FSA loans?

Our neighbor is a young man in his 30s. He and another young man raise cattle. Our neighbor only has about 12 acres. Some of that is in alfalfa. He also has three horses. This year he doesn't have any cattle on his own land. They run their cattle on rented land. They both work full time off farm.

Neighbor works a whole lot. In addition to his full time job he works side jobs working on wells. His wife works full time. They rent their basement out to young men in the ag department of a local community college.

I think that young people often have the all or none vision. They may think that they must go big or go home. Would the elderly gentleman be willing to rent the land to your son? Does he have the farm equipment your son needs? How would your boy buy his cattle? Feed them?

I have some cousins in Missouri who own very, very large farms. They inherited large, profitable farms. They added acreage as it became available to enlarge their farms and make them more profitable. My cousin grew up on the farm so they were familiar with the work.

Has your son taken any ag classes? Can he get a second job working as a farm hand?

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Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

Here some keep a donkey with the cows . They say they will go after other critters bothering the cows .

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Check it Out O added another Plank With O care
http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist...to-Planks.html

the boy will have to have a plan. The FSA being a govt entity loves paperwork. They will want everything he has listed as collateral.
We went through the process last year although we ended up backing out of the deal.
Our loan was a direct loan from FSA, they will also work with banks as the guaranteer.
The interest rate on a direct loan is super low.
Our paperwork went through in less than 3 months from the time I picked it up at the office. They even took the time to go through it page by age if I had questions.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

My brother has 2 donkeys with his cows, Heuie and Louie

There are millions of cattle in this country that do not see a human more than once a week and they do just fine. It is common practice to raise cattle "away from home". My son helps a neighbor feed cattle during the winter. He has cattle scattered over nearly 50 miles.
That said--- I am going to see my cattle every blessed day that I can draw a breath! I limit how far away I am willing to drive to check cattle and that is about 15 miles.

During calving season, usually cattlemen bring the heifers closer to home so that you can keep an eye on them. Calving difficulty in a cow is not at all the same thing as with a human. Generally speaking, you have time....not days but certainly a couple of hours to determine if you need to help and do it before you lose the calf. If I have one that EVER has calving trouble, she goes to the salebarn and I do not keep her calves. In the last 15 years, I've pulled 2 calves--- both from my milk cow living nearly in the back yard.

Dogs, coyotes and other calf killers are a different story. That is just part of the game and the reason most of us carry a rifle....... I am fortunate that I have several old, prairie wise mama cows that are aggressive enough to make the coyotes keep moving. As long as I stay in the truck or on horseback, those girls leave me alone. On foot, I have to stay alert. I have found that as long as there are plenty of rabbits, I don't have much problem with losing calves, kids or lambs to preditors. I don't live in bear or wolf territory and the big cats have not bothered us..... yet. I do know of nearby horse attacks.

This is a thread drift, I know but the point that I want to make is that you can figure out ways around this if you work at it. Getting started with a fully functioning farm operation is quite a stretch......

There is a fairly famous rotational grazing guy, Greg Judy, that raises a bunch of cattle mostly on rented/leased ground in northern Missouri. He actively encourages young people starting out NOT to buy land. I can't remember which group it is but they have tutorials on setting up lease agreements.
This is a tough business and to make it, you have to keep your budgeting pencil pretty sharp and think outside the box.

I am grateful that I don't have to live any other way......

Tana Mc

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http://doremafarm.com

I have had many very bad experiences with FSA. I don't recommend them. They're very difficult to deal with, they want to take over your life, make decisions about all sorts of things on your property, etc. Steer clear of them.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I just got a FSA Farm Loan, Beginner Farmer Program. It is a very good program designed to do just what your son wants to do.

In my case, I took over the family farm and the USDA was just as concerned about keeping it farming, as much as I was. That was back in 2008, and unlike my dad and grandfather I decided I was going to do everything above board. I have filed Schedule F forms since then, and by carefully keeping up with all the regulations and paperwork, getting a loan was not that hard. It does take time and paperwork, but it is a very low interest rate...I pay %1.250...with payments made once per year over the life of the loan. How can you beat that.

Like your son, I too am a welder, though I must admit I make a wee bit more then $12 per hour. Off farm income does count towards qualifying for your payments, but unlike banks that require your debt to ratio be somewhere near 75%, the FSA Loans only require $1 more then all your expenses...and they do not check credit scores either.

FSA Loans are VERY good loans to get, if you qualify. They get bad mouthed a lot because a lot of people do not qualify for them, and then get upset at the rules that held them back.

