UCC Farm Products Filing - Equipment Lien vs Crop Collateral Description Issues
Having major headaches with a UCC farm products filing that got rejected twice by our state SOS office. We're financing a grain operation and the debtor description keeps getting flagged. First rejection said debtor name didn't match business registration, second one cited collateral schedule problems. The farm operates under 'Johnson Family Grain LLC' but their charter shows 'Johnson Family Grain Holdings LLC' - missed that 'Holdings' part completely. Now I'm terrified we screwed up the lien priority while trying to resubmit. Has anyone dealt with farm products UCC filings where the business name variations caused this kind of mess? We've got $2.8M in equipment collateral plus seasonal crop inventory and I'm losing sleep over whether our security interest is even valid at this point.
38 comments
Join the conversation
Sean Kelly
Farm products filings are notorious for name matching issues! The SOS systems are super strict about exact business entity names. You definitely need to pull the current charter document and match it exactly - even missing 'Holdings' or 'LLC' vs 'Limited Liability Company' will cause rejections. For the collateral schedule, make sure you're separating equipment from crops/inventory since they have different classification requirements under Article 9.
0 coins
Zara Mirza
•This is exactly why I always triple-check the Secretary of State business database before filing anything. One character difference and you're starting over.
0 coins
Luca Russo
•Wait, does the timing of these rejections affect lien priority? I thought you had some grace period for corrections...
0 coins
Nia Harris
Oh man, farm products UCC filings are the worst. Between the PMSI rules and the buyer notification requirements, there's so many ways to mess up. The debtor name issue is critical - you might want to run both versions of the name through a document verification tool before resubmitting. I started using Certana.ai after getting burned on a similar situation. You just upload your charter doc and UCC-1 as PDFs and it flags any mismatches instantly. Saved me from another rejection nightmare.
0 coins
Anastasia Kozlov
•Never heard of Certana.ai - is that like a filing service or just document checking? At this point I'm willing to try anything to avoid a third rejection.
0 coins
Nia Harris
•It's just document verification - upload your charter and UCC forms as PDFs and it cross-checks all the names, addresses, filing numbers. Super simple but catches stuff you miss when you're staring at documents for hours.
0 coins
GalaxyGazer
•Buyer notification for farm products is such a pain. Half the time the farmers don't even understand why they need to notify purchasers.
0 coins
Mateo Sanchez
The 'Holdings' discrepancy is definitely your main problem. File an amendment immediately once you get the corrected UCC-1 accepted. For priority purposes, your original filing date should still control if you can prove the error was ministerial and not substantive. Document everything about the name variation discovery.
0 coins
Anastasia Kozlov
•So I should file the corrected UCC-1 first, then do a UCC-3 amendment? Or can I fix both issues with one corrected filing?
0 coins
Mateo Sanchez
•Start with a completely new UCC-1 using the correct debtor name from the charter. Then if there are other issues, you can amend. Don't try to fix everything at once - it just creates more confusion.
0 coins
Aisha Mahmood
I've been dealing with ag lending for 15 years and these name matching problems are getting worse, not better. The SOS offices have zero flexibility on exact name matches. Plus with farm products you've got the added complexity of seasonal collateral that changes value constantly. Make sure your collateral description is broad enough to cover both current and future crop inventory.
0 coins
Ethan Moore
•Future crop inventory descriptions are tricky - you don't want to be too vague but you also can't predict exactly what they'll grow next season.
0 coins
Aisha Mahmood
•Exactly. I usually go with 'all crops, whether now existing or hereafter acquired, grown on the described real property' but check your state's specific requirements.
0 coins
Yuki Kobayashi
•Don't forget about after-acquired property clauses for equipment too. Farm operations are constantly upgrading machinery.
0 coins
Carmen Vega
ugh this is giving me flashbacks to our soybean financing disaster last year. spent weeks getting rejections because the farmer's business name had changed and nobody told us. ended up having to file on both the old and new entity names to be safe. farm products filings are just brutal.
0 coins
QuantumQuester
•How do you even track business name changes for existing borrowers? Do you run periodic searches or just hope they tell you?
