LUBBOCK, Texas — Jeremy Brown of New Home, Texas, recently learned how Farm Credit uses its cooperative structure and unique funding mechanism to lend support to rural communities and agriculture across the United States. Brown represented his lender, AgTexas Farm Credit Services, at the 2017 Farm Credit Young Leaders Program in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
The 12th annual program began in the nation’s capital, where the 23 participants joined Farm Credit representatives from around the country in meetings with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Sen. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Brown also discussed policy issues with USDA officials, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, Rep. Jodey Arrington, and Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
Next the group traveled to the New York area. During visits to the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation and a Wall Street brokerage firm, they learned how investors purchase highly rated Farm Credit notes and bonds, supplying steady funding for loans and related services. Together, 74 borrower-owned Farm Credit cooperatives provide $251.2 billion in financing to farmers, ranchers, rural homeowners, agribusinesses and other eligible borrowers.
“Our annual program is designed to give participants insight into the ways Farm Credit supports agriculture and rural communities,” said Stan Ray, president of the Tenth District Farm Credit Council, which hosts the Young Leaders Program. “The trip is also an opportunity for these young ag producers to share their experiences and ideas with lawmakers whose policies touch the lives of farmers and ranchers.”
Brown started farming on 40 acres at age 15, and today grows peanuts, sesame, wheat, rye, grain sorghum, and both conventional and organic cotton on a 3,000-acre farm in Dawson County, Texas. He also has shared agriculture’s story with consumers through
a guest column in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, a YouTube channel and the Texas Farm Bureau blog Texas Agriculture Talks. He and his wife, Sarah, have been married 10 years and have three young children.
The Tenth District Farm Credit Council is the regional member of the national Farm Credit Council, the trade association that works on behalf of Farm Credit cooperatives and their member-owners.
–AgTexas Farm Credit Services
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