Tips for Financing Your Crop in 2025

Grain market volatility has become the normin recent years. After record net farm income in 2022, growers lived through market downturns over the last two years. Now they’re looking for ways to be financially responsible entering a new season. With many unknowns about the market's future, it is important to know your credit options and where your finances lie before starting a new year. Helena Agri-Enterprises Chief Financial Officer Byron Phillips and Director of Credit Wes Belleville share beneficial tips and insights on financing your crops in 2025.

Belleville highlights three areas for growers to focus on when considering their credit.

1. Determine your credit needs.

2. Know and understand your overall financial condition.

3. Know your credit rating and how other creditors assess you.

Determine your credit needs.

Belleville highlights the benefit of using Helena Finance services as a supplement to local banking offerings. In years of low commodity prices and downturns in the market, using other financial services to support your business is a great way to prepare financially for 2025.

“An operating line with the bank is the best source,” says Belleville. “What we want to do as a company is be responsive to an additional need should there be one.”

Know and understand your overall financial condition.

A lot of financial institutions are looking at the ability to repay operation debt very closely this year. This makes it important to assess current assets and liabilities going into the new year.

“Understanding your overall financial picture doesn’t have to be complicated,” says Belleville.

He advises growers to break down their assets and liabilities on a balance sheet to determine and understand the holistic picture of their finances, including both current liquidity and long-term investments and debts.

Know your credit rating and how other creditors assess you.

“We can all go out to the credit bureaus today and get a credit bureau on yourself for free annually,” says Belleville. “That is a new law that has been enacted, and that has made it easy for us to assess our own personal credit score.”

However, Belleville cautions there are other creditors out there not reporting to the credit bureau and therefore not making up any piece of that score. He says knowing who those creditors are is also very important. When it comes time to apply for credit, they might ask for a credit application with a bank reference or another credit reference. Identifying those creditors and understanding your credit rating with them will be helpful going into next year.

Another tip is to find creditors that have been through the ups and downs of the market. Helena is working to grow its partnerships with stable creditors in order to continue supporting financial needs for growers.

In closing, Phillips shares what growers need to know to ensure their bottom line is up to date.

“It’s getting your financials in order because a lot of balance sheets have drastically changed over the past 24 months,” says Phillips. “I would encourage our growers to invest time in getting them up to date and come see a Helena rep to get some lines in place and get that one piece of your business behind you so you don’t have to worry about it.”

The cycle of marketing will continue to be volatile, and knowing who to turn to in years of downturns is important for the success of the farming business. Put your

trust in a Helena Credit Manager or Sales Representative for help navigating third-party lending programs and to better understand all the supplemental financial services Helena has to offer.

For more tips on financing your crop, check out Episode 72 of the FieldLink® Podcast on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.