Finance for farming and agriculture
Income arrives once or twice a year while costs run continuously. Agricultural lenders understand that rhythm; general lenders frequently do not.
Request a callback- Commonly funded
- Machinery, livestock, buildings
- Typical facilities
- Hire purchase, seasonal loans
- Lender focus
- Land, subsidy and harvest cycle
This page describes what businesses in this sector typically fund and what lenders generally look for. It is not a recommendation, and what is available to you depends on your own circumstances.
About farming
Farm cash flow does not behave like anything else. An arable business may see the bulk of its income within a few weeks of harvest, having spent steadily on seed, fertiliser, fuel and labour for the eleven months before it. Read without context, the bank statements look alarming; read properly, they are entirely normal.
Specialist agricultural funders build repayment schedules around that reality, with annual or seasonal payments timed to when money actually arrives. They also understand machinery values well — tractors and harvesting equipment hold value strongly and have deep international resale markets.
What farms fund
- Tractors, combines, sprayers, balers and cultivation equipment.
- Telehandlers, loaders and materials handling.
- Grain stores, livestock buildings, slurry systems and general infrastructure.
- Livestock purchases and breeding stock.
- Seasonal working capital for seed, fertiliser, feed and fuel.
- Diversification projects, from holiday lets to renewable generation.
What lenders assess
- Acreage, tenure, and whether land is owned, tenanted or contract farmed.
- The mix of enterprises and how much diversified income there is.
- Subsidy and environmental scheme payments, and how exposed you are to changes in them.
- Machinery condition and hours across the existing fleet.
- Whether the repayment schedule genuinely matches your income pattern.
Frequently asked
Can repayments be timed around harvest?
Yes, and with an agricultural lender that is standard. Annual or twice-yearly payments aligned to when income actually arrives are far more sensible than equal monthly instalments, and specialist funders offer them as a matter of course.
Does tenanted land make borrowing harder?
For property-secured lending, yes, since there is nothing to charge. Machinery and livestock finance is largely unaffected, because the security is the asset itself rather than the land it sits on.
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We will tell you which funders lend into your industry, and roughly what they are likely to say.
