America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
Navigating FSA Programs: A Beginner Farmer's Guide
Navigating the complex world of agricultural programs can be overwhelming, especially for those just starting their farming journey. In this enlightening conversation with James Cruz, County Executive Director for Clay County FSA with over 31 years of experience, we unpack the valuable resources available through the Farm Service Agency that many producers overlook.
The Farm Service Agency operates in nearly every county nationwide, making it uniquely positioned to deliver critical support programs directly to agricultural producers. For beginning farmers, FSA offers specialized financing that dramatically reduces barriers to entry. Through the Beginning Farmer Down Payment Program, newcomers can purchase farmland with just 5% down, while FSA contributes 45% and a commercial lender covers the remaining 50% – all at interest rates significantly below market. This program is available to those who have farmed less than 10 years and don't own more than 30% of the average county farm size.
Perhaps most surprising is the innovative Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Transition Incentives initiative. When landowners with expiring CRP contracts lease their land to beginning farmers for five years, they receive two additional years of CRP payments – creating a powerful financial incentive to support the next generation of producers while easing the transition of conservation land back into production.
The conversation also explores disaster assistance programs that provide essential safety nets. From the Administrator's Physical Loss Declaration that offers low-interest emergency loans for storm-damaged facilities to the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program compensating for weather-related crop losses, FSA stands ready to help producers recover from setbacks. Additional financial tools like the Marketing Assistance Loan program (providing $3.87/bushel for wheat at 5% interest) and the Farm Storage Facility Loan program (financing bins, dryers, and handling equipment at rates as low as 3.75%) round out FSA's comprehensive support system.
Ready to leverage these programs for your operation? Contact your local FSA office today and register for their GovDelivery communication system to stay informed about opportunities that could transform your agricultural business.
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Contact the team at Pifer's
Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm your host today. Jack Pfeiffer joined virtually by my co-host, christian Miller. Christian, thank you for taking the time to join us today.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Jack. It sounds like we have a great guest on for our show today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do, absolutely. Yeah, we've got James Cruz here with Clay County FSA. James, thank you for coming, thank you for having me. Yeah, yeah, and what is your official role at the FSA office there? Yes, my official role at the FSA office there.
Speaker 4:Yes, my official role or title is the County Executive Director, Okay, and so we kind of oversee the programs. The staff make sure that we're doing the outreach to the producers to let them know about our programs. I also am in a shared management role, so I also service and manage the Norman County office. Okay, gotcha, so I'm back and forth between.
Speaker 3:Moorhead and Ada Gotcha Gotcha. Okay, and then how long have you been in that role?
Speaker 4:As far as the shared management, we've been doing that since 2022.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. And you've been with FSA for how long?
Speaker 4:I've been with FSA just over 31 years.
Speaker 3:Wow, okay, okay, very good, oh, wow, yeah. And so for people who who might not know what exactly is um, is FSA the farm service agency, and what exactly is kind of their, their role? Where do they sit kind of in the um? In what agents government agency are they a part of and and of thing? What exactly is their role in our community?
Speaker 4:The Farm Service Agency is a part of the United States Department of Agriculture, so it is a federal agency with a big function of ours is to roll out the programs and administer the programs that are approved under the Farm Bill or any other disaster programs usually that Congress decides to roll out. And because the Farm Service Agency has offices in almost every county or a presence in almost every county, we get tasked with administering a lot of those programs to make it easier for the producer to come in. They can come into the local office, take care of that, versus having to do a lot of it online or travel a distance to take care of their business.
Speaker 3:Gotcha, gotcha, and if you could just get a little closer to the mic, it's cutting out a little bit. Sorry about that, but yeah, I know it's great that it seems like pretty. Does that pretty much every county have their own FSA office, then?
Speaker 4:For the most part. I mean we've got a lot of offices probably around the metro area, like around Minneapolis, st Paul. They probably don't have a presence there, but they do A lot of offices if they don't have a presence. Sometimes they come to an office one day a week, maybe one day a month, depending on what the customer count is or how much demand is in that county. But we do serve all the counties in the nation.
Speaker 3:Gotcha, gotcha, yeah, very good. So I guess one thing that I really wanted to talk to you about today is I know you guys offer a lot of different programs and incentives and that kind of thing. Programs and incentives and that kind of thing, but probably the biggest ones that I hear about are for new or sometimes it's labeled as beginner farmer programs or loans and that kind of thing. What are all the different kinds of programs or incentives for young farmers, people who are trying to get a start in the farming world, that you guys offer?
