CEO Comments:
Welcoming Fall What a difference a year makes! At this time a year ago, we started to come under more restrictive COVID-19 orders as infection rates began to spike again igniting what turned out to be a second spike that was worse than the original outbreak in the spring of last year. While the Delta variant has surged through populations in a few states this summer, our marketplace (in general) has experienced mostly mild to moderate rates of infection recently. It’s been nice to enjoy life with few mask and/or social distancing restrictions. I know for me, it’s been great to see fans back in the stands here in East Lansing, MI and Madison, WI as well. Okay… maybe even in Ann Arbor, MI! There’s nothing like losing some of the simple things in life we typically take for granted to make us grateful when they finally return. Fall harvest is underway across our territory with “outstanding” yields having been anticipated early in many areas. However, corn producers are now realizing the significant yield impacts from tar spot. Higher prices for most crops will help bridge this gap, and bring a well-deserved smile to those cash crop customers experiencing high yields in other crops this year. Although dairy farmers and many of our fruit growers (who suffered losses from the spring’s freezing temperatures) are likely not going to experience the same euphoria as crop producers, they have experienced much worse in prior years and should do okay in 2021. In fact, based on our ongoing customer financial assessments, we’ve upgraded a significant amount of previously classified high-risk loan volume across a variety of commodities resulting in one of the lowest risk profiles in GreenStone’s 21-year history. This further supports the industry’s anticipated resilience of strong net farm income in 2021 based on economic fundamentals rather than the record government support and stimulus payments received last year.
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Fall 2021 — Partners
