First South Farm Credit Pays $9 Million Cash Patronage

Ridgeland, MS – In April, member-borrowers of First South Farm Credit will receive patronage refund check for 2011, Roger F. Chappell, CEO, announced today.

The amount of patronage declared for borrowers of First South Farm Credit will total $20 million from 2011 earnings. The cash portion of the refund to be paid in April will total $9 million, or approximately 13 percent of the interest that accrued on their loans in 2011. The remainder will be placed in allocated capital accounts for future revolvement.

“First South Farm Credit had another successful year in 2011. We are pleased to be able to share our success with our borrowers by putting our profits in their pockets,” said Ray Makamson, Chairman of the First South Board of Directors. “This is the seventeenth consecutive year we’ve paid a patronage refund. Over that period of time First South has declared patronage totaling over $209 million to be paid to its member-borrowers through patronage refunds and retirements of allocated surplus.”

“When we distribute our profits to our borrowers it reduces their effective cost of borrowing,” Chappell stated, “and it proves there are distinct financial benefits in doing business on a cooperative basis. We give you a competitive interest rate up front, then return a portion of our profits back to you through the patronage program.”

First South Farm Credit is a farmer-owned cooperative providing short-, intermediate- and long-term financing and related services to full- and part-time farmers, agriculture-related businesses and rural residents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. First South serves 5,000 members with loans outstanding totaling over $1.4 billion through its network of over 40 branch offices in its three-state territory.