Speaker 4:Yeah, within our loan program we do have a lot of programs that are tailored towards the beginning farmer. Okay.
Speaker 4:And some of that can be a lot of. That would be in targeting of funds, sure, so if we only have so many funds available through a certain period of the year, those funds become available for beginning farmers. Okay, that's the priority. But we do have some, a beginning farmer down payment program, for example. That's only available for beginning farmers. Okay, and essentially they work with a lender and an FSA loan officer. They would get their credit for buying a farm and the lender would provide 50%, fsa would provide 45% and they would do a 5% down payment. Okay gotcha.
Speaker 4:And those rates are kind of tailored special rates from FSA to help really get the blended rate, if you want to refer to it as to be a very favorable rate for that beginning farmer.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, so usually these are more favorable rates than what they would otherwise be able to qualify at a local bank. Then, yes, okay, okay, so usually these are more favorable rates than what they would otherwise be able to qualify at a local bank.
Speaker 4:Yes, they're usually a couple percent even lower than our farm ownership rate.
Speaker 3:Okay, go ahead, christian.
Speaker 2:Are there certain qualifications, James, that these young farmers need to meet in order to access this capital?
Speaker 4:need to meet in order to access this capital. Typically, some of those rules have changed and I don't work directly with it, but typically those qualifications would be is that they can't own more than 30% of the average farm size in the county where they're buying it. They also have to agree to participate in managing the farm, and then they can't have operated a farm for more than 10 years.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. And then is there anything about a certain amount of their income has to come from farming too? I feel like I've heard that before. Maybe I was misled on that.
Speaker 4:We don't necessarily have any particular requirements of that. They do have to operate the farm. A lot of them will have other land or they will have a job in town right type thing. But no specific requirements at a certain dollar amount or percentage has to come from the farm okay, gotcha very good, very good, and then so they're their.
Speaker 3:Their farm can't be larger than the average farm size. What exactly would that be kind of in our in our area here in clay county?
Speaker 4:I don't have that in front of me, but I think it's 30% of the average farm size would be about. I think it's around 170 acres. Okay, okay, yeah, that makes sense. So I think the average farm size, according to the last census, was right around 800 acres.
Speaker 3:Okay, wow, in Clay County. Yeah yeah, wow, that's a little bit surprising. Yeah yeah, average farm size probably gets bigger and bigger. Since 30 years ago when you started, I'm sure it's quite a bit bigger than it used to be.
Speaker 4:I guess another program that would be tailored specifically for beginning farmers is kind of through our conservation reserve program.
Speaker 4:Yes okay If we have a CRP participant who decides they don't want to re-enroll that contract, so they're going to let it expire September 30th. If they decide to sell that farm to a beginning farmer or they decide to lease it to a beginning farmer for at least five years, we will do what's called a transition incentives program with the existing CRP participant. That allows that we will pay that CRP participant two more years of CRP payments, with kind of the incentive or the initiative to be that anytime land's coming out of CRP it's a little rougher, a little hard to get back into good production. But then the idea is that the CRP participant would get another CRP payment and hopefully then they will reduce the rent for that beginning farmer for those first couple of years while they're still getting CRP.
Speaker 3:Okay, wow, wow. Yeah. That's really interesting and for people who might not know or might not be familiar with the CRP program, could you just give a little bit of background on that and exactly what that entails?
Speaker 4:Yeah, crp is the Conservation Reserve Program and basically the idea behind CRP is to reduce some of that highly sensitive, environmentally sensitive land, take it out of production. We then the participant would agree to plant it to a grass cover. Typically there are some tree cover practices, typically not found here in Clay County. You go a little bit east you see a little bit more of the tree practices and then for them to put it into the CRP they're going to maintain the grasses over a 10 or 15 year contract. Fsa is then going to pay them an annual payment basically to keep that out of production. It's like a contract so they've got to maintain it, make sure there's no noxious weeds trees coming into it grass practice and then we assist also at the beginning as cost share assistance to get that grass established. So it can be a little bit spendy on their part. So we do have some cost share assistance that can help with that. But then it's a 10 or 15, 15 year contract to keep it out of production.
Speaker 3:Right, right, yeah, very good. Yeah, that's a really interesting program then. Yeah, I would imagine a lot of the landowners then do go back and, you know, give a favorable rental rate to new farmers, and you said it's normally about two years of an additional payment that they'll be able to get on that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, under the transition incentives program. It's a two-year contract additional.
