NEW BOSTON, Texas — Lone Star Ag Credit, a borrower-owned lending cooperative, recently hosted a dinner for the customers of its New Boston branch to celebrate another successful year.
This year’s customer appreciation dinner honored agriculture’s bright future and Lone Star Ag Credit’s long history in Texas. One of the oldest lenders in the nationwide Farm Credit System, Lone Star made the first Farm Credit loan in the state 100 years ago.
Today, Lone Star Ag Credit has $1.69 billion in assets and more than 5,000 borrowers, who are also owners of the co-op. In March, Lone Star distributed a record $13.8 million in patronage dividends to eligible borrowers.
The New Boston customer dinner was held April 13 at Elk Meadow Game Ranch and included a presentation by Troy Bussmeir, Lone Star Ag Credit’s chief executive officer. Every customer received a parting gift, and many lucky attendees also received gift cards.
Attendance has grown tremendously since the branch hosted its first customer appreciation dinner 14 years ago at Red River Army Depot, said Brody Baird, a 33-year Farm Credit veteran who helped start the annual tradition at Lone Star.
“We wanted to do something to thank our local customers for their loyalty to us,” said Baird, president of the New Boston credit office, which serves Bowie, Camp, Cass, Morris and Titus counties. “As Lone Star has grown, our dinners have grown from 50 attendees to 200. Today our branch has about $75 million in very diversified loans.”
This year the lending cooperative is hosting dinners for each of its 16 branches across North and Central Texas, as well as open houses, annual stockholder luncheons and other events.
Lone Star Ag Credit serves 48 Texas counties, providing financing for rural land, rural homes, agribusinesses, livestock, agricultural equipment and operating expenses. Headquartered in Fort Worth, it has credit offices in Abilene, Cleburne, Corsicana, Denton, Fort Worth, Hillsboro, Lampasas, Mount Pleasant, New Boston, Paris, Round Rock, Sherman, Stephenville, Sweetwater, Temple, Waco and Weatherford.
For more information, contact a local branch office or visit www.LoneStarAgCredit.com.
—Lone Star Ag Credit
For more articles out of Texas, click here.