0 coins
Carmen Vega
•we're supposed to get annual financial statements that would show name changes but honestly half our farmers don't even know when their business registration changes
0 coins
Andre Moreau
FARM PRODUCTS FILINGS ARE THE ABSOLUTE WORST! The SOS systems are completely inflexible and the rejection notices are useless. 'Debtor name error' tells you nothing about what specifically is wrong. At least with regular commercial filings you get better error descriptions. And don't get me started on the buyer notification requirements that change by state...
0 coins
Zoe Stavros
•The buyer notification thing is so confusing. Some states require it, others don't, and the forms are all different.
0 coins
Andre Moreau
•EXACTLY! And try explaining to a farmer why they need to notify grain elevators every time they want to sell crops. Half of them think it's just bureaucratic nonsense.
0 coins
Jamal Harris
Check if your state allows 'continuation statements' for farm products filings - some have different rules than regular UCC continuations. Also verify that the collateral description covers both the equipment and the farm products separately since they might have different perfection requirements.
0 coins
Anastasia Kozlov
•I hadn't thought about different perfection requirements. The equipment should be standard UCC-1 filing but are there special rules for the crop inventory?
0 coins
Jamal Harris
•Farm products can have special notice requirements depending on your state. Some require filing with the county recorder in addition to the Secretary of State.
0 coins
Mei Chen
•And don't forget about central filing systems - some states have separate databases for farm products filings that purchasers check.
0 coins
Liam Sullivan
Just went through something similar with a cattle operation. The entity name was off by one word and it took three attempts to get it right. I ended up using that Certana.ai document checker someone mentioned and it immediately flagged the name mismatch between our charter copy and the UCC-1. Would have saved me weeks of back-and-forth with the filing office.
0 coins
Amara Okafor
•Does Certana.ai work for farm products filings specifically or just general UCC documents?
0 coins
Liam Sullivan
•It just compares whatever documents you upload - doesn't matter if it's farm products or regular commercial. As long as you upload the charter and UCC forms as PDFs, it catches name mismatches.
0 coins
CosmicCommander
Make sure you understand the difference between 'farm products' and 'equipment used in farming operations' for your collateral descriptions. They're treated differently under Article 9 and some states have specific formatting requirements for each category.
0 coins
Anastasia Kozlov
•So the tractors and combines would be 'equipment' but the grain inventory would be 'farm products'? How specific do the descriptions need to be?
0 coins
CosmicCommander
•Exactly. Equipment can usually be described more generally but farm products might need seasonal specificity depending on your state. Some require listing specific crop types.
0 coins
Giovanni Colombo
•I always include 'all equipment, machinery, and implements used in farming operations' to cover everything but check your state's requirements for specificity.
0 coins
Fatima Al-Qasimi
Priority dating is crucial here - make sure you document exactly when you discovered the name discrepancy and when you submitted corrections. If there's any gap in perfection, you could lose priority to other creditors. Farm operations often have multiple lenders so priority matters a lot.
0 coins
Anastasia Kozlov
•That's my biggest worry. We've got ag equipment financing, an operating line of credit, and seasonal inventory financing all secured by different collateral. If our UCC-1 isn't perfect, we could lose priority on everything.
0 coins
Fatima Al-Qasimi
•Document everything and consider filing a corrective statement if needed. Most courts will protect you if you can show the error was purely ministerial and not substantive.
0 coins
Dylan Cooper
Update: Finally got the corrected UCC-1 accepted after matching the exact entity name from the charter. Turns out we also had to adjust the collateral description to separate equipment from farm products inventory. Used the document verification tool mentioned here and it caught two other small discrepancies I missed. Thanks for all the advice - farm products filings are definitely more complex than regular commercial UCC filings but at least our lien is properly perfected now.
0 coins
Sofia Ramirez
•Glad you got it sorted out! Farm products filings are such a specialized area that even experienced filers mess them up regularly.
0 coins
Dmitry Volkov
•Which document tool did you end up using? Always looking for ways to catch these errors before filing.
0 coins
Dylan Cooper
•The Certana.ai thing - just uploaded the charter and UCC forms and it flagged the name issues plus some address formatting problems I hadn't noticed. Pretty straightforward.
0 coins