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The No-Interest Farm Loan Closes at Forty, With No Veteran Exception

The state’s thirty-year, no-interest farmland loan is capped at applicants aged 18 to 40 on the day of application. The section was read in full and contains no veteran, military or active-duty exception. A long career in uniform can run the clock out.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The state’s thirty-year, no-interest farmland loan is capped at applicants aged 18 to 40 on the day of application. The section was read in full and contains no veteran, military or active-duty exception. A long career in uniform can run the clock out.

What it's worth: No veteran route and no age extension — the door shuts at forty

  • The section states the loan recipient shall be at least 18 years of age and no older than 40 years of age at the time a loan application is submitted.
  • The section contains no provision mentioning veterans, military service or active duty, and no age extension or waiver on any such ground.
  • Other eligibility in the section: at least three years of farming or agriculturally related activity experience, a net worth of no more than $300,000, state residency, title taken in the individual name, and farmland in the state containing at least 15 tillable acres.
  • The department describes the instrument as a 30-year, no-interest loan of up to 70 per cent of the appraised value of the farm’s development rights, with a ceiling of $500,000.
  • The department adds that an applicant must not already own more than twice the tillable acreage they wish to purchase.
  • The department’s page gives the same 18-to-40 age range and names no veteran exception either.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served, which is the gate here.
  • Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: Age is measured on the day the application is submitted
  1. 1Work out your own deadline before anything else: the age is tested on the day the application is submitted, not on the day the loan closes.
  2. 2If you are approaching forty, get the three years of farming or agriculturally related experience recorded now. It is a separate hurdle and it takes three years to clear.
  3. 3If the age has already passed, ask the department directly what remains — the section read this session offers no route back in, and a spoken answer is worth having before you build a plan around it.
  4. 4Watch the net worth test. A military pension does not sit in net worth, but a paid-off house does, and the cap is $300,000.
  5. 5Check the acreage rule against what you already own. Owning more than twice what you want to buy disqualifies you regardless of age.
File with
Department of Agriculture, Planning — Young Farmers Program
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionGuides that list this loan under veteran farming resources are quietly wrong for a large part of the audience. It is a young farmer loan, not a beginning farmer loan, and a twenty-year career ending at thirty-eight leaves two years to find a farm, assemble the deposit and clear a three-year experience test.
Worth knowingThis is an absence in one statute, not a statement about the whole code. Whether any other agricultural provision in this state carries a veteran preference was not established this session.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.