On Monday, March 10th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in a news release that they’re expanding on their Farm Storage and Facility Loan program. This program provides low-interest financing to producers for grain storage systems and other commodity storage and sorting equipment.
What does this mean for local farmers and farm-property owners? It means it may be easier financially to expand and/or upgrade your grain storage facilities.
Here are some new enhancements to the USDA program:
- Security requirements have been eased for loans between $50,000 and $100,000. Before the recent change, all loans higher than $50,000 required a promissory note or additional security, such as a lien on real estate. But now, loans that are up to $100,000 are secured only by a promissory note.
- Low-interest funds can be used towards building or upgrading permanent facilities to store eligible commodities such as grains, oilseeds, peanuts, pulse crops, hay, honey, renewable biomass commodities, fruits and vegetables. The qualified facilities include grain bins, hay barns and cold storage facilities for fruits and vegetables.
If you want more information regarding the expansion of the Farm Storage and Facility loan program, contact your local FSA office or visit www.fsa.usda.gov.
We’ll be happy to help, as well. Call Gateway FS Construction Services and we’ll give you the details to design your new or upgraded grain storage solution with the help of this USDA program.