Sound Familiar?
You Went in for a Planter and Came Out With a Lien on the Home Place.
The quote is in hand, the install window is booked, and the lender who has held your operating note for years says yes — against the ground. Not against the machine that shows up in April and depreciates from the first pass, but against the acreage that has been in the operation longer than the equipment shed. So the purchase goes through, and the borrowing capacity that was supposed to carry the next expansion is now sitting under a planter.
If the equipment could carry its own financing — what would the land still be free to do for you?
Bobby’s Take
Agriculture is the one vertical where the wrong collateral is the default, not the exception. Ag lenders underwrite land because land is what they know, and it works right up until you notice the acreage is doing the job a machine could have done for itself. Equipment lenders price equipment every day — a combine, a robotic parlor, a sorting line — and they take the asset, not the acreage. Run the inputs on a line sized to the season. Keep the ground for the loan that genuinely needs it, which is the one where you are buying ground. That is three different conversations, and putting all three against the ground is how operations run out of room. So: what would you finance next if the home place were still unencumbered?
Bobby Friel, Founder, Basecamp Funding · 20+ years in banking and finance
The Real Problems
The Real Problems in the Operation — and What Solves Each One
| What it costs you | What solves it | Typical range | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash goes out by season, payroll goes out weekly | Inputs and labor run months ahead of the check that pays for them. | Seasonal working-capital line | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| The dealer install window is booked by season | Miss the window and the machine sits until the next one — a year of capacity gone. | Equipment financing on the asset | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Labor you cannot hire at any price | The work still has to happen, which makes automation a payroll decision, not a luxury. | Equipment financing for automation | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Commodity and milk price swings | Revenue moves on markets you do not set, against costs that were fixed at planting. | A line that absorbs the swing | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Every purchase pledged against the ground | Permanent borrowing capacity tied up behind depreciating iron. | Asset-secured structures that leave land alone | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Equipment must be in service before year-end | Placed in service after December 31 and the first-year deduction moves a full year. | Financing timed to the in-service date | $250K–$5M+ | Days |
| Buying the facility or the ground you work | The one purchase where real estate genuinely is the asset. | Owner-occupied commercial real estate | $250K–$5M+ | Weeks |
Larger structures available when revenue, deposits, and story qualify.
Commercial insurance for your operation → InsuranceService365.com (29 states).
The Numbers That Matter
The Season Sets the Cash Flow. The Payment Schedule Rarely Matches It.
Months
between the cash going out for inputs and the check arriving for the crop — the gap a seasonal line is built to cover.
Representative structures — illustrative
~10%
typical down payment on asset-secured agricultural equipment, against the far larger equity a lien on the ground consumes.
Representative structures — illustrative
Dec 31
the in-service deadline. Equipment delivered but not operating by year-end moves its first-year deduction into the next one.
IRS Section 179 in-service rule
Capital Stacking
One File. The Iron, the Season, and the Ground Kept Separate.
Most operations need more than one thing at once — a machine before the window closes, inputs carried to harvest, sometimes the facility itself. A single ag lender prices all of it against the riskiest thing it sees and takes the acreage to cover the lot. A marketplace splits it: the equipment financed by the lender who underwrites equipment, the season carried on a line sized to deposits, the real estate handled as real estate only when real estate is actually what you are buying.
Three products, three collateral positions, and the home place still unencumbered at the end of it.
How a $1.4M season gets funded
Need more than the equipment alone? The remainder stacks — for the full structure, see commercial financing.
Operations We've Funded
Agricultural Operations We've Funded
Representative scenarios — illustrative, anonymized figures, not specific client transactions. The dairy automation transaction is written up in full below.
Funded, In Detail
Structures We’ve Funded in Agriculture
Real transactions, written up in full — the structure, the numbers, and the timeline.
Start Here
Find Your Structure in 60 Seconds
Move the slider for your estimated range, then answer three quick questions to lock it in. No documents to start. Soft-pull review — no score impact.
What Happens When You Start
Estimate Your Capital Range
Slide to your annual gross revenue. We size capital off your top line — not your credit score.
Estimated Capital Range
A conservative range based on 10-15% of annual revenue — many businesses qualify for more with strong receivables or assets behind them. Lenders return real term sheets once they see your file.
60 seconds · No obligation · Estimate only
What an operator hears every week
“The machine will be worth half of this in seven years. The ground will still be the ground. Only one of those should be carrying the loan.”
