Credit Union Agricultural Lending

This week I am at the National Agricultural Bankers Conference and thought it would be interesting to look at credit unions engaged in agricultural lending.

As of June 2013, there were 297 credit unions reporting at least one agricultural loan on their books. These credit unions reported holding 19,671 farmland and agricultural production loans with a value of almost $2.3 billion.

Credit unions had slightly more than $2.1 billion in agricultural loans that counted as member business loans and $175 million in agricultural loans were to nonmembers.

Approximately $1.3 billion of the loans were farmland loans, while $986 million of the loans are for agricultural production.

During the first six months of 2013, credit unions originated $227 million in farmland loans and $536 million in agricultural production loans.

There were four states, which reported credit union ag lending in excess of $100 million -- North Dakota ($659.5 million), Indiana ($604.9 million), Minnesota ($421.9 million), and Wisconsin ($183.9 million).

The credit union with the most farm loans on its books is privately-insured Beacon Credit Union in Wabash, Indiana. The credit union has almost $446 million in agricultural loans. The next largest credit union ag lender is Central Minnesota Credit Union in Melrose, Minnesota with almost $269 million in farm loans.

There were 46 credit unions that had a material exposure to agricultural lending. Material exposure is defined as having at least $5 million in outstanding agricultural

The table below lists the 10 credit unions with the most agricultural loans.