The board that hands out Texas farm grants and loan guarantees meets Sept. 3 to consider moving money among the pieces of a $100 million program the Legislature built last year. Its biggest piece drew more than 1,100 applications and has paid out nothing yet.
A 2025 law folded the state’s scattered farm grants into a single Agriculture Grant Program and the Legislature put $100 million behind it for the two-year budget, which the agriculture department has split among four programs. One, for gins, grain elevators and packing sheds hurt by disaster, has closed and made 80 awards worth about $22.5 million. A second, for farmers and ranchers expanding an operation, offers $5,000 to $500,000 against a local match; the agency says the 1,100-plus applicants will hear by Nov. 15. A third, for pest and disease work, has made one award out of eleven applications. The fourth has not been designed — the board takes up its rules Sept. 3.
The same law loosened the older programs the board runs. The young farmer grant lost its age ceiling entirely and its cap rose from $20,000 to $500,000. The same law struck the ceiling on how much the authority could lend or guarantee a single business; the loan guarantee, which backs part of a bank loan so the bank will make it, now tops out at $1 million or 70 percent of the loan, whichever is less.
One award already made is back before the board. The agenda asks members to take up a $360,000 disaster grant to Farmers Coop Gin in Anson, in Jones County, “including consideration of the applicant’s bankruptcy filing and any impact on award eligibility or administration.” The board’s own agenda is the only public document the Dispatch found stating that a bankruptcy was filed; a commercial court-docket service lists a case under that name, but the court, the chapter and the case number could not be confirmed in any public record. A bankruptcy filing is not an allegation of wrongdoing, and the agenda does not say the award will be pulled or that the co-op did anything improper.
Held over from a June 11 board meeting: an item on “the L-Glufosinate Production Facility Project,” naming no company and no site. L-glufosinate is a herbicide ingredient, and the Dispatch found no public information about any such project in Texas. The board does not stream its meetings, and it has posted no minutes since September 2025.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:30 a.m. CT Thursday, September 3, 2026. The notice was filed August 5 at 8:16 a.m. The last board meeting the Dispatch could document was July 6.
- Where
- Room 1140A, 11th floor, 1700 N. Congress Ave., Austin, and by Microsoft Teams. Phone access: (512) 910-3546, conference ID 465 339 871#.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Agricultural Finance Authority — a board inside the Texas Department of Agriculture. The agriculture commissioner serves on it, appoints two members who know agricultural lending, and the governor appoints six. Ted Conover is chairman.
- Format
- Hybrid meeting. The chairman presides in person; other members may join remotely. Public comment is taken near the top. The board may close the meeting for legal advice or to discuss financial information from a business prospect.
- Live video
- No public livestream or archive. The Teams link and dial-in are printed in the posted notice.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency open meetings page
Board members
- Ted Conover — chairman; agricultural lending seat.
- Justin Tucker — vice chairman; Cameron; agricultural and commercial banker.
- Sid Miller — agriculture commissioner; serves on the board by office.
- Nelda Barrera — McAllen; retired department field representative; Farm Bureau director.
- Colby McClendon — Lavon; farmer.
- Scott Frazier — Chapman Ranch; farmer; Nueces County Farm Bureau president.
- Zachary Davis — Decatur; Denton County agricultural extension agent.
- Tommy Henderson — Byers; farmer and rancher; Farm Bureau director.
The six gubernatorial appointees come from the governor’s release of January 9, 2026. The chairman and vice chairman come from the agency’s own authority page, which describes a nine-seat board but lists eleven names, four of them with no city, occupation or appointing authority given. Those four are not printed here. The authority is created by Chapter 58 of the Agriculture Code. Meeting contact: Mindy Fryer, (512) 463-6908.