Speaker 3:Gotcha and I know here in the Valley. Typically those CRP payments are pretty favorable and are usually not too far off from what they'd be able to get for a premium rental rate on that property. So that's a really good program. I wasn't aware of that one.
Speaker 4:And that's kind of established by the current farm bill. Okay, so sometimes it can be different considerations go into those rental rates, but yeah, they're usually pretty decent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, very good Christian, did you have a question?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was. My question was for James is after this land is taken out of the CRP, they are continuing to get two more years of payments as a young farmer, even though they are farming that ground.
Speaker 4:Is that correct? No, it's the CRP participants. So the one who had the CRP contractor owns the land. They're getting this contin land. They're going to get two more years of CRP payments in the idea that they're not going to charge as much rent to that beginning farmer to get that land back into production.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then I would imagine it also sets up that young farmer who's able to, you know, work on putting it back into production, kind of sets them up into, you know, into turning that into a, into a longer term lease to where you know they're. They're establishing the land for for the next couple of years, but it might set them up to to continue to rent it in the future too, which is really nice yeah, in order for that to qualify that, that CRP participant would have to give that beginning farmer a five-year lease.
Speaker 4:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Very good, okay, very good, yeah, yeah, and that's a pretty long-term lease for what you normally see Awesome. Well, I do want to talk a little bit more about CRP and some other programs that you guys offer in our next segment, and James has agreed to stick around for a few more segments here today. I do want to thank Christian Miller for being my co-host today and joining us virtually, and want to thank Christian Miller for being my co-host today and joining us virtually. And then I also want to thank Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty and Land Management.
Speaker 3:Folks, we've got a ton of upcoming land and equipment auctions on the schedule. Actually, starting in September through November. We have over 20,000 acres of land coming up for sale all across the region North Dakota, minnesota, south Dakota. We even got some stuff over in Wisconsin, I believe. So log on to Piferscom and check out all of our upcoming sales and feel free to reach out to any one of our land or equipment guys for a free consultation. Folks, we will be right back after this short break. Welcome. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 3:I'm your host today, jack Pfeiffer, joined by Christian Miller. Christian, we've got a great guest and we're learning a lot today, aren't we?
Speaker 2:Yes, we are absolutely. James Cruz from the USDA has joined us today and we are unpacking a great segment here where we have a lot to learn, and James has agreed to talk some more about programs that are available for young farmers and also some other programs that might be beneficial to people in the agricultural community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, james Cruz is here in studio with me today with the Clay County FSA office. Yeah, we were talking last segment a little bit about, you know, some incentives and programs for beginner farmers, and then we started talking about CRP quite a bit towards the end of the segment. So for landowners who are interested in that you know what kind of land qualifies for CRP and then how can landowners go about enrolling their land into the Conservation Reserve Program.
Speaker 4:Sure, we have all kinds of land that will qualify, you know, it just depends on what kind of what. A lot of. It depends on what practice they want to put into it, what kind of grasses they want to put out there. You know, if they want to go natives, they want to go with a lot of pollinator type grasses. I mean, those things get more points. Pollinator type grasses, I mean those things, get more points. We really have two ways of getting land into, three ways of getting land into CRP. We have a general sign-up and that usually is a sign-up that's announced by the Secretary of Agriculture. Okay, so it's a specific sign-up period and that's all based on what we refer to as an environmental benefit index.
Speaker 4:Okay, and that's all based on what we refer to as an environmental benefit index. So there's several different factors soil, water, air quality, whether you're in a specific wildlife zone so there's several different factors that go into that. So a lot of times it's based on where your land is. But you can, as a participant, you can, make some decisions on what kind of grasses you want to put in, what kind of term you want to put in 10 or 15 years, depending on the practice. You can make some decisions on what kind of grasses you want to put in, what kind of term you want to put in 10 or 15 years, depending on the practice. You might get more points and so that environmental benefit index at the end of the signup then is determined by the secretary of ag what is going to get accepted or not.
Speaker 4:Okay, very good so as part of that, we also have a continuous signup, which is more ongoing, ongoing and it's one of those sign ups that in the past if you qualified you got accepted right away and you could put it into CRP. Okay. And with that that's changed a little bit in the last couple years, just because we were working on a farm bill extension. Right. So they're not able to increase the amount of acres that are in CRP. So we still got a statutory limit set by the farm bill of how much land can be in CRP.
