The worst way to interact with your lender is to maintain silence, argues Chris Barron, a consultant with Ag View Solutions. The best way to interact is to maintain a conversation throughout the planting and growing season.
“Does your lender know how your spring is going? For obviously some of you, it’s been a terrible deluge of water, flooding, crazy stuff,” says Barron, an Iowa producer. “Others are in a garden spot. Things have been really good. There are some pockets of dry, believe it or not, in some areas. Just have a conversation with your lender so that he or she knows what’s going on.”
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Also share details about your commodity-marketing intentions for the old and new crops heading into the growing season, Barron says. Alert your lender to challenges and opportunities you face, as well.
“Maybe you have an engine blow up on a tractor, or you have some kind of a challenge occur that’s going to create some additional expenses that wasn’t on the cash flow,” Barron says. “… Just make sure that they’re in the loop.”
Consider inviting your lender to your farm to spend time with you and your team during the work week.
“It’s not all about just going to them and sitting in their office at the bank,” Barron says. “It’s also about letting them know that they’re more than welcome to be out in your farm, riding around in some of the equipment, see what’s going on in the spring.”
