Credit Union Ag Lending to Farmers and Ranchers

I've just returned from the North American Agricultural Lenders Conference in Omaha. While I was there, I had a conversation with Bert Ely, a financial industry consultant, about credit union lending to agriculture. Apparently Bert had gotten an earful from Minnesota and North Dakota bankers about credit union competition for loans to farmers and ranchers.

As a result of our conversation, I decided to take a look at the credit union ag lending scene.

As of June 30, 2010, 184 credit unions reported having agricultural loans on their books equal to almost $1.7 billion.

While in aggregate agricultural lending by credit unions represents a small fraction of all credit going to agriculture, in some local markets credit unions are significant competitors.

The credit union with the largest ag loan portfolio is privately-insured Beacon Credit Union of Wabash, Indiana with almost $324 million in farm loans. Farm loans account for 45 percent of the credit union's total assets. Rouding out the top 5 are Central Minnesota FCU (MN), First Community (ND), Town and Country (ND), and Interra (IN).

The following table (click to enlarge image) identifies the 25 credit unions with the largest agricultural loan portfolios. Also provided is information on the percent of the credit union's assets in farm loans.