Building tomorrow’s agriculture, today. Discover the FCS Financial Focused. Customized. Solutions.™ approach to service. It’s our way of bringing the right resources to you to make your business successful. We are focused on the strong relationships and values of Missouri’s rural communities. And, we know that managing your business risk not only depends on having a variety of products that offer the best protection but the right person to provide accurate information and follow through. Just as these young and beginning farmers do, you can also rely on your FCS Financial team to be ready with the expertise you need to make sound decisions.
ANOTHER GENERATION OF GROWTH Although he’s only 30 years old, Charles Henke already has more than a couple of decades of on-the-job experience. Like a lot of agricultural producers, the Salisbury farmer and cattleman got an early start, purchasing his first heifer at the age of 8 and buying half-interest in the family cowherd when he was 16. Today, he and his father, Ron, run an extensive cropping operation as well as an Angus seedstock enterprise with a growing reputation for putting its brand on the beef industry. “I enjoy farming but the cattle are my passion,” Henke says. “The challenge of matching the right cow with the right bull, balancing the traits important to commercial cattlemen, and continually improving our cattle is something I get a lot of satisfaction from.” Charles is a fifth generation Chariton County farmer and a fourth generation member of the FCS Financial family, a connection that goes back to the Production Credit Association (PCA) in the 1940s. The family farm has been built generation by generation and Charles is intent on keeping that tradition going. Recently, he and Ron had the opportunity to purchase the farm right across the road. “That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we didn’t want to miss if it made sense financially,” he says. “We sat down with the FCS Financial folks and came up with a plan. FCS Financial really stepped up to the plate. They were right there at our side and we were successful. We have a great relationship. There’s a lot of trust and respect back and forth — they’re important to our operation.” He adds that competitive interest rates and services like a Funds Held and Farm Cash Management complement FCS Financial’s understanding of production agriculture. Charles has plenty of reasons to keep the family farm prosperous and growing but two of them are special. He and his wife, Robyn, have two sons — 2-year old Colin and Byron who was born in July. “I’m hoping they’ll want to be part of this someday,” Charles concludes. “They’d be the sixth generation — and the fifth to be FCS Financial customers.”