By Zoë Bradbury

April 22, 2008

What I’ve learned in April is that the mythic “cash flow crisis” that farmers face in springtime is no myth.

The generic plot goes something like this: farmers spend lots of money in the spring, then make it back in the summer and fall.

Springtime = money out. Harvest time = money in.

Unfortunately, there’s a months-long vacuum between “money out” and “money in,” seeing as most crops take at least eight weeks to reach maturity. My carrots promise that they are 57 days to maturity, my tomatoes 80 days, and my asparagus, well, we’re talking two years till they’re ready.

Amidst all of this waiting for veggies to grow on, size up, and get ripe, money has been hemorrhaging out of my pockets to pay for one-time startup expenses, like my greenhouse and irrigation system, and for annual operating expenses, like seeds and soil amendments. I cracked open my little piggy bank of savings last December, and now it’s all gone.

There’s no farm income on the horizon for at least another month (grow little lettuce, grow!), which means that I am officially experiencing a bona fide cash flow crisis. It sounds so grown up…

I knew it was coming as I watched my checking account balance shrink every month, forcing me to get cleverer at juggling expenses and take full advantage of suppliers’ billing terms. It’s finally come down to the point that I’m joining ranks with all the other farmers who go into debt each spring in order to afford the cost of growing food.

I began shopping around for money a few weeks ago. It was in the midst of entertaining options like borrowing against my house or hunting down a 0% credit card offer that I decided to pay a visit to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) to see what their farm loan program could do for me.

Jim, my regional FSA agent, asked me all about my farm over the phone. How many acres, and is it leased ground, and what am I growing, and how long have I been at it? After I finished up with the details, Jim hesitated. They’d like to be able to give me a low-interest loan, he explained, but there were a few problems.