Every farm changes hands eventually. When it does, the next operator needs capital to buy in, and the farm often needs capital to grow. ERTH Agra’s first sleeve, succession and expansion lending, exists for that moment.
An older farm population
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2022 Census of Agriculture put the average age of all U.S. farm producers at 58.1 years, up 0.6 years from 2017. Over the same period, the number of producers aged 65 and over increased 12%.
A large group of beginners
The same census counted slightly over 1 million beginning farmers, those who have farmed for 10 or fewer years, among the 3.4 million producers in 2022. The transfer of land and operations from one generation to the next is already under way.
“Succession is a credit question as much as a family one.”
ERTH Agra
What succession lending does
Succession and expansion lending provides credit for the next generation to buy in and for working farms to grow. It sits beside ERTH Agra’s other sleeves: food and agricultural infrastructure, land and stewardship leases, ag energy transition, and water and irrigation infrastructure.
Two structures keep the farmer at the center. The Farmer Advisory Council is made up of working farmers who advise the arm on terms, tenure and stewardship. The Farmer Equity Pool reserves a share of the upside for the farmers who operate the land.
How we look at a loan
- The operator: experience, plan and the people behind them.
- The land: soil, water and the rights that come with it.
- The terms: tenure long enough to reward stewardship.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights: Farm Producers (2024). www.nass.usda.gov
This note is for information only. It is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any interest in any fund. Interests are offered only through each vehicle’s own documents.