FSA Guaranteed Loan Origination: the USDA guaranteed farm loan application, filled from the file you already hold
Complete applications assembled in a day, not a week.
See one case, screen by screen ↓It is a solution for ag lenders that fills the USDA guaranteed farm loan application, FSA-2211, field by field from the documents already in the bank’s credit file. Six agents sort the file, check FSA’s eligibility and security rules, rebuild the cash flow at the bank’s prices, draft the lender narrative and assemble the package. The loan officer signs, the Ag Lending Manager approves, and FSA decides.
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When a farm cannot borrow enough on ordinary terms, the bank can ask USDA’s Farm Service Agency to guarantee up to 90% of most loans. The guarantee is only as good as the file: the application for guarantee, a lender narrative with a servicing plan, the balance sheet, a cash flow that is feasible at defensible prices, three years of financial and production history, credit reports, verifications, the proposed loan agreements, environmental information, the borrower’s AD-1026 and a security position the rules accept.
A community bank files a handful a year, so the guaranteed-loan coordinator rebuilds the checklist from memory every time. FSA’s decision clock does not start until the file is complete, and an incomplete application is treated as withdrawn if the missing items are not in by FSA’s deadline. One stale AD-1026 or a prior lien with an open future advance clause sends the request back — while the farmer waits on operating money.
Estimated split for one guaranteed operating loan file, in hours, by hand and with the solution.
Six agents fill FSA-2211 from the bank’s file, link every field to its source and check it against FSA’s rules; the loan officer signs.
Prairie Junction Bank & Trust, an FSA Certified Lender in Concordia, Kansas, is asking FSA to guarantee 90% of a $1,016,000 operating loan for Wes and Hannah Lindqvist. They want it before 15 December, to prepay 2027 seed and fertilizer. Here is the file, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Dana owns every FSA guarantee the bank files. Guarantee requests shows them all: Ostrander Cattle Co. with FSA on day 10 of 14, Red Hawk Bison Ranch ready for Nora Diehl’s signature, Marquardt Acres still 4 documents short — and Lindqvist Family Farms, 42 of 42 documents in, ready to build.
“FSA’s decision clock starts only when the file is complete.”
She opens the application itself — FSA-2211, the Application for Guarantee, drawn as the form it is: six parts and the lender certification, 39 fields, nothing typed by hand. She presses Fill from the file. Each value is read from the bank’s credit file and linked to its line, and FSA’s rules are checked in the margin of each part as it fills.
“Ready to fill · all 42 documents in since Fri 9 Oct · wanted before the 15 Dec input prepay”
35 of 39 fields are filled from the file. Two turn amber: the AD-1026 on file is from 2019 and lists FSA farm 3302 only, missing the Halvorsen ground on farm 4471, tracts 2215 and 2216; and the voluntary demographic question only the applicants can answer. Beside them, a plain-words message to Wes and Hannah with the AD-1026 update attached for e-signature.
“Your conservation form (AD-1026) is from 2019 and doesn’t list the Halvorsen ground you’ve rented since March.”
Click total liabilities and the side rail opens the credit report on the exact line: a $47,300 account at Republican River Ag Supply that was not on the balance sheet. It is added, marked corrected, and the current ratio moves from 1.04 to 1.00. The 2024 wheat yield, cut by a declared drought, is replaced by the county average — also marked and cited.
Corrections are shown, never silent.
The FSA pre-check answers in one line: yes, for 3 reasons. 12 of 13 eligibility rules pass. Farm 4471 is not on the 2019 AD-1026 (7 CFR part 12); Harvest Implement Credit’s prior lien on the 2024 combine allows future advances (762.126(e)(3)); and the narrative still needs the credit elsewhere paragraph (762.120(h)). Each reason has the one action that clears it.
The checker flags. FSA makes the eligibility decision.
Dana sends the text and the e-signature link. Hannah replies that both have signed the updated AD-1026 and will skip the optional demographic question. On the eligibility screen all 13 rules now pass, and conservation compliance is checked tract by tract: 2,140 of 2,140 acres certified across farms 3302 and 4471.
“Both signed. We’ll skip the demographic one. — Hannah”
Wes’s projection, at $4.60 corn, shows a repayment margin of 1.30. The cash flow analyst rebuilds it at the bank’s October price deck — corn $4.30, soybeans $10.40, wheat $5.55, calves $1,520 — and gets 1.07, a $20,755 surplus after all debts, with breakeven corn at $4.14. That is below the bank’s 1.25 policy without a guarantee, and above the 1.00 feasibility floor with one.
The borrower’s plan is never changed — both are shown side by side.
From the Kansas Secretary of State UCC search and the prior-lien statements: Harvest Implement Credit holds a first lien on the 2024 combine. Dana requests the limitation from the pre-check, and Harvest Implement Credit signs it — future advances limited to $286,000. The junior lien test: total debt on the machinery is 56.7% of its $1,126,000 value, within the 85% limit.
Ten sections, from the applicant and the operation to the servicing plan. The one the file could not support — credit elsewhere — Dana asks the assistant to write from the credit committee note of 8 October: the bank will not extend this credit without a guarantee, at a margin of 1.07 against 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.00 against 1.20. The narrative now has 10 of 10 sections and 64 citations.
All 14 checklist items are complete. Cole signs FSA-2211 — above his $750,000 credit authority, so it goes to Lorraine Weiss, who approves the credit on her phone. Dana submits to the FSA Cloud County service center. FSA confirms receipt, and as a Certified Lender file the decision is due within 14 days: Monday 26 October.
“The signature, the time and the package version are written to the audit trail and cannot be changed.”
The same Lindqvist file, seen by the four people at the bank who carry it — what the week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six agents fill FSA-2211 from the bank’s file, link every field to its source and check it against FSA’s rules; the loan officer signs.
