Legacy Ag Credit Returns $2.47 Million in Patronage to Customers

SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas — Legacy Ag Credit, a northeast Texas financing cooperative, has welcome news for its member-borrowers.

The rural lender is returning $2.47 million of its 2020 earnings to stockholders in the form of cash patronage. Checks will be distributed to customers in March.

“As a borrower-owned cooperative, Legacy Ag Credit keeps only the earnings it needs for operations and returns the remainder to its members,” said Derrell Chapman, chief executive officer. “Our board of directors approved this distribution based on the co-op’s solid financial results in 2020.”

Sharing profits with members is one of the hallmarks of the cooperative business model. Patronage payments return a portion of the interest borrowers paid on their loans the previous year, effectively reducing their interest rate for that period.

Over the past 15 years, Legacy has returned more than $20 million in cash patronage to its customers.

Legacy Ag Credit finances rural land, agricultural production, country homes, poultry farms, timber operations, ranches, young, beginning, small farms, and agribusinesses in Franklin, Gregg, Harrison, Hopkins, Kaufman, Marion, Rains, Upshur, Van Zandt and Wood counties. It is headquartered in Sulphur Springs and has lending offices in Canton, Gilmer, Terrell, Longview and Sulphur Springs.

The lender is a part of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of cooperatively owned banks and lending associations, and has been a reliable source of rural credit for more than 100 years.