Bobby Friel · Founder, Basecamp Funding
Why Us
Why Operations Fund Equipment Here Instead of at the Ag Lender
The Real Cost
What Has the Lien on the Ground Already Cost You?
Every season the wrong collateral goes on the wrong asset, the room to move gets smaller. If the iron carried itself — what would you take on next?
Structure Your Capital Plan →Tax Strategy
Section 179 + 100% Bonus Depreciation on Your Equipment
If last year was strong and you’re about to write a check to the IRS — stop. Acquire qualifying equipment with as little as 10% down, finance the rest, and write off the full purchase price in year one. Section 179 covers it up to the annual cap; 100% bonus depreciation — made permanent in 2025, with no cap and no income limit — carries the rest.
At the top bracket, that first-year deduction can return meaningful tax savings — and for an established business with strong cash flow, it’s the difference between writing a check to the IRS and putting the same money into your own equipment. Your CPA models the exact numbers for your bracket and structure.
Worked scenario · top bracket · illustrative
You financed the machine and put down a fraction of its price — but you deduct the full price in year one. The write-off is bigger than your down payment, and the equipment keeps working the whole time.
Scales with your numbers
Illustrative only. Actual savings depend on your tax bracket, entity type, state conformity, and CPA guidance. Section 179 and bonus depreciation are elections your CPA makes for your situation; above the Section 179 cap, 100% bonus depreciation carries the balance.
Terms reflect credit, revenue, time in business, and each lender. Every file is unique — see what the desk structures for yours in the 60-second qualifier.
Bobby’s Take
“If the machine is going to be running before December 31, finance it and take the deduction this year. If it lands in January, you have moved a year of write-off for no reason other than paperwork timing.”
Bobby Friel · Founder · 20+ years in banking and finance
Avoid These
5 Funding Mistakes That Cost Agricultural Operations the Most
The equipment loses value on a schedule; the land does not. Putting the ground behind the machine spends permanent capacity on a temporary asset.
Inputs repay at harvest and equipment repays over years. One instrument covering both is priced for the riskier half and sized for neither.
Delivered in December and running in January moves the whole first-year deduction into the next tax year, for nothing.
A combine with documented hours and a serial number is financeable. Operations pay cash for used iron they never needed to pay cash for.
Dealer windows book by season. An appraisal timeline that overruns the window costs a full year of the capacity you were buying.
Put It to Work
Use Your Capital For
01AutomationSee howLess“What work is not getting done because you cannot hire for it at any wage?”
Robotic parlors, automated feeding, and handling systems — financed on the equipment.
Structure this02Tractors and implementsSee howLess“Which machine is costing you the most in downtime and repairs right now?”
Equipment financing on the asset, Section 179 in the year it is placed in service.
Structure this03Harvest equipmentSee howLess“What would another combine or platform mean for the acres you can cover in a window?”
Financed against the equipment, sized to the season it serves.
Structure this04Seasonal inputsSee howLess“How much cash goes out at planting before anything comes back?”
A working-capital line drawn at planting and repaid at harvest.
Structure this05On-farm processingSee howLess“How much margin leaves at the field gate that you could capture yourself?”
Equipment financing for the line, working capital for the first run.
Structure this06Storage and handlingSee howLess“What does it cost to sell at harvest instead of holding for the market?”
Bins, dryers, and handling equipment financed against themselves.
Structure this07IrrigationSee howLess“What would reliable water do for the acres that are marginal now?”
Pivots and pumps financed as equipment, not against the ground they sit on.
Structure this08Buying the ground you workSee howLess“What are you paying to rent land you have farmed for a decade?”
Owner-occupied real estate — the one purchase where the land genuinely is the asset.
Structure this09The facilitySee howLess“Is the shop, barn or packing house the constraint on what you can take on?”
Owner-occupied commercial real estate for the building you already operate from.
Structure this10Fleet and trucksSee howLess“What does hauling cost you when you are hiring it out at harvest?”
Trucks and trailers financed as equipment, on the same file as the rest.
Structure this11Herd and expansionSee howLess“What would another hundred head need in facility and equipment before it pays?”
Working capital for the ramp and equipment financing for the build-out.
Structure this12Absorbing a price swingSee howLess“What covers the operation through a season the market moved against?”
A line sized to the season so a bad price is a bad year, not a forced sale.
Structure thisFunding by the Size of the Need
Funded at Every Stage
One application, competing specialist lenders — and a file underwritten on the equipment funds in days, whether the need is $250K or $20M+.
