# Farm financing?



## SheepGirl (Jan 4, 2018)

We bought a home with 7.2 acres a little over a year ago. We have not had it fenced in for my sheep, so my sheep are still at my parent's house. We are looking to fence in at least half of the property, I figure materials would be around $2600 to cover 1900 linear feet of woven wire fencing with wooden fence posts spaced every 8 feet.

Plus then to build a barn... oh gosh, maybe $4,000? Or for a larger barn, maybe $10,000? I'm not really sure at this point. May also want to tie in a garage my fiance can work out of also into the loan.

Does anyone have any experience with farm based lenders for capital financing of structures and fencing (I could provide a business plan if the lender required it)? I looked into personal loans from my bank, but the lowest interest rate is around 8%. Both my and my fiance's credit scores are in the mid 700s. I even looked into the bank entity of the mortgage company I work at and their interest rates are ridiculous!

Any suggestions?


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## promiseacres (Jan 4, 2018)

Maybe someone has insight. ..not many farm lenders..or wI'll in lenders for fence in my experience. you might look at an equity loan or line of credit.  big reason we still have no barn.... at least fence you can do it in sections, which is what we did.


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## Baymule (Jan 4, 2018)

Forget the loan. Buy your wire a roll at a time. Whatever your monthly note was going to be, buy wire and posts with it. What wire are you going to use, 2"x4" woven non climb horse wire or sheep and goat wire with 4"x4" The horse wire comes in 100 and 200 foot rolls, the sheep and goat wire comes in 330 foot rolls and cost less than the horse wire. 

Use the wooden poste to build H braces, corner braces and gate H braces. T-posts are generally cheaper than treated wood posts and you can use them for your wire spans. We fenced 8 acres in horse wire. We did "pastures" and gradually got it all fenced in. Next month we will be here 3 years. 

For the barn.....start scrounging. Look for treated telephone poles or electrical poles. Call the electric company and ask for them. They usually bring them back to the yard when they replace old ones. Or if they use a contractor for replacing poles, contact the contractor and ask what they do with them. You can get enough to build whatever you want.

Lumber for the barn.....do you have a Lowes, Home Depot or other large lumberyard in your area? They have reject racks where you can buy bent, crooked or damaged lumber for less than half price. My barn is 36'x36', full of reject lumber and could care less. If there are houses being built in your area, they always have big construction boxes where they throw stuff away that you can use. I have used a lot of used lumber in my barn. Stop and ask if you can go through the trash. Concrete form lumber is thrown away and is usually 2x8, 2x10 or even 2x12.

If you have no where to store your lumber treasures, buy cow panels and build a hoop shelter with a tarp roof to keep your lumber out of the rain. 

Our barn. We bought new tin and 21 new 2x6x20' for roof rafters. We also bought new plywood for the roof, but I found new, but discounted tar paper rolls on Craigs list.


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## Baymule (Jan 4, 2018)

Our fencing building thread. A lot of other people chimed in and had better ideas, I think it might help you. 

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/non-climb-2-x4-horse-wire-fence.32922/

Fence a couple of pastures for your sheep. For shelter, build a hoop shelter like a hoop coop for chickens. 





I built a lean to for my sheep, still using it with a small lot fence. Plans are to build a bigger one by coming off the roof of the portable building next to it.


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## babsbag (Jan 5, 2018)

I got a loan for my dairy from the Farm Service Administration. They have micro loans that are for 7 years. But you have to show that you have experience with ranching/farming for the last three years. I don't remember if a schedule F was required on taxes or not but I know that I had to document my experience. I would call them and ask some questions, can't hurt.


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## greybeard (Jan 5, 2018)

> I figure materials would be around $2600 to cover 1900 linear feet of woven wire fencing with wooden fence posts spaced every 8 feet.



IMO, even for sheep, 8' spacing is overkill...it's closer spacing than necessary. 
My b-i-l raises sheep, using the same knotted/woven wire in 330' rolls Baymule mentioned and has 10' line post spacing in one pasture and 12' spacing in another.  He has never had one escape, but his wire is tensioned tight as a fiddle string on good corners, planted 3 1/2-4' deep.


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## Latestarter (Jan 5, 2018)

Agreed with all above. Those wood posts are way overkill and more so at 8' spaced. 10' space is perfect and 12' would work. Use T-posts and only wood posts on corners and gates. As for the loan, sorry, no ideas not already mentioned. good luck!


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## lilipansy (Jan 7, 2018)

There are some federal programs that will help you with some fencing expenses if you join their conservation program.  They don't give you much, probably pay for material plus a little bit of labor costs (better than nothing!).  We just signed up with a county program here in Hawaii where they'll draw up a pasture rotation plan. The federal program will kick in in October when their fiscal year starts and it includes other programs such as financing for a high tunnel.


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## Simpleterrier (Jan 7, 2018)

I do it one thing at a time and like @Baymule  I dive and dig and look and see what I can get. I have a 20x48 barn cost me 800 two chicken coops cost me 20 and they are 4x10 and a 8x16 three sided shed it cost me 500. So save a little and then build a little. Getting into debt for animals isn't worth it.


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## greybeard (Jan 7, 2018)

Read the fine print on any govt farm assistance loan. I looked into one a few years ago for a hay storage barn and the financial terms weren't bad, but the restrictions and specs they insisted on put the loan amt higher than I wanted to go or jump thru.
8" steel reinforced slab and I couldn't use it for anything else BUT putting hay on..not even parking tractor or implements on and that was for the length of the loan payback. I passed on it.


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## promiseacres (Jan 7, 2018)

greybeard said:


> Read the fine print on any govt farm assistance loan. I looked into one a few years ago for a hay storage barn and the financial terms weren't bad, but the restrictions and specs they insisted on put the loan amt higher than I wanted to go or jump thru.
> 8" steel reinforced slab and I couldn't use it for anything else BUT putting hay on..not even parking tractor or implements on and that was for the length of the loan payback. I passed on it.


Sounds like a good decision....


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