05/25/07 Beginning Farming Program

Beginning Farming Program. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. So you've decided you like to try farming. You've already invested some years working in agriculture but now you are ready to run the operation but really don't have all the funds you really need to get started. The say hello to a new beginning farmer/rancher financing program administered by Washington State Housing Finance Commission in partnership with Northwest Farm Credit Services. Farm Credit's Assistant Vice President of AgVision, Wendy Knopp describes the program. KNOPP: It's a new financing program for farmers and ranchers and who is eligible are any individuals or families who have not owned and operated a farm or ranch. According to Knopp if you have owned an operation you might still be eligible for the program but you must meet certain criteria. She talks about how Farm Credit got involved with the program. KNOPP: And when they put this program together they are unable to be underwriters of these loans; what they do is provide the bonds so the State of Washington put out a proposal for lender to be the administers and servicing lender for these loans and then Northwest Farm Credit was the lender that they chose to administer this program. Knopp says that in addition to the new state program, Farm Credit has another program that works either separately or in tandem with the Housings program. KNOPP: It really dovetails very nicely with our AgVision program which is also for beginning producers. If they are eligible through the Washington State bond program since Farm Credit is the underwriter of that loan we will in addition to that put them in the AgVision program which allows us to waive some fees for them and provide them with some reimbursement of education opportunities they might have. Once they have a loan with Farm Credit there's some other features of the AgVision program that they'll be able to take advantage of. The state program has a cap of 250 thousand dollars and is usable for most parts of your operation but there are some stipulations. If your loan needs exceed the 250 mark, Knopp says this is where the Farm Credit loans come into play. KNOPP: Should the  we'll just take a real estate purchase for example  if it's higher than 250-thousand then we can look at doing a combination type loan where 250 would be through the bond program. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.