3 minute read
To Our Shareholders
Driven. Collaborative. Resilient. As we look back on 2021, we think about how our culture and mission at American AgCredit have led to another remarkable year. While many of us hoped for a return to “normal” this past year, we continue to live and work in a new environment due to the pandemic. At the same time, we have been challenged to find new ways to work together, support each other and serve our vital mission in agriculture.
Our nation’s farmers, ranchers and agribusiness operators serve an essential role in our society, delivering a safe and reliable source of food, fuel and fiber to the world. Your work is vital to our national security, and we want to thank you for trusting us with your business.
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We also want to acknowledge the tremendous effort of our more than 700 American AgCredit employees. In a year with so much uncertainty, our employees rose to the challenge and delivered record-setting results in the face of adversity. Our employees have performed exceptionally, working together to keep us running seamlessly without any interruption in service to you, our customer owners.
Thanks to your hard work and our efforts to increase efficiency in the business, we have outperformed expectations and delivered very strong financial results in 2021. American AgCredit had one of the most successful years in our history in spite of economic uncertainty. Our solid financial position helps ensure that we can serve our mission in good times and bad, regardless of conditions in the marketplace.
As a result, we are pleased to return 1% back to you, our customer owners, in the form of a patronage distribution. That translates to a record-breaking $163 million in cash returned to our customer owners for 2021, and nearly $1 billion returned since 2005! We are also deeply invested in the communities where we live and work. In 2021, our Local Community Impact program provided more than $590,000 to food banks and other nonprofit partners working to end hunger and food insecurity. American AgCredit added an additional $350,000 in donations through our Holiday Giving Program, directing funds to 23 nonprofit partners across six states.
As we think about our mission at American AgCredit, it’s important to view our business through the lens of our customer owners. How we can best serve farmers, ranchers and agribusiness owners to deliver food and agricultural products to the world. How we add value in an increasingly digital world. How we deliver credit and financial solutions in a more efficient manner. And how we do this in a world where the pace of change has never been this fast yet will never be this slow again.
In this report, you will read about a “Disneyland of Automation” at Go Green Agriculture in Patterson, San Marcos and Encinitas, California, a forward-looking farm at Rau Farms in Derby, Kansas, a new business model at Wiens Wagyu in Meade, Kansas, and the problem-solving and technology behind Noble Vineyard Management in Ukiah, California. You can go behind the scenes and hear from these clients directly by scanning the QR code with each story.
Agriculture is in an exciting era of automation, big data, sustainability and crop science — innovation at every level. It is also a period filled with new challenges and potential risks. As we look ahead, we know that the way we deliver credit and financial services will evolve to meet changing preferences and expectations. That is why we are investing in technology and expertise to serve the farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses of the future, all while improving your experience with us today.
We look forward to partnering with you and serving your business in 2022, driven by our mission to be the best lender to agriculture. There are so many exciting changes in agriculture on the horizon, and we can’t wait to see all we accomplish together in 2022.
Go behind the scenes with CEO Curt Hudnutt.
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Gary Harshberger Board Chair
Curt Hudnutt Chief Executive Officer President
March 4, 2022
