with $205,000 available, coverage would have been 0.91.

That is the conversation with the lender: the purchase works on the average and not in a poor year. A longer term, a larger down payment or an FSA guaranty are the usual ways to close the gap.

Every figure here is an assumption for the example.

Looking for a lender now? Find lenders for this in your state or see Farm and Ag lenders state by state.

Who makes farm loans

Community banks. Farm lending is concentrated in banks in farm counties. Their farmland balances are on this site, and for many banks so is the count of farmland loans with original amounts of $500,000 or less, which shows a bank that lends to ordinary family operations.

Farm Credit System institutions. A nationwide network of lenders chartered to serve agriculture. See Farm Credit association. The Farm Credit Administration is the federal agency that regulates and examines them. They do not file bank call reports, so they are not in this site’s lender data. Find the association serving your county and treat it as one of your calls.

Farm Service Agency. FSA makes direct loans and guaranties loans made by other lenders. Its programs are aimed at farmers who cannot get credit on ordinary terms without that help.

Farmer Mac. Farmer Mac says it was chartered by Congress to create a secondary market for agricultural loans. A farmer does not borrow from it. A bank that sells to it can offer longer fixed rates on farmland than it would hold on its own books. See Farmer Mac.

Insurance companies and input suppliers also lend on farmland and operating needs. They file nothing this site reads.

FSA guaranteed loans

A guaranteed loan is made and serviced by a bank or other lender, and FSA stands behind most of it. The lender asks FSA for the guaranty.

FSA guaranteed loan terms in the regulations

The current year’s dollar limit was not opened for this guide. Ask the lender or FSA for it.

USDA Business and Industry guaranties

For a rural business that is not a farm, such as a processor, a grain elevator or a farm equipment dealer, USDA Rural Development guaranties loans under its Business and Industry program. Under 7 CFR 5001.406 the total of these loans to one borrower is limited to $25 million, with a narrow exception above that. This is a business loan program and follows a business loan package. See what a lender-ready package looks like.

Finding lenders in the public record

Bank call reports carry two farm lines: loans secured by farmland, and loans to finance agricultural production. This site shows farmland loans held by each bank and credit union, and for banks the number of farmland loans with original amounts of $500,000 or less. Sort a state’s banks by farmland held, then look for branches in your county.

What the record misses is large: Farm Credit, insurance companies, FSA direct loans and supplier credit are all outside it.

Want a person to check the public record for a farm loan? Request financing from The Lender Report’s operator. A person replies by email, usually naming lenders that have made loans like yours. It is free, it covers business and investment property loans only, and nothing is sent to a lender.

What the public record can and cannot tell you

It can: show which banks and credit unions hold farmland loans, how many are smaller loans, and each lender’s size.

It cannot: show operating lines by lender in any detail, a lender’s loan to value on land, its rates, or any lender outside the banking and credit union files.

Questions to put to the lender

• Do you make operating loans as well as real estate loans, and do you want both?
• What share of appraised value do you lend on farmland?
• Do you use FSA guaranties, and would this loan be a candidate?
• Do you sell farm real estate loans into the secondary market for a longer fixed rate?
• What records do you want each year after closing?

General information, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do; ask it for the policy in writing.

Source and date appear beside each figure. Banks report balances, not loans made. Loans made come only from HMDA and SBA files. We do not audit filings and can make errors joining them. Report a problem