Michigan Farming Giant Sued for Defaulting on $145M Loan

When Zeeland, Michigan-based Boersen Farms Inc. bought the bulk of Stamp Farms LLC's land-lease agreements and other assets in what was considered one of the largest farm bankruptcies ever in 2013, the DTN National Corn Index was at $7 a bushel. Now, with cash corn prices closer to $3 a bushel and the farm economy struggling, those headwinds have made it difficult for Boersen Farms to pay its bills, despite planting roughly 83,000 acres of corn and soybeans last spring, according to court records.The farm defaulted on more than $145.3 million it owes CHS Capital LLC, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. CHS Capital has asked the court for a receivership. That would place all property used as collateral for the loans under the control of an independent person known as a receiver."They bought a lot of this property at $6 and $7 corn, and now it's trading under $4," said Cody H. Knight, a bankruptcy attorney with Rayman & Knight based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who is representing the Boersens."That was a big impact -- it's commodities. Our law firm does all insolvency work. In the past five years, four of five cases have been in agriculture. You have to be big to survive, but even big farmers have been struggling," Knight said.