Weyburn Credit Union - Canadian Agricultural Loans Act (CALA) Program

The Canadian Agricultural Loans Act (CALA) Program is a loan guarantee program designed to increase the availability of loans to farmers and agricultural co-operatives. Farmers can use these loans to establish, improve, and develop farms, while agricultural co-operatives may also access loans to process, distribute, or market the products of farming.

Key Benefits of the CALA Program include:

Preferred Interest Rates - you can choose from a fixed or variable rate options
Lower Down Payments - 20% for established producers and 10% for beginning farmers
Flexible Repayment Options
No Prepayment Penalties (Fixed Rate Mortgages excluded)

Farmers eligible for a CALA loan guarantee include:

Existing farmers
Beginning/start-up farmers (i.e. less than 6 years of farming)
Farmers taking over the family farm
Part-time farmers
Agricultural co-operatives with a majority (50% + 1) farmer membership

Eligible loan purposes include the following that must be used in the applicant’s farming operation:

Equipment
Building/ Construction
Land
Livestock
Shares in a farming operation

A detailed list of eligible loan purposes is available on the program website.

If a purchase has already been made, a farmer has 60 days to receive funding from a lender for a CALA loan.

CALA loans are limited to:

$500,000 for land and the construction or improvement of buildings.
$350,000 for all other loan purposes.

The maximum aggregate loan limit for any one borrower is $500,000 - which simply means a producer can have more than one CALA loan, however, the total amount of loans issued under the CALA program can not exceed $500,000.

The maximum aggregate loan limit for agricultural cooperatives, is $3 million, with the Minister’s approval.

For example: If a farmer gets a CALA loan for $300,000 for a tractor, he can still access up to $200,000 for land purchase or building repair, or $50,000 for another implement and $150,000 for land purchase or building repair.