Agricultural lending policy search: ask in plain words, get the answer with the passage it rests on
Policy answers in seconds, the same in every office, each sentence tied to its passage.
See one case, screen by screen ↓A search over the rulebooks an ag lender works under — its own credit policy and bulletins, the FSA guaranteed loan rules and Handbook 2-FLP, the Farm Credit regulations, the crop insurance provisions and credit committee decisions. Officers ask in plain words and get one answer, with each sentence tied to the passage it rests on.
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An ag loan officer answers rule questions all day. Can this land purchase go as an FSA guaranteed farm ownership loan? What loan-to-value does our policy allow? Does the operating line need an assignment of indemnity? Who can approve it? The answers sit in the association’s 412-page credit policy manual and its credit bulletins, 7 CFR Part 762 and FSA Handbook 2-FLP, 12 CFR Part 614, the Common Crop Insurance Policy and its crop provisions, and years of credit committee decisions.
So officers search PDFs, call the one coordinator who knows 2-FLP, or answer from memory — and offices answer the same question differently. The rules keep moving: FSA guaranteed loan making changed in January 2025 and again from 1 October 2026, and the credit policy was revised on 1 July 2026. A remembered answer can be wrong by the next file, and loan review tests the file against the rule in force on the day the loan was made.
Estimated split for the policy questions on one guaranteed farm ownership file, by hand and with the solution. Credit still takes its time on what policy does not answer.
Six specialist agents search, cite, date-check and compare every rulebook; the loan officer decides, credit answers the gaps.
Cole Dvorak wants to buy the Hanssen quarter — 160 acres of tillable ground at $1,520,000 — with 10% down. It is Monday 12 October 2026 in the Brookings office. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Kelsey opens the solution to her morning: today’s questions, a question already drafted from each of her open files — Dvorak Family Farms, Kettering Grain, Bauman Acres — and the rule changes since she last asked. Above the thread, every rulebook it searches and the date the versions are in force: Mon 12 Oct 2026.
“Changed since you last asked · 1 Oct 2026 · FSA guaranteed loans · 6 saved answers updated · 3 of your files”
She picks the drafted Dvorak question and asks. The run is shown inside the reply as it happens: the question read, the versions in force picked, 18,406 passages searched and 41 read in full, the numbers worked, our policy compared with FSA, the answer written and every sentence checked.
“Compared our policy with FSA · 2 rules differ — debt coverage 1.25× vs 1.00×, value 97% vs 100% · the stricter governs”
The loan of $1,368,000 is 91.0% of value, measured on the lesser of price and appraisal — the $1,504,000 appraisal. That is above the 85% conventional limit but within the 97% policy allows with a government guarantee, the same ceiling 12 CFR 614 sets. A source bar shows where the 13 citations came from, each coloured by its rulebook.
“Answered in 9 s · 8 sources · 13 citations · High confidence · In force today.”
Debt coverage: Credit Policy §4.3.2 requires 1.25×; FSA Handbook 2-FLP ¶151 asks only for a feasible plan with no margin for replacing capital items, about 1.00×. Value: policy caps at 97%; 2-FLP ¶166 sets minimum security at 100% of the loan. Both rules are quoted, the stricter highlighted, and a gauge puts Cole’s own numbers against both.
“1.31× clears the governing 1.25× by 0.06×.”
Guaranteed portion at 90%: $1,231,200. Guarantee fee at 1%: $12,312 at closing. Approval goes to Brent Sorensen, Ag Lending Manager, to $2,500,000. Below, a flag: an answer saved in Watertown on 14 April said 90%, from the 2023 manual superseded on 1 July. And the 1 October change — Harrow Creek now verifies eligibility itself as a preferred lender.
“On that answer this loan would have been declined.”
She clicks citation 4. FSA Handbook 2-FLP opens at ¶151, the passage highlighted, with the version — revision 1, amendment 70, in force 24 Jun 2026 — and why the passage came back: the citation checker read the sentence against it and found it fully supported.
Does the $680,000 2027 operating line need an assignment of indemnity? Yes: above $250,000 secured by growing crops, it is signed at closing for every insured crop, on the insurer’s own form, and it is not effective until the insurer approves it in writing. Of the $680,000, $430,000 waits for that approval; sales closing for South Dakota corn and soybeans is 15 March 2027.
Can Cole’s $186,000 spray drone be taken as equipment collateral? No passage answers it. The reply shows the nearest the policy comes — aircraft need the Chief Credit Officer’s approval; machinery is financed on 3- to 7-year term loans — and what it does not say: whether an unmanned spray drone is an aircraft or machinery.
“No passage in the policy answers this. I have not written an answer.”
Kelsey sends it on as Q-2026-047, with the Dvorak file (Cole’s 40% share, $74,400, on a 5-year term note) and the two nearest passages, due in 2 business days. Diane’s answer becomes a committee decision every office can cite — like CD-2026-201 on cash-rent lease assignments the week before.
1,284 questions answered by 62 officers in 14 offices over 30 days, a median of 9 seconds to a cited answer, every sentence carrying a passage, 9 sent to credit. By office: questions asked, answered with a passage, sent to credit, and conflicting answers caught.