Speaker 4:So that kind of dictates how much land is going to get re-enrolled, Because typically that's set up for a five-year farm bill and so they can't make those extensions through, they can't extend the acres through a farm bill extension, Keeping in mind that the soil rental rate that's established. There's a soil rental rate that's established for the county but those are then divided up kind of among soil types, so the predominant three soil types per acreage you're going to submit that will determine the payment rate. Okay, okay, okay, yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 4:And then it's got to be have been cropped, so the farm bill will look. Usually sets up a six year period prior to the farm bill, so we're really working on a 2012, I believe through 2017 period. Had to be farmed four out of those six years. Okay. So as long as it was cropped during that time, it would meet the cropping history.
Speaker 3:Gotcha. So it has to have a recent cropping history in order to qualify. Okay, and that makes sense. So you can't just take land that's already been idle and sitting and say, well, I'll just enroll it into CRP it's basically already CRP now and just get a payment on it. You can't do that, okay.
Speaker 4:But we do have a grassland CRP sign up, our CRP program, and that's more of a working land program, so it's really meant for a lot of times it's grazing land, sure, those type of lands that can allow some different things that can happen while it's under CRP than with our regular CRP program. But the rate is, you know, I think this last year the rate was about $19 an acre. Okay. Versus. Like our regular CRP, you can get up and do 150. Right? Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, very good, Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, it's interesting to hear about the different types of well land use you can use for the CRP. I've been on one of those I think it's called like a pollinator plot. I was able to. A landowner showed me one of his fields. I was enrolled in that late, late last summer so it was just kind of past the prime of when the field would have looked really cool, but it was just a really, really interesting to see kind of the feed mix that was out there and just how I can imagine how lush it would have been at the kind of peak season.
Speaker 4:So landowners really have an option to kind of choose what kind of grass they want to put out there, and that will kind of determine what type of sign up they're going to get involved with Right, right and then okay.
Speaker 3:The other interesting thing that you mentioned is so right now and I think you mentioned it was kind of county by county but so there's a certain amount of allocated land that you guys are allowed to enroll into CRP, Is that right? And so right now you guys would only be able to enroll new land as old land comes out of CRP. Is that kind of where things are at?
Speaker 4:That's kind of how it works. You know, depending on how much, there's always seems to be a little bit of a cushion you know, like, for example, if in 2024, so much land came out but not all of it went back in, sure, you know. So that kind of builds on to it. But this year we did have a limited CRP sign up. We had to do it in batches just to make sure that there was enough acres nationwide before we got committed to a lot of acres.
Speaker 3:Okay, that makes sense and that wouldn't really change until a new farm bill is established. Is that right?
Speaker 4:Well, we have land that's expiring every September. Right. So as that, you know, some years it's a bigger you know we've had in the past. You know we're looking probably 10, 15 years back now for land that's expiring now A lot of them. There's years that were there were a lot of acres that got put in and then there were years that just weren't as many. So it all depends on what the demand is and that kind of cycles a little bit with economics. Right.
Speaker 4:Right Prices are a little less. I mean, there seems to be a little bit more demand for CRP acres. Yeah. Whereas in the same, when prices are pretty good Right, people want to be in the production side.
Speaker 3:Gotcha. Have you guys noticed anything in the last, let's say the last five years on demand for landowners wanting to enroll in CRP? Is it kind of on the rise or on the fall?
Speaker 4:You know we have I would say we're in that 60% to 70% retention probably of people that want to re-enroll, but then we always seem to have new people on our list that want to submit offers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, very good, very good. Awesome. Yeah, I know the CRP program is a really interesting deal and yeah, I would encourage a lot of people to kind of read up on it, especially if you're a landowner, to see how it might benefit you and get in contact with your local FSA office for sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would say if somebody's interested. You know, we right now don't have any sign-ups going on because we're at the end of a fiscal year. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And those sign-ups are done for this year. But if you are interested, just contact your local FSA office. Visit about the CRP, kind of learn a little bit about it, and then every office keeps a list of those that we'll contact you know, get information to. I'm highly encouraged. We'll talk about it probably at the end of the segments. But some of our communication tools, they should get signed up for, you know. That way they're going to get information from us on a regular basis, talking about these programs.
Speaker 3:Awesome, awesome, good deal. I do want to talk about one other thing, and I think we have just a little bit of time left in this segment. Well, actually, I think we'll probably end up saving it for the next one. Christian, did you have anything else you wanted to mention for the end of this segment?
