Helping farmers access their dreams.
TS Ag Finance has more than 45 combined years of experience working with Farmer Mac on long-term fixed-rate agriculture real estate loans that help farmers refinance existing agriculture real estate debt, make improvements to the real estate and purchase the land needed to produce agriculture products that continue to feed the world.
As stated on its website, Farmer Mac is a part of the agricultural credit market and was created to increase access to capital and reduce the cost of capital for the benefit of American agriculture and rural communities. As a secondary market for agricultural credit, Farmer Mac provides financial solutions to a broad spectrum of the agricultural community, including agricultural lenders, agribusinesses and other institutions that can benefit from access to flexible, low-cost financing and risk management tools.
“Farmer Mac was created in the late 80s, coming out of the farm crisis,” said David Buman, senior vice president of TS Ag Finance, a former producer who farmed throughout the agriculture crisis. “In the 1980s – there weren’t many long-term fixed interest rate product options available for farmers. The New York Prime interest rate went to 21 percent and many farmers’ loans were on a variable interest rate, the 21 percent interest rate exposure was detrimental to these farming operations. Our country lost a large percentage of farmers in their forties and fifties from bankruptcies or the financial stress caused them to change occupations. This 1980’s agriculture financial crisis was the driving force behind Congress creating Farmer Mac to help bring capital and liquidity back to rural America. Now by using Farmer Mac and other banking products, TS Ag Finance has access to capital markets and are able to provide farmers with competitive interest rate products.”
TS Ag Finance works with Farmer Mac by selling the loans that are originated TS Ag Finance’s loan originators located throughout the United States and some from TS Bank’s relationship managers (Loan Officers). Those originators are entrepreneurs running their own businesses working with their farmer clients assessing their financial needs for farm real estate loans to refinance existing debt into more competitive terms, purchasing new farms and making improvements to the farmland.
Buman explained that the originators and TS Bank relationship managers work with the farmer clients in evaluating their operation financial needs and proper debt structure.
Buman explained that while Farmer Mac and similar programs can offer up to 30-year fixed-rate loans, banks traditionally don’t go past five years. “Community banks have an increased possibility of losing clients if they don’t have a product to compete in the marketplace,” he said. “Thankfully with TS Ag Finance we have the products to meet client needs.”
Buman joined TS Banking Group in January of 2015 to help create TS Ag Finance. He previously worked for Farmer Mac in Washington D.C. for more than six years, leading the program’s credit department, while also working stints with Farm Credit Services of America and MidStates Bank. Before that, Buman was a grain and cattle feedlot farmer from 1979 to 1992, right through the heart of the farm crisis. “My family continues to farm and feed cattle,” he said, noting he left the business to pursue his degree in Agriculture Business from Iowa State University before beginning his career in the agriculture credit world.
Buman helped TS Banking Group launch TS Ag Finance. The company also brought on Hugh Marsden and Mark Dunn to help develop the new business unit. Both Marsden and Dunn joined TS Ag Finance as Vice Presidents in June of 2015.
Marsden and Dunn were previously employed by a major national agricultural real estate finance institution that was one of the largest sellers of loans to Farmer Mac. Marsden has been underwriting loans for the secondary market for over 20 years and was responsible for underwriting a significant share of the loan volume that was sold to Farmer Mac. Dunn had been underwriting loans for the secondary market for over 8 years prior to moving to TS Ag Finance.
Marsden and Dunn worked directly with loan originators and bank relationship managers on creating a complete loan package to be sent to Farmer Mac, as well as managing that application throughout the analysis and loan closing process.
Marsden’s agricultural lending career spans 35 years while Dunn’s agricultural lending career spans over 21 years. These years of experience includes several roles in banking, lending, and underwriting.
Barry Sturdivant joined the team as a Vice President in July of 2017. Prior to joining TS Ag Finance, Sturdivant was senior vice president in the Food and Ag Division at Wells Fargo. Barry developed business on a nationwide basis throughout his career and was able to build a portfolio relationship of nearly $600 million, consisting of loan commitments ranging from $500,000 to $130,000,000. In addition to providing constructive financing, Sturdivant worked with client management to ensure their business’ long-term financial strength. Sturdivant has done this by assisting bank clients in their budgeting process and setting goals to meet key financial metrics. He’s spent his entire 38-year career financing farms, ranches and agribusinesses. During that time, he witnessed first-hand how consolidation, increasing size, and vertical integration of agribusinesses has impacted every commodity in agriculture. This has required more hands-on work and understanding on the part of lenders.
In addition, TS Bank Vice President of Ag Banking Matt Saar, works with the TS Ag Finance team to help farmers with their financial needs.
Saar joined TS Bank in September of 2014 and has worked both in credit underwriting and now serves as a loan officer during his time with the bank. These roles have provided him with the knowledge and ability to understand the credit analysis process as well as the ability to work directly with agriculture operations and agribusinesses of different size and scope.
This skill set allows Matt to work with farmer clients to achieve both short and long-term financial goals by helping them understand the key financial ratios and why they are important to their operation’s long-term success.
While Saar works directly with farmer clients on TS Bank’s ag lending team, he also has the experience of having loans approved by the secondary market and has an excellent understanding of all of the programs TS Ag Finance is able to offer.
To reach David Buman or a member of his team, call 712.487.0405 or visit the group’s new website at tsagfinance.com.
About TS Ag Finance: TS Ag Finance is a DBA of TS Bank, located in Iowa serving the Midwest and beyond. The primary goal of TS Ag Finance is to partner with agricultural real estate originators, brokers and banks to help them retain and expand their ag client base and services offered. TS Ag Finance uses a network of national and regional team members with first-hand knowledge and years of experience in agricultural lending.