How It Works
From Qualifier to Funded in Five Steps
No paperwork avalanche. No bank lobby. No guessing.
Qualify
A few questions about the business, right here. No documents to start.
Application
A soft credit pull and a quick document review to pre-underwrite the file.
Matched to the Right Lenders
The specialist lenders who fund your business - the right lender on each piece.
One Advisor, Real Term Sheets
Your advisor brings back real term sheets, not estimates, and walks the structure.
Structured & Funded
Accept the structure that fits, sign digitally - funded in days, not months.
For the application, have ready
Under two years in business, or the returns show a loss? We can structure on bank statements alone.
Full Transparency
What Kills Your Qualification — and What Doesn't
Most lenders won't tell you this up front. We will.
By Operation
Funding by Type of Operation
Every operation — funded around how its cash actually arrives.
The structure follows the asset and the season: what you are buying, and when the crop or the check lands.
Recommended Products
The Products Agricultural Operations Fund With
Matched to the asset and the season — and stacked into the full number when one isn't enough.
Equipment Financing
Automation, tractors, harvest platforms, processing lines — the machine is the collateral.
Working Capital
Seed, fertilizer, feed, fuel and labor, carried from planting to harvest.
Commercial Real Estate
Owner-occupied only — the facility or the ground you already operate.
Business Line of Credit
Draw at planting, repay at harvest, and keep the capacity for next season.
Term Loans
An expansion the season alone will not carry.
Accounts Receivable Financing
For operations billing commercial buyers on terms rather than selling at the gate.
FAQs
Agricultural Equipment Financing — Questions Operators Ask
Yes, and it is the normal structure here. Equipment financing is secured by the equipment itself — the machine is identified by serial number and secures its own note. That is what makes it possible to buy a planter or a parlor without putting a lien on acreage that has been in the operation for decades.
Around 10% is typical on an asset-secured structure when revenue and deposit history support it, and some files fund with less. The comparison worth making is not to another down payment but to the equity a lien on the ground consumes — pledging it ties up borrowing capacity long after the machine has depreciated.
Yes. Used agricultural equipment is financeable with documented hours, a serial number, and a credible valuation. Ag lenders often decline it outright, which is why operations end up paying cash for used iron they never needed to pay cash for. The equipment lenders here price used machines every day.
A working-capital line sized to the season. Seed, fertilizer, feed, fuel and labor all go out months before the crop or the milk check arrives; the line is drawn as those costs land and repaid when revenue does. It is separate from the equipment financing on purpose — the two repay on completely different clocks.
Days on a prepared file. That is the whole reason to separate equipment from an ag lender's process: the underwriting is on the machine and your deposits rather than an appraisal, so it moves at the speed the install window actually requires. Have four months of bank statements and the dealer quote ready and most of the work is already done.
It does, and the calendar is the part that catches operations out. The equipment must be placed in service — delivered, installed and operating — before December 31 to take the deduction in that tax year. A machine sitting on a lot on the 31st moves its entire first-year write-off into the following year. Confirm the specifics with your tax advisor.
The Operator's Guide
Agricultural Financing, Matched to the Asset Instead of the Acreage
Why the ag lender always reaches for the land
It is not malice and it is not a mistake — it is what the institution is built to read. An ag lender's model is land value, and land is genuinely excellent collateral: it does not depreciate, it does not move, and it can be appraised. So when an operation walks in for a planter, the structure that comes back is a lien on the ground, because that is the instrument on the shelf.
The problem is what it costs you. The machine will be worth a fraction of its price in seven years; the ground will still be the ground. Putting the permanent asset behind the temporary one spends borrowing capacity you will want later on a purchase that could have secured itself. Equipment lenders take the equipment — identified, serialized, valued — and leave the acreage entirely alone.
Three clocks, three structures
Equipment repays over years, against an asset with a life. Inputs repay in one season, against a crop or a check. Real estate repays over decades, against ground that outlasts everything else on the balance sheet. Those are three different clocks, and putting all three on one instrument means the whole thing gets priced for the riskiest and sized for none of them. Financed separately, each is underwritten by the lender who does that piece every day, and the operation keeps room to move.
If a dealer window is booked, if the parlor is a hiring decision you cannot solve any other way, or if the inputs are going out months before anything comes back — start the review. A few minutes, soft-pull, no score impact. And if you are buying ground, say so: that is the one conversation where real estate genuinely is the answer.