Speaker 2:I am sitting here learning, Jack, I am. You know we sell a lot of farmland that has sometimes 20 or 30 acres attached to it that's in CRP, and I never quite understood. Sometimes you look at that payment and it's a very nice payment, and to hear James break it down on how they calculate that payment I think is a great indicator for buyers if they're looking at a higher CRP payment. If I understand this correctly, James, that would correlate with the soil type. So if you have a higher CRP payment, you're buying ground that's in CRP that might be more productive. Is that correct?
Speaker 4:Correct. You know it's kind of based on some tiers and it's usually grouped by soil types and it's the three predominant soils. So you might have one tract of land that has some really good productive land, but if it's only 10% of the total acreage it may not get calculated into the price.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know we use those look at soil types all the time when we're doing valuations and promoting land. You know the soil type is huge and I know that, yeah, government agencies have done a really good job of mapping those soil types all across our region. Folks, we're running out of time for this segment. I do want to thank Pfeiffer's Auction and Realty for sponsoring today's show. We will be right back after this break. Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer.
Speaker 3:I'm your host today, Jack Pfeiffer, joined virtually by my co-host, Christian Miller. Christian, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Hey, you bet. Thanks for having me on, Jack. I enjoy hosting these with you, yeah yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:It's always fun when we have a great guest like we have here today, james Cruz from the from the Clay County FSA office, educating us on some programs for for beginner farmers. I talked a lot last episode on or last segment on on CRP and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, thank you for joining us here today, james. Thank you, yeah, I did want to ask. I had on my sheet here to ask you about some disaster assistance stuff. It has been a just seems like a crazy weather year here in our region, whether it's high winds or tornadoes or hail events out in the Western part of our state and kind of around here too With that. You know, I don't know a whole lot about disaster relief and what all, how that all applies to farmers. So if you could just kind of give us a basic rundown on what kind of services you guys provide and you know when those services come into play.
Speaker 4:One of the things we do is we do a lot of storm reporting assistance. We do ask producers, if they have a storm come out through their area, if they could contact us just to let us know, because we are the agency that kind of puts forth recommendations for disaster declarations which could open up emergency loans through our farm loan program. It might open up some other disaster assistance. For example, we had that big storm that went through I believe was the 20th of June.
Speaker 4:Sounds right and that one did a lot of damage in Norman County to a lot of grain bins facilities. So if we have, for example, one building that's damaged because of a storm, we can get what's called an administrator's physical loss declaration.
Speaker 4:Okay, and we've just been informed that that has been approved damaged because of a storm, we can get what's called an administrator's physical loss declaration Okay, and we've just been informed that that has been approved, and then the contiguous counties around that also become eligible. So they would be eligible for an emergency loan, which is a low interest loan through FSA to replace that facility. Very good, that's one option, yeah. Some of the other we do have. We've had some different disaster programs over the last several years. We do have one going on right now called the supplemental disaster relief program. Okay.
Speaker 4:Um SDRP, and that is for production losses due to weather events.
Speaker 2:Um.
Speaker 4:In 2023 and 2024. Okay. So right now the sign-up that's going on is. Applications were mailed to the producers who had a crop insurance claim. Right, okay.
Speaker 4:And so they just have to answer a couple questions on there. They have to tell us what the disaster event was, so it has to be an approved disaster event, that's eligible. And then they also have to agree to buy crop insurance for the next two crop years. Okay, okay, and they, they kind of submit that to we, kind of review that and get those approved and get the money to the producer.
Speaker 3:Gotcha, gotcha, and you said so right now from the the, the 23 years 23 and 24, that you're working on on, on those years right now and events that would have happened at that time For those that had a crop insurance claim Gotcha.
Speaker 4:Coming, probably the middle of September. We're being told there's going to be stage two. Okay, and what stage two is is kind of for those shallow losses. They probably had a loss. Did not have a high enough loss to qualify for a crop insurance claim. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Or somebody who maybe had a quality loss, maybe didn't carry crop insurance along that line. That sign up and we're not exactly sure what the criteria is going to be. In the past it's been revenue-based, so it's been based off certain numbers, on their taxes, different things or expected revenue. I'm not sure that hasn't been released yet, but that sign-up will be starting in September.
