As I write this letter on March 12, our weather this week has been very nice. The forecast into next week looks good also. We obviously can’t help but get excited about planting season when the sun pops out and the weather warms up. Good luck in the fields this spring.
Economic news seems to be coming at us at a faster and faster pace. What I write about today will most likely be old news in April. Just a few weeks ago we saw a nice increase in grain prices allowing some members to sell some of their 2024 crop and also contract some of their 2025. It didn’t take long for prices to start declining again.
Tariff news and trade war rhetoric seems to be changing by the hour. When I say my prayers each morning, I try to be very thankful for everything God has given me. This includes my family, our health, and mine and my family’s jobs. Like many of you, I also pray for a successful growing season and for the financial health of our members. I’ve recently added a request for assistance with the commodity markets each morning..
I am always thankful for GreenStone and the Farm Credit System, and I want you to know your cooperative is in an extremely strong position. As a reminder, GreenStone borrows the money we lend to our members from AgriBank. (GreenStone and AgriBank are both part of the Farm Credit System.) Nine other Farm Credit associations borrow from AgriBank and are part of the AgriBank District. In 2024, the AgriBank district was the strongest performing district in the Farm Credit System and GreenStone was the best performing association in the district. We led our peers in return on capital, return on assets, operating rate (expenses divided by assets), operating efficiency and we were number one overall in the risk score measurement AgriBank applies to its associations.
We have consistently been very good stewards of our members’ capital. On March 20, our members were again rewarded for their ownership in our association as we returned $120 million in Patronage. We’ve tried not to keep our success a secret and you have probably heard this year’s Patronage amount put GreenStone’s total Patronage over $1 billion over the last 20 years. We could not have paid this amount of Patronage over the last 20 years without consistently strong financial results. Your management team and our GreenStone teammates work very hard to consistently produce these outstanding numbers.
On February 28th, we held our annual Circle of Excellence celebration where we recognized 85 members of our team for their outstanding performance in 2024. Our consistently strong customer satisfaction scores and financial results don’t happen without these outstanding teammates and every one of our 650 teammates that make up GreenStone. I want to take this opportunity to thank every member of our staff for always putting our Customers First.
As always, please be safe this spring as you put in your extremely long days in the fields. Thank you for feeding our country and the world, and thank you for your membership and commitment to GreenStone!
Please reach out to me any time I can be of assistance.
To view the spring 2025 issue of Partners magazine in its entirety, click here.