Reads every document in the guarantee file and files it against the FSA application checklist for the loan size and the lender’s status, reading dates, parties, farm and tract numbers and signatures.
Runs each applicant eligibility rule and conservation compliance for every person on the note, and checks purpose, term and loan limits, with the evidence and the rule reference.
Rebuilds the borrower’s cash flow at the bank’s price deck, applies the three-year production rule with the disaster-year county average, and finds the margin, the breakeven and the stress results.
Lists the security for each note, reads the UCC search and every prior-lien statement, flags future advance clauses, tests the 85% junior-lien limit and reconciles the credit report with the balance sheet.
Drafts the lender narrative and servicing plan FSA expects, every figure cited to its document, and leaves a section open when the file does not support it.
Prefills FSA-2211, builds the package in FSA’s order with its open-items list, routes signatures by credit authority, and watches FSA’s clock after submission.
Signs; Ag Lending Manager approves above $750,000. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Anyone on the file can ask in plain words — or tell it what to send. Answers point to the document they rest on.
Why can’t the Lindqvist file go to FSA yet?
Three items are open, and FSA’s clock does not start on an incomplete file: the AD-1026 lists farm 3302 only, so tracts 2215 and 2216 on farm 4471 are missing; Harvest Implement Credit’s lien secures future advances; and the credit elsewhere section needs the bank’s decline reason.
What is the margin if corn drops to $4.00?
0.94 — below the 1.00 feasibility floor. Corn at $4.00 takes $38,868 off receipts (129,560 bushels × $0.30). The breakeven is $4.14. I set the stress test to $4.00 so you can try other prices.
Write the credit elsewhere paragraph from the committee note
Done — section 3 of the narrative now reads: “Prairie Junction Bank & Trust will not extend this credit without a guarantee. At the bank’s price deck the repayment margin is 1.07 against a policy minimum of 1.25, and the current ratio is 1.00 against 1.20.” The narrative now has 10 of 10 sections and 64 citations.
Ask Harvest Implement Credit to limit its future advance clause
Sent. Their lien on the 2024 combine secures “all present and future indebtedness”, and the term note takes a second lien on the machinery, so the rules need the prior lienholder to limit or subordinate its future advances (7 CFR 762.126(e)(3)). I asked them to cap it at the $286,000 balance and filed the request.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Every guarantee file is built and tested against the bank’s own settings — changes are versioned and on the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| FSA lender status | Certified Lender (CLP) · 14 days | Sets the application items and FSA’s decision clock |
| Default guarantee | 90% | Share of the loan requested; FSA decides |
| Guarantee fee estimate | 1.5% of the guaranteed portion | Confirmed against FSA’s schedule at obligation |
| Price deck · October 2026 | Corn $4.30 · soybeans $10.40 · wheat $5.55 · calves $1,520 | Used for every feasibility test; reviewed monthly by credit |
| Without a guarantee | Repayment margin 1.25 · current ratio 1.20 | Below these, the bank asks FSA for a guarantee |
| Feasibility floor with a guarantee | 1.00 · 7 CFR 762.125 | The plan must repay all debts and family living |
| Approvals | Officer to $750,000 · Ag Lending Manager to $2,500,000 | Loan committee above |
| Submit with open items | Never | FSA’s clock does not start on an incomplete file |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample file · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (7 CFR 762.130 — FSA decides a complete application within 14 days for Certified and Preferred Lenders, 30 days for Standard Eligible Lenders; AFBF Market Intel — FSA guaranteed operating loan obligations rose 37% in FY2025). People, farms, the bank and lenders named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
It is a solution for ag lenders that fills the USDA guaranteed farm loan application, FSA-2211, field by field from the documents already in the bank’s credit file. Six agents sort the file, check FSA’s eligibility and security rules, rebuild the cash flow at the bank’s prices, draft the lender narrative and assemble the package. The loan officer signs, the Ag Lending Manager approves, and FSA decides.
The document sorter files every document against FSA’s checklist for the loan size and lender status, and the package assembler fills each FSA-2211 field from the line it was read from. Every field links to its source. In the working solution, 35 of 39 fields were filled from the file on the first pass.
The field turns amber and a plain-words question to the borrower is drafted beside it — for example, an AD-1026 update listing a newly rented farm, attached for e-signature. The coordinator edits or sends it, and the field fills when the borrower replies.
No. The eligibility checker runs each rule — citizenship, legal capacity, prior loss to the Agency, delinquent federal debt, controlled substances, family-farm operator, credit elsewhere, conservation compliance — with its evidence and 7 CFR reference, and flags what fails. FSA makes the eligibility decision.
The cash flow analyst rebuilds the borrower’s projection at the bank’s own price deck, uses three years of actual production and the county average for a declared disaster year, and shows the margin, the breakeven and a stress test. The borrower’s projection stays beside it, unchanged.
Yes. The collateral and lien reviewer reads the UCC search and every prior-lien statement, flags a prior lien that secures future advances, and tests that total debt on junior-lien security is within 85% of its value. The request for a limitation can be sent from the screen.
People do. The agents prepare; the loan officer signs FSA-2211 with the meaning of the signature, the Ag Lending Manager approves credit above the officer’s authority, and nothing is submitted without both signatures or with an item still open.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements — your lender status, price deck, credit policy and a sample of past guarantee files — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on one of your own files first.
Renewal packages ready weeks before planting, not the week of.
1-min demoFarm Financial SpreadingA full farm spread in minutes, every figure linked to its page.
1-min demoFSA Guaranteed Loan ServicingNo missed guarantee deadlines; loss claims filed complete the first time.
1-min demoWe’ll run FSA Guaranteed Loan Origination on one of your own past FSA guarantee files.