Speaker 4:We don't know how long that'll go. So producers who did not get a crop insurance claim in 23 or 24 that feel they had a loss, they should be watching for that, getting information from their FSA office when that information comes out.
Speaker 3:Right right, Very good when that information comes out. Right right, Very good. And then, what was the first one you talked about? That's kind of a what was the first one you mentioned? I didn't quite catch that one the program for people who have had damage on their property that can qualify for a low interest rate loan.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right now it's an administrator's physical loss. Okay, so we do have that and we also can also request declarations for production losses. Those usually don't get looked at until the end of the production season. But if we can. If a county can prove that they had a 30% loss on one crop, you know that might be preventive plant. It might be a lot of hail that goes through. Maybe, it's just an early frost, something like that. Then we can get again emergency declaration and that would line up for some loan programs through FSA.
Speaker 3:Right and it's great to know that those loan programs are already available, even though sometimes you think about these programs where you know it can take so long for government agencies to act. So that's great that it's already available, because you know you think about it, about all the bin sites and building sites that were damaged over this summer here. You know there's probably going to be quite a few guys or a few producers around our region who are, you know, might be looking at a really good crop this year, but they're going to be kind of short on storage and that kind of thing. So that's great that that's you know already. Funds are already available for that.
Speaker 4:So with that, like the emergency loan program is always available. Okay, there's a disaster declaration. Some of our disaster relief programs they get authorized by Congress. Like we're working on 23 and 24 now Right, and that was just approved in December.
Speaker 3:Okay, very good, very good. And then, so let's say you know it was buildings damaged, but it was also, let's say, you know, the contents within the building that were damaged, like you know, equipment and that kind of thing Do these loans you know apply to for, like operating loan for them to start acquiring new equipment, and that kind of thing too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, if the equipment was, let's say, damaged from the storm, that would also be eligible for that emergency loan. Ok. To as long as it was farm related.
Speaker 3:Right, right, yeah, oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, very good, and is that a fairly quick process, james, once they apply. Let's say, they have some equipment in a shed that's damaged, and let's use June for an example, and they have wheat harvests in August, early September. Is there a pretty quick turnaround time on that, or what? Does that? Look like for the farmers needing to get equipment in the shed because harvest is right around the corner.
Speaker 4:I would say once they're eligible, as far as the declarations approved by the administrator or the president, those loans can go fairly quickly. You know, if they kind of got a plan, they kind of know what equipment they want to purchase, they got their cash flow and their balance sheet and all that stuff put together, they can sit down with a farm loan officer and the equipment should go a pretty decent time. You know the declarations. Like I said, we just got one approved for Norman County and that I think we put that in 1st of July, so it probably takes a month to get the declaration approved through all the different channels that it has to go yep, and then they can give Christian Miller a call and have him look for a new combine, or log on to piperscom and start looking around at our upcoming pre-harvest sale, right, christian?
Speaker 2:absolutely, jack talking about that. The the Sioux Falls pre-harvest sale is if they are looking for equipment. It is loaded with combines and and tractors and and lots of harvest equipment on there. I saw they had two 680s and a 780 that are ready to go into the field. That's a great note there for the people that are looking to source equipment from the storms.
Speaker 3:Perfect. Yeah, how about that for a segue? That's great. Yeah, we've got a. That's going to be a heck of a sale. There's something for everybody on that, so that's going to be a really good one. I was going to ask, you know it's maybe it's kind of an obvious question, but as far as the um you know the, the disaster assistance, does this year seem like a little bit more of a crazy year than than years past?
Speaker 4:you know, it seems it really varies from year to year yeah I think we go back to 2023. You know we're looking at a lot of dry conditions. Then 24 was wetter. This year seems to be kind of up and down you know, you can go from one part of a county to another.
Speaker 4:Right, I mean you just look at, you know, clay County. Here we probably a couple weeks ago had four or five inches of rain Right In a very short period of time. Yeah, four or five inches of rain in a very short period of time. So it can all vary. We've seen years where we think it's going to be dry and the year starts out extremely dry, or the exact opposite it's wet and we have a lot of prevented plant acres. And then we end the year with a drought.
Speaker 4:So times have really changed over the years, where not everybody's getting the same rain. It's not the slow steadies, it's quick.
Speaker 3:Right, right, yeah, yeah, it has been kind of a weird year Lately. It seems like, you know, every other day or every other night we're getting some type of shot of rain, and it's been, yeah, just a little bit crazy. But you know, it's for the most part, I think, um kind of throughout our region. There's going to be some really nice, uh, some really nice yields out there from from, from what I've seen just as as an observer, you know, out out looking around kind of throughout the region, but I think it's going to be a, um, a really great year for for most people.
