When it’s not coming together, we start moving pieces
Sometimes the operation as it stands won’t clear underwriting — the working capital isn’t there, the payables are too far behind, the collateral doesn’t cover the ask. That isn’t the end of the conversation. It’s where the second half of the work starts, and we work the list from the least painful option down.
Where we look first
Roughly in this order, and rarely one at a time. Usually two or three together, sequenced so each makes the next one easier.
Look past the traditional lenders
Specialty ag lenders, asset-based facilities and private credit will underwrite collateral and stories a bank’s credit box won’t. Costlier, but faster and far more willing to build a structure around your operation.
Open up more vendor credit
Seed, chemical, fuel and custom-work suppliers will often extend more credit than farmers think to ask for. Past-due balances can sometimes be settled at a discount or stretched onto terms — though that usually costs you the relationship, so count on buying from somebody else next year and weigh it accordingly.
Refinance equipment
Move short amortizations onto longer terms, or run a sale-leaseback on iron you own outright. Frees up cash now and takes pressure off the operating line — without touching an acre.
Consolidate the debt stack
Several loans across several lenders with conflicting liens is its own obstacle. Simplifying the structure often matters more to an underwriter than the total balance does.
Rework the ask
The request doesn’t have to go to one lender in one piece. A real estate loan from one and an operating line from another. A smaller line alongside a term loan. A borrowing base tied to grain inventory. Splitting the ask is often what makes each piece approvable.
Selling ground
Farmers don’t sell land. I understand that, and I don’t lead with it. Ground is the thing the whole operation is built on and usually the thing a family measures itself by — it belongs at the bottom of the list, after every other option has genuinely been worked.
But it does sometimes become the option that saves the rest of the farm. If we get there, it should be a parcel chosen deliberately for what it contributes against the debt it carries, sold on your timeline — not the whole place at auction under a deadline somebody else set. That difference is usually worth more than the sale itself.
And a sale isn’t always permanent. Some investors will buy ground and grant you an option to repurchase it in a few years, which gives the operation room to stabilize while leaving a path back to owning it. That won’t fit every situation, but it’s worth knowing the option exists before you decide ground is gone for good.
Distress, workouts and the other side
I’ve worked through discounted settlements, collateral negotiations, voluntary receivership and bankruptcy coordination — alongside lenders, attorneys and ownership groups. It is not unfamiliar ground.
If bankruptcy is avoidable, we work to avoid it — with honest disclosure to the lender, a credible plan, and payables handled in an order that keeps the operation running. In my experience a lender who learns bad news from you, early, behaves very differently from one who finds it themselves.
If it isn’t avoidable, the job changes: preserve what can be preserved, keep the relationships intact, and position the family to farm on the other side. I’ve stayed with operations through receivership and the handoff to new ownership, and I’ll tell you plainly which situation I think you’re in.
Bankruptcy is a reset, not an ending. Plenty of farms are still farming on the other side of one.
One thing I’m not
I’m not an attorney and I’m not a CPA. I don’t file bankruptcy petitions, prepare tax returns or give legal advice. I work the financial side and coordinate closely with the professionals who handle the rest.
The earlier we start, the more options there are.
Almost every farm I’ve helped wishes it had called a season sooner.