Remarks by Glen R. Smith

Board Member

Farm Credit Administration

AgriBank, FCB, Annual Meeting

Phoenix, Arizona

March 5, 2018

CEO Thone, on behalf of the Farm Credit Administration, I would like to thank you for the

invitation to attend your annual meeting here in Phoenix. I'll admit to having looked

forward to a late winter meeting in Minneapolis, but I guess sunny Arizona will have to do.

I'll also admit to having a special affinity for AgriBank since I hail from West Central Iowa,

in the heart of your region. In fact, if you drive the Interstate 80 corridor, our farm is

located about mid-way between Omaha and Des Moines, with most of our land lying in the

Nishnabotna River Valley between the interstate and the county seat town of Atlantic.

Like most of your association directors, I will introduce myself first as a farmer. For years,

my wife and I owned and operated a 2,000-acre corn, soybean, and small cow/calf 

operation. Now, our son Peter is running the operation. I have spent a lifetime in the

farmland service business, primarily in land appraisal and brokerage and farm 

management. It has been 36 years since I started that business, Smith Land Service Co. 

Throughout the years, in both our farm operation and business, we worked closely as

partners with Farm Credit. We had numerous long-term real estate loans over the years in

several ownership entities. Our company contracted regularly with Farm Credit in the ’80s 

and ’90s, and our company appraisers regularly exchanged sales information with Farm

Credit appraisers in our area. It was a valuable partnership that worked well both ways.

As a farmer and ag businessman, I have the basic financial skills necessary to survive and

prosper. However, they are nowhere near the level of financial expertise and talent 

required in an oversight agency like FCA. After two months on the job, I can say I have

never worked around a more talented group of people than what you will find at FCA — 

people I can confidently say will keep the Farm Credit System true to its mission in

providing safe, reliable credit to American agriculture.

As an example of that dedication, I am accompanied here by my executive assistant, Jim 

Morris. Many of you personally know Jim as a veteran of the agency, dating back to 1987.

He is a licensed attorney in New York, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., and he has an

incredible wealth of experience in almost all facets of the agency's operation and history. I

very much look forward to working with Jim, as a team, in tackling some challenges that 

I'm sure lie in front of us. I would also like to acknowledge Ryan Schumacher and Mary

Krause from our examination staff who are with us today.

I see my job in the next 6 to 12 months as that of listening and learning. One of the areas

I'm particularly interested in hearing about is your associations’ success in promoting their

YBS (young, beginning, and small) farmer programs. As I worked through the interview

and Senate confirmation phase of my FCA position, I visited the offices of Senate Ag

Committee members. At almost every visit, I was asked the question, “What can we do to

promote and help young farmers and ranchers get started?” Members of Congress are
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acutely aware of the advanced age of the American farmer and rancher today and are very 

concerned about the implications for the future. 

I'll confess that this subject is near and dear to my heart, as my wife and I started out as 

true beginning farmers. Although our son makes the sixth generation in our family to farm 

in Pymosa Township, almost all the land owned by my great-grandfather's and 

grandfather's generations had been sold throughout the years. We started out in 1982 as 

sharecroppers with about $2,500 equity in my wife's 1979 Olds Cutlass, but we both had 

good educations and plenty of ambition.

Through those tenuous early years, a patient and conscientious lender stayed with us, 

allowing us to prosper when economic times turned for the better. I'm interested in 

hearing what is working in your associations’ YBS programs, and maybe by that 

information-gathering and brainstorming process, we can see those programs grow

Systemwide.

On a final note, as of the announcement last week, 2017 was a great year for the Farm 

Credit System, with a net income of $5.2 billion, representing a profit growth of 7 percent

over the previous year. I know that the AgriBank district played a major role in those 

results. Congratulations to all your associations for their performance and growth over the 

past recent years. However, along with those congratulations, I would like to share with 

you some advice that I have shared with our son regarding the Iowa operations.

Decisions and practices established during good times don't always apply to the future. As 

we continue to work with very tight profit margins, decreasing liquidity, and what I feel are 

fragile land values, I urge you to be vigilant in establishing the best lending practices 

pertinent to the times. I believe these practices need to be cautious to ensure the Farm 

Credit System continues to fulfill its mission of providing a safe, reliable source of credit to 

American agriculture and rural America.

Again, congratulations on a great past year. I look forward to working with AgriBank and 

its associations in the years to come.