The same rulebooks, seen by the five people who live with them — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six specialist agents search, cite, date-check and compare every rulebook; the loan officer decides, credit answers the gaps.
Takes the officer’s question in plain words, searches the credit policy, FSA rules, Farm Credit regulations, crop insurance provisions and committee decisions, and answers one claim a sentence, each with its passage. Works the numbers the question gives — value on the lesser of price and appraisal, loan-to-value, guaranteed portion, fee — and shows the working.
Reads each sentence of the draft back against the passage it cites, and removes anything the passage does not say.
Makes sure every passage cited is the version in force on the date asked — today, or the loan’s date for loan review — and flags earlier answers that rested on a superseded passage.
Reads each new or revised source, splits it by section into passages, and keeps section numbers, versions and effective dates.
When a source changes, re-checks every saved answer that cited it, updates the ones the change made wrong, tells the officers who used them, and matches the change to open files.
When no passage answers, writes the question for the Chief Credit Officer with the file context and the nearest passages, and publishes her answer as a committee decision.
Decides; the Chief Credit Officer answers gaps. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Officers ask about the policy, a file or a rule change — or tell it what to do with an answer. Every answer carries its passages.
Where is our policy stricter than FSA on the Dvorak loan?
On two points, and our policy governs both. Debt coverage: we require 1.25×; FSA asks only for a feasible plan with no capital margin, about 1.00×. Value: we stop at 97%; FSA’s minimum security is collateral at least equal to the loan, 100%. Cole is at 1.31× and 91.0%, so he passes both.
Draft the approval memo paragraph for the Dvorak loan
Drafted, with the four citations it rests on: 91.0% loan-to-value against the 97% guaranteed limit, the $12,312 guarantee fee, coverage of 1.31× against 1.25×, and approval by Brent Sorensen. It is open for you to add to the credit memo.
Which offices still had the 90% answer?
Only Watertown. Tyler Brandt saved it on 14 April from the 2023 manual; revision 2026-2 raised the guaranteed limit to 97%. The change watcher updated the saved answer on 1 July and told the 4 officers who had used it.
Send the drone question to credit with the file
Sent to Diane Halvorsen as Q-2026-047, with the Dvorak file, Cole’s 40% share — $74,400 — and the two nearest passages. The answer is due Wednesday 14 October.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
How answers are written, which versions count and where unanswered questions go are settings, not a project.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Every sentence must carry a passage | On | On · Off |
| Which version to answer from | In force today | In force today · In force on the loan date · Ask each time |
| Show superseded passages | Marked | Marked · Hidden |
| Work the numbers | On | On · Off |
| When policy does not answer, send to | Diane Halvorsen · Chief Credit Officer | Diane Halvorsen, Chief Credit Officer · Credit committee secretary · Regional credit officer |
| Answer due | 2 business days | 1 day · 2 business days · 5 days |
| Copy the Ag Lending Manager | On | On · Off |
| Publish answers as committee decisions | On | On · Off |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “typical” = published figures (AFBF Market Intel, Financing the farm: FSA guaranteed farm ownership obligations $2.09B in FY2025, up 41%) · “estimated” = our estimate. Rules named are 7 CFR 762, FSA Handbook 2-FLP ¶151 and ¶166, 12 CFR 614.4200 and the Common Crop Insurance Policy Basic Provisions; handbook passages on screen are paraphrases labelled with their paragraph. People, offices, the association, its credit policy sections, bulletins and committee decisions named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
A search over the rulebooks an ag lender works under — its own credit policy and bulletins, the FSA guaranteed loan rules and Handbook 2-FLP, the Farm Credit regulations, the crop insurance provisions and credit committee decisions. Officers ask in plain words and get one answer, with each sentence tied to the passage it rests on.
Where bank policy and FSA disagree, the two rules sit side by side, quoted, with the stricter one highlighted as the rule that governs. A gauge places the borrower’s own number against both thresholds — in the Dvorak case, 1.31× against the governing 1.25×.
It answers from the version in force today, or on the date a loan was made for loan review. Superseded versions stay searchable and are marked with the date they stopped applying, and earlier saved answers that rested on them are flagged.
It says so and does not write an answer. It shows the nearest passages and sends the question to the Chief Credit Officer with the file context; her answer becomes a committee decision every office can cite.
Yes. From the figures in the question and the file it works out value on the lesser of price and appraisal, loan-to-value, the guaranteed portion and the guarantee fee, and sets projected debt coverage against each rule, with the working shown and a citation on each line. It never approves, declines or prices a loan.
The change watcher re-checks every saved answer that cites a changed section the day it takes effect, updates the ones the change made wrong with before and after kept, and tells the officers who used them. After the 1 October 2026 FSA changes it re-checked 23 saved answers and updated 6.
Yes. The loan officer decides what to do on the file, approvals follow your delegated lending authority, and only the Chief Credit Officer answers what policy does not. Every question, the passages returned and every update to a saved answer are on the record.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements — your credit policy manual, bulletins, authority schedule and committee decisions — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own policy questions first.
We’ll run Agricultural Lending Policy Search on your own credit policy, bulletins and committee decisions.