Speaker 2:Christian, I know you're located in, uh, in more central Minnesota. I'm sure you're seeing similar stuff over there. I know they've had their share of crazy weather events this year as well. Yeah, absolutely we have. We've had some of those large storms that have come through and you see, the tree rows and some of the trees are just twisted and they got beat up pretty good and some of the crops took that damage as well. We've continuously gotten rain all summer, so the crops that did not get damaged are looking good and we anticipate in western Minnesota, over to the north central side here we anticipate a great harvest this fall for those crops that are undamaged. It looks to be a great yield, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're in a pretty part of the world with the rolling hills and yeah, it's pretty awesome when there's a there's where there's great crops around this type this time of year. Folks, we're running out of time here for our for our third segment we will be back for for just one more segment before we end our show today, but I do want to thank our sponsors, pifers Auction and Realty and Land Management. Get a hold of any of our equipment guys like Christian Miller, for any of your equipment buying or selling needs and then you know you can always contact any of our land agents or land managers for any of our services. Our guys are always happy to come out and talk and give you a free consultation and go over all the services that we're able to provide here at Piper. So, folks, thank you for listening, we will be right back with our last segment after this break.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to America's Land. Auctioneer. I'm your host today, jack Pfeiffer, joined by my co-host, christian Miller, who's up in central Minnesota today. Christian, thank you for taking the time to join in.
Speaker 2:You bet it's good to be on another episode with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and we've got James Cruz here with the Clay County FSA office Been really good to sit down with you, james, I know there's. You know we work sometimes with the FSA offices and they're really tied to a lot of stuff we do here at Pifers, especially on the land side, so it's been really awesome to have you in just to kind of pick your brain on some of these programs that you guys offer. So, thank you, thank you for being here.
Speaker 4:Glad to be here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know you did. We've talked a lot about some of the programs you guys have and incentives. Last segment we talked a little bit about disaster assistance and that kind of thing. Is there any other programs or loan programs, anything like that, that you guys offer that you think people should know about?
Speaker 4:Yeah, one of our programs is a marketing assistance loan program. It's available for anybody who wants to use that as more of an interim tool to get some financing. Maybe it's to prepay some expenses for 2026 now. But once the crop is harvested you just have to certify those bushels that you want to take a loan on to the FSA office. Okay, and then there's a loan. Right now the rate is 5%. For example, if we're looking at wheat we'd be looking at about, we'd provide $3.87 a bushel. Okay.
Speaker 4:And then that can kind of help with some interim financing, especially when not making somebody sell the crop right out of the field. Right. When it's historically been at the lower prices. Yeah right.
Speaker 4:So that's one program that's available and the other program I just want to make an announcement for is our farm storage facility loan program. So we do have a low interest financing program for helping with any type of storage and handling of commodities after they're harvested. So we don't do any of the equipment like combines or anything that's used for harvest, but we can do grain bins, dryers, we can do augers, trucks, trailers, we can do bale wrappers, any type of thing that's used to grain carts it's become a popular one. Sugar beet carts is an option. So we have any of those type of handling facilities and equipment.
Speaker 4:Trucks and trailers has become really popular and those rates are anywhere 3.75 to about four and a half percent. If it's used, we can go three or five years. If it's going to be new, we can go, depending on the loan amount, we can go up to 12 years. And then, if it's going to be new, we can go, depending on the loan amount, we can go up to 12 years. Okay, and then if it's going to be a grain bin, for example, and there's going to be some type of ground disturbance, then we do have to do an environmental evaluation. Okay.
Speaker 4:So it's great if you're looking at some of those projects, especially now as we're going into winter, kind of evaluate this harvest, see what equipment, what bins you might need. Visit with us over the winter months. We can start that environmental evaluation that way when you're ready to build next spring, you've got all that paperwork done and ready to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, awesome, awesome, yeah. Well, it's been great learning about all these programs that you guys offer. I know there's a I, um I've I've got some some buddies who are um, kind of starting out their uh, um, their, their, their farming careers and that kind of thing. So I'm definitely going to have to have them tune into this episode and um, um, uh and also just reach out to their local FSA office right To uh to make sure they're um, taking advantage of of everything that they can. I think that's probably the biggest thing that I'm walking away from this episode with is, you know, just all these different programs that maybe people aren't even aware of that could hugely benefit. You know, producers of really any size kind of all throughout our region.
