Situations · Pulling equity from owned ground
Farmland cash out refinance
A farmland cash out refinance turns equity you already own into money you can use, and it is the standard answer to the oldest condition in agriculture — land-rich and cash-tight at the same time.
Written & reviewed by Ryan, Principal at Turnrow CapitalLast reviewed August 17, 2026
What's actually going on
Farmland has appreciated substantially across most of the country, and USDA's annual values survey has recorded increases in the great majority of states. For an operator who bought ground twenty years ago, the equity sitting in those acres is often the largest asset the family holds. It is also completely inert. It cannot make a down payment, fund a replant, buy out a partner or bridge a gap between harvest settlements.
The reasons to reach for it are ordinary and usually productive: funding the down payment on an adjoining parcel, replanting a block after disease or at the end of its productive curve, buying equipment, consolidating higher-cost operating debt into one longer note secured by real estate, or funding a facility that changes what the operation can sell.
The obstacle is almost never the equity. It is documentation. A cash-out against farmland at a conventional lender means tax returns, farm financials and a debt-service analysis of an operation whose income arrives in one or two settlements a year and whose returns are written to minimize taxable income. The equity is unmistakably there; the paperwork to reach it is the problem.
How the cash-out works
- —Up to 70% of appraised value, less any existing debt on the property, up to $1.5M. Existing liens are typically retired at closing and the balance comes to you.
- —No tax returns, no P&Ls, no farm financials. The appraisal and the title work carry the file.
- —Business-purpose use of proceeds — expansion, equipment, replanting, buyouts, debt consolidation, working capital.
- —Interest-only structures are available where the plan is to service the note lightly and retire it from a specific future event: a harvest, a land sale, or a move to long-term ag credit.
- —Ground owned free and clear is the cleanest version of this file and generally the fastest.
Borrow against equity for something that earns. That's the whole test.
Rates as of August 15, 2026
Cash-out financing against land is a genuinely useful tool and a genuinely serious one — the collateral is the ground itself. It is at its best funding something that produces a return or protects the operation: acquiring the parcel next door, replanting a block, retiring debt that costs more than this does. It is at its worst covering a shortfall that recurs. If the same gap will be back next season, this borrows against the farm to postpone a decision rather than to solve it, and that is worth being honest with yourself about before anyone runs an appraisal.
Indicative range today: 9.25%–11.50%, business-purpose and non-owner-occupied, up to 70% LTV, 680+ credit, 48 states. Priced per asset on your term sheet — not an offer to lend.
What we need to give you a number
Four things. No documents, no credit pull to get an indication.
Two minutes tells you whether the deal fits — and a written term sheet inside 48 hours tells you exactly what it costs.
Price my dealGood questions
How much can I actually pull out?+
Take 70% of appraised value and subtract whatever debt is already against the property. On ground owned free and clear worth a million, that is up to seven hundred thousand before costs. The equity calculator does the arithmetic for your numbers.
Can I use the cash for a down payment on more land?+
Yes — that is one of the most common and most productive uses. Sometimes both sides can be structured around the same closing when the purchase is already identified.
Is the interest deductible?+
It depends on how the proceeds are used and how your operation is structured, and the tracing rules matter more than people expect. Ask your CPA before you assume either answer.
I'm still paying on the original purchase loan. Does that rule this out?+
No. The existing loan is normally paid off at closing and rolled into the new one, with the cash-out on top. Everything combined has to fit inside 70% of appraised value.
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