For instance I once worked with another welder who did nothing but complain about us farmers for getting "farmer welfare". Then three weeks after telling me how much of a scum I was for taking a USDA farm grant, he proceeded to tell me he went down to the FSA office once, but that they did not qualify. (He was a homesteader and not a farmer). I said, "so you are just as bad as me, it's just you did not qualify."

As for the million dollar note, we are farmers so that is not really a lot of money. We have that much money tied up in our milking parlor alone, not to mention two or three tractors are worth a million or so. Yeah it will be sink or swim for him, but nothing ventured...nothing gained, and as my Uncle once told me, "When it's all said and done, and the coffin goes in the ground, the farmer is the richest man of all."

Oh how true. This is true money wise because land, tractors, buildings, crops, livestock...they all have value that adds up incredibly. But I think my Uncle meant that statement as a lifestyle. On that he is right as well. It is VERY stressful being a farmer, BUT it is a lifestyle that is priceless.

Best of luck to your son, and PM me if you want. I am a Supervisor for a Soil and Water Conservation District which is an directive type board for the USDA-NRCS.

Just because the above post seems confusing, I...

• Farm full time as a sheep farmer, letting my stay-at-home-wife work the farm and take care of the children
  
• I farm all day
  
• I weld US Navy Destroyers at a shipyard on the 3rd shift
  
• The Supervisor job at the S&WCD is a volunteer job where we meet 1-2 times per month to oversee the NRCS

(and if you are wondering when I sleep, I get about 4 hours sleep from 8:30 AM-Noon).

Your son has nothing to lose.He has the right idea of getting the 228 acres which is not a very large farm.He should go to the local county fsa office and check things out.He will make a go of it if he has what it takes and not a lot of bad luck.He can always weld if things go bad.He will always regret not trying this if he does't give it a go.We need young guys like that more than ever now days.Good luck to him.

They have a mentoring program where the young man can work with a retiring farmer to get experience, then buy out the farmer at his retirement.

Precisely.
That is who the Beginning Farmer Program is designed for.
It's not for actual beginners...

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I'm wondering why, if this a such a great farm and priced well, why no one else wants it.

Farmers around here would be fist-fighting for the chance to buy 225 acres - at top dollar. They are plowing up peoples big front yards to plant row crops here.

Something does not sound right, IMO

The responses here are amazing. I am so glad I asked these questions! I'm grateful for all the time and effort people have put in to answering.

My husband and I went out and drove all over the place and, yes, it is truly amazing. Beautiful, beautiful place. Gorgeous big fields surrounded by acres and acres of hard wood, a beautiful river running through it with a metal bridge going over, and a smaller creek. The outbuildings are well-maintained and the milking parlor looks nice. Big silos . . . . small reasonable ranch house, easy to heat. That being said, our son is going to need to get some experience before he even thinks of something like that. We're thinking we'll set up to raise a few cattle here on our property and then in 3 years, if he stays interested, he'll have some experience and a little herd to start out with.

I doubt that farm will still be available by then but something else will come up.

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"What if I fall?" "Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?"

How far away from you is it. My Bro and dad lived at different places and around between 8 & 12 miles apart, but we all switched labor when it was needed.

If you can get him on a farm close to you, you better do it. Farther away, he ll find it hard to make the trip. AMHIK lol

Bill, the farm we were talking about is about 10 -15 miles away. I haven't measured. Last time we drove out there we noticed there aren't any fences? My husband says he thinks it was a confinement operation. It's right on a large river - maybe the EPA wouldn't let the cows be outside? Anyway - the cost of getting it up and running again would just be too much, even if he could swing a loan for the land.

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"What if I fall?" "Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?"

Well he ought to be able to run 50 beef cows on the place and have there hay also.

I don't know anything about FSA loans, but here are some rural small biz loans USDA Rural Development-BCP_RMAP.HTML

At less than 350k, sounds like a bargain to me on the place in general--- he SHOULD try it just to try it out. He's young and even if he fails he has plenty of time in life to land on his feet and rebuild again.

Failing that... maybe he should see what kind of financing he could get on a smaller place. I know 50 or 100 acres doesn't seem like as much as a "big farm" but plenty of grass fed beef ranchers make it pay by marketing direct to the customers, and a good amount of dairy farmers do alright too.

I know the seller wants all his money up front, by possibly; if he might be sick of trying to sell it owner financing the place might be worth a talk, and maybe DS would only have to worry about financing the stock?

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