First South Farm Credit Distributes Over $19.3 Million in Cash to its Member/Borrowers

Ridgeland, MS - First South Farm Credit announced today that it will distribute $19.3 million in patronage refund checks to its member/borrowers in April.  A patronage refund is a payment from a cooperative to a member/borrower based on its earnings and financial performance in proportion to the borrower’s use of the cooperative.  “In keeping with our continued commitment to the cooperative principle of returning earnings to our member/borrowers, we are pleased to announce that our Board of Directors approved a cash patronage distribution of $19.3 million,” said John Barnard, CEO of First South.

“This is First South’s 25th consecutive year of returning a patronage refund to it members, while still preserving maintaining a strong capital position,” said Daniel Mattingly, Chairman of the First South Farm Credit Board of Directors. “First South continued to offer competitive interest rates and has provided declarations of $392 million in patronage refunds over that 25 year period.”  

Barnard stated, “By offering competitive interest rates and distributing a portion of our profits to our member/borrowers, we reduce their effective cost of borrowing.” 

First South Farm Credit is a member-owned cooperative providing short-, intermediate- and long-term financing and related services to full- and part-time farmers, agricultural-related businesses and rural landowners in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.   First South serves approximately 9,000 member/borrowers with loans outstanding totaling over $2.2 billion through its network of 44 branch offices in its three-state territory.  As a part of the national Farm Credit System, First South Farm Credit has been serving rural communities for over 100 years.