My parents were very young when I was born, and my dad was an excellent athlete. I have been lucky enough to see him play football, basketball, baseball and fast-pitch softball. (It’s been too long since we have golfed, but I still wouldn’t bet more than $5 I could beat him.)
My wife and I played three sports in high school and so did our three children. My family has gotten fired up for the different sport seasons for a long time. But from a young age I also remember being fired up for another season: planting season.
Dad didn’t farm a lot of acres but if your equipment isn’t that big, even a small number of acres takes time to get planted. I can vividly remember coming home from school on the bus and as we got close to home, I would try to determine how much dad had accomplished in the fields that day. (Dad is a retired teacher and coach. In the spring, many of his “sick” days were spent in the fields). Once home of course I would immediately ask mom to drop me off at the field dad was in so I could get on the tractor with him.
Apparently, I still get fired up for this season. My wife is extremely patient with me. If we are travelling in the car this time of year, I am constantly commenting on how far along field preparations are for what seems like every field from Owosso to Hastings or whatever direction we are headed. “This one is planted but the one across the road hasn’t been touched.” (When she turns on the radio, I know I have reached my limit of commentary.)
We all hope and pray the weather cooperates this spring and planting season goes well for all of our members!
Current forecasts for net farm income from the USDA predicts a decline of almost 16% from 2022 to 2023 before adjustments for inflation. However, if net farm income hits that forecasted level of $136.9 billion, this level of income would actually be 26% above the 20-year average in inflation-adjusted dollars. Not last year’s numbers but not horrible! Drivers of the decrease in projected net farm income are expected declines of 4.3% in cash receipts from the sale of agricultural commodities. Crop receipts and animal/animal product receipts are both expected to decline. Combine the lower receipts with projected increases in total production expenses and it seems “easy” to predict the drop in net farm income. The USDA expects our dairy and hog customers to see the largest decline in net cash income from 2022 to 2023. However, our members are used to market volatility, and so is GreenStone. I am very confident that 2023 will be a successful year for our members and your Farm Credit association.
One of the reasons I am so confident in GreenStone’s ability to have another strong year is our 600+ teammates that are working hard every day to put our Customers First. I was recently reminded of the depth of talent GreenStone has in its workforce. On February 24th, I was able to attend and briefly speak at our Circle of Excellence banquet for our top performing sales team members and support staff. What continued to hit home during the evening was how talented our teammates are and how deep our bench is. Many of our award winners had been recently promoted into new positions as other teammates retired or moved up within our organization. Here are just a few examples of some of these internal promotions:
• Ian McGonigal was promoted to Executive VP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer
• Melissa Humphrey replaced Ian as Senior VP of Regional Sales
• Matt Alt replaced Melissa as the Regional VP of Sales & Customer Relations in western Michigan.
We also recently had three VPs of Agribusiness Lending retire with a combined 99 years of Farm Credit experience! They were replaced by three experienced members from our lending team: Michelle Backhaus, Mitchell Schafer, and Nathan Buning.
Again, these are just a few examples of how GreenStone is able to have a “next person up” mentality when we have retirements and transitions. We concentrate on our customer hand-offs from one lender to another to avoid bad fumbles. The ability of GreenStone to promote from within is a tremendous benefit to our organization and our teammates but at the same time we must ensure our customers are not negatively impacted. We work hard every day to make sure that is the case.
2022 Financial Results
By this time, you have received your 2022 annual report. 2022 was an outstanding year for your association. The following key results give a quick summary of the success:
2022 2021
Growth 10.0% 8.2%
Net Income (in millions) $284.6 $264.7
Credit Quality 1.46%. 2.15%
Customer Satisfaction 95% 92%
Once again, our marketing team and our finance team did an outstanding job preparing the Annual Report. Our marketing team has received numerous awards over the years for our annual reports and this year’s was also very well done.
On March 16th our members received their share of this year’s record $120 million of Patronage – about 40% of our 2022 earnings, which represent approximately a 1.25% reduction in the interest rate for the average GreenStone member on their borrowings in 2022. I was able to spend time at a couple of our offices in northeast Wisconsin to celebrate Patronage Day. Meeting customers and spending time with my teammates are the best parts of my job and there is no better day to do that than Patronage Day. Our members and our staff really enjoy getting caught up from a business and personal standpoint while enjoying a snack or meal and handing out and receiving checks. There is no better way of celebrating how #PartnershipPays!
Around the same time as GreenStone was celebrating our cooperative’s success with members on Patronage Day were the recent commercial banking failures. As noted above, GreenStone along with the entire Farm Credit System remain financially strong, well capitalized and prepared to support our customers. Farm Credit institutions such as GreenStone do not take deposits and are not impacted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. We are closely regulated by the Farm Credit Administration, a federal financial regulatory agency, which does not regulate the commercial banks. Our financial strength and mission help ensure our members have a stable, competitive source of financing in good times and bad – regardless of the disruptions in commercial banking – and they can be confident in the cooperative structure and strength of their financial partnership with GreenStone!
Please feel free to reach out to me any time if I can ever be of assistance.
Thank you again for your membership and business!
To view the article in the online 2023 Spring Partners Magazine, click here.
