Farm Credit Mid-America is celebrating another large return to their customers as part of their annual patronage program.
“March is always an exciting month for Farm Credit Mid-America’s customers each and every year because it is patronage month,” says Steve Witges, Senior Vice President of Agricultural Lending in Indiana for Farm Credit Mid-America.
Witges describes some significant returns for their customers.
“We’re paying out $230 million in patronage to our customers in the four states—that would be in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee,” according to Witges. “Almost 30-percent of that goes to our customers in Indiana, so a little over $66 million will be distributed to our customers during the week of March 20th.”
Witges says that the patronage also speaks to the long-term success of the relationships between Farm Credit Mid-America and their customers.
“What’s really exciting about this year is that this is our seventh year of paying patronage out with this year’s result and we are exceeding $1 billion over the last seven years that has been returned back to our farmer-owners in the four-state area,” says Witges.
He adds that the patronage program represents one of their core values as a customer-owned cooperative.
“Our purpose is to secure the future of real communities in agriculture and I can’t think of a better way that we do that than what’s coming up right now and returning profits that our organization has earned because of their loyalty to our organization,” says Witges. “I think it’s a great statement coming up and how we are living our purpose.”
The amount of patronage that customers will receive is proportionate to their level of transaction of eligible business with the cooperative during 2022.
This year’s total of $230 million is the largest return to Farm Credit Mid-America customers as part of their annual patronage program.
Click HERE for more information about Farm Credit Mid-America’s patronage program.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s news report and interview with Steve Witges, as he discusses Farm Credit Mid-America’s $230 million patronage to their customer-owners.
