Subscribe to the new Harvest newsletter for our latest reporting on agriculture and the environment, behind-the-scenes exclusives, and more.
New federal legislation that’s working its way through the House Committee on Agriculture would allow farmers or ranchers with just 50% stake in the business to get a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The agency administered 24,555 loans to U.S. producers in 2024, totaling nearly $5.4 billion.
Under the current system, eligible loan applicants must be the sole owner-operator of their farm or the legal entity that owns it. But critics say the requirements are outdated and don't take into account the more complicated ownership structures of many modern-day farms, like limited liability companies or partnerships.
Supporters of the legislation, including farmers, ranchers and their lobbying and trade groups, say it’s a necessary update to better reflect how agribusiness is done in today’s world — and to maintain a path for younger producers to stay in an increasingly costly industry.
“Very simply, it will help provide access to this much-needed capital to help farmers, the next generation of farmers, to get out and get in the field and do what they need to do to keep agriculture going in this country,” said Christy Seyfert, President and CEO of Farm Credit Council, a national trade association representing lenders who offer credit to farmers.
Just 8% of farmers under the age of 34 fully owned their land in 2014, according to the most recent USDA data available. For those 65 years and older, it’s 43%. At the same time, part ownership in American farmland has increased from 25% in 1935 to 54% in 2012.
Farm ownership has gotten increasingly complex in recent decades, as more farmers and ranchers have begun using legal entities to transfer property.
Previously, it had been common for farms to pass down generationally — from father to son, for example. Now, it’s common for siblings or friends to go into business together, said Ben Duncanson of Compeer Financial, an agricultural lender that works in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“They lose eligibility because they no longer have one entity that both owns and operates the land,” said Duncanson, who runs Compeer’s legislative affairs. “So, it's just a little bit of a delay in understanding how farmers are structuring themselves.”
Mike Shane, an Illinois corn and soybean producer who also works in ag banking, estimates this change would be useful for almost half of the farmers he advises. While agriculture has always been an expensive proposition, it’s not getting any cheaper, he said.
“You can have $2 million wrapped up into 1,000 acres, and 1,000 acres is considered a pretty small farm these days,” said Shane, who’s also the secretary of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, which supports the legislation.
Getting the capital necessary to take over a farm can be difficult, Shane added.
He’s currently working with a pair of brothers who are splitting up their family farm into two entities in order to seek financing. It would have been much easier to consolidate the operation into one, Shane said.
“What's going to happen, I think, is down the line, it's going to be difficult to combine it back together,” Shane said.
Two Illinois lawmakers who sit on the House Committee on Agriculture, U.S Reps. Mike Bost and Nikki Budzinski, introduced the legislation late last year and have attached it to the latest version of the Farm Bill.
“We want to make sure that that doesn't prohibit any farmers from having maximum opportunities to get access to loans right now,” said Budzinski, a Democrat.
Many portions of the Farm Bill, the massive omnibus legislation that had been passed roughly every five years, were included in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill passed last summer. Congress also extended the 2018 Farm Bill for a third time last fall, with the bill now set to expire at the end of September.
“Every extension creates more uncertainty for producers who are already dealing with tight margins, weather risks and volatile markets,” said Bost, a Republican, in a statement. “Farmers do not need more delays. They need stability and predictability, and that only comes from passing a long-term Farm Bill.”
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