Speaker 4:And along that line I would highly encourage anybody who's interested in any of those programs to contact their local FSA office, get signed up for our GovDelivery communication. We typically at CEDs. We usually send out one to two bulletins a month. We just send what those current programs are and get that information, because it might be something we put out this week that you might not need, but you can remember that we have that program maybe three, four months down the road when you're looking for it.
Speaker 3:Awesome, awesome. Well, I did kind of mess up our segue there. We were talking a little bit about, you know, buying new and used equipment and I started rambling again. But I was going to use that as a good segue, christian, to talk about some of our upcoming equipment sales.
Speaker 2:I know we've got a crazy pre-harvest sale coming up next week in August here down in South Dakota. Yeah, we do, jack. On the 26th down in Sioux Falls, that's next Tuesday. There is a great lineup of equipment. I don't know if I've ever seen their sale quite loaded down like this. They have skid loaders. There are wheel loaders here. They have a 2012 CAT 930K wheel loader. It's just loaded. They have excavators. There are two John Deere 6155 tractors loader tractors on there for the cattle guys. One's an M, one's an R. There is belted tractors. They have three track tractors they'll be selling. There are a handful of combines on this sale. I just can't say enough good things about it. I don't think I've ever seen Sioux Falls with a sail of this magnitude, and if you're looking to buy equipment, some of it is. It is used, but there are a couple pieces that are only a couple years old and it's. It's going to be a great opportunity to get into some quality equipment at a live auction.
Speaker 3:Yeah no, absolutely. And even ring two. You know, sometimes when we break these sails into two rings it's because we're kind of, you know, breaking things up by. You know quite older stuff or smaller stuff, but even ring two is full of, you know, really quality stuff. You know you've got attachments and a lot of freestanding panels and that kind of thing on there. So, yeah, pretty much from top to bottom, this sale is loaded up with quality equipment and our team down there in Sioux Falls is so knowledgeable on every piece of equipment that they add to their sales.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, I would encourage everyone to log on to pyferscom and browse that sale. It might take you a while, it's quite a big sale, but then, yeah, if anything piques your interest, reach out to our guys down there in Sioux Falls. We also have a pretty crazy lineup of land sales that will be starting in September here, just in the coming weeks. We've got a 237 acre tract there in Steele County, north Dakota, um, with uh that. That sale is going to be September 10th. Up in Grand Forks Um, that's that looks like a really nice property. We've got some really cool, um, uh, non-farm land properties up in Lake Medigoshi. We've got a really cool, uh lakefront property coming up for sale there on the same day, september 10th that's a beautiful area up there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you and I were lucky enough to spend some time up there a couple years ago doing some land and equipment sales up there and, yeah, I think we both kind of walked away from that thinking, yeah, I could spend some time up here. It's a little far, but pretty awesome area.
Speaker 3:It's beautiful beautiful you bet yeah, and then we've got a 70 acre home and and feed lot in pierce county, north dakota christian, I know you and I have both been on that farm before too um, uh for the for the kukla family, and that is just a a fantastic operation. I'm really grateful, uh, for them to have worked with us for their land and equipment needs. But, yeah, it's finally time that they're letting that last piece go, and that should be a really nice place for a new person to come in and take over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's set up right, Jack. The grading that they've done for the water to run off that feedlot is spectacular, and the way the bunks are set up for a young producer or even an established producer, that is a must-see. The house is a modern house, great size, and the feedlot is spectacular. Yep for sure.
Speaker 3:I guess the last sale I'll talk about here is the Wohl Estate Equipment Auction that we have coming up mid-September, september 18th. That sale will be in Castleton, north Dakota. I encourage anybody in the area to come and join that sale. You know, even if you're not interested, not a lot of people host these live auctions anymore, and when we do, we like to make them fun community events. So I'm really looking forward to that sale more. And when we do, we like to make them fun community events. So I'm really looking forward to that sale. I could go on and on talking about all of our upcoming sales. Through September, through November, we have 20,000 acres of farmland, pasture, recreational land coming up for sale at auctions, and then that's not even counting the listings we have on the website. But folks log on to pyferscom and check out all of our upcoming land and equipment sales. James, thank you again for joining us here today. It's been really educational for both Christian and I and folks. Thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1:We will be back next week, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.