Delivering Value through Culture

Last fall, Farm Credit East embarked on a project to define who we are as a team. Over the past year, you may have heard our team refer to “The Farm Credit East Way.” As we developed The Farm Credit East Way, we quickly realized we weren’t creating anything new — we were just defining the parts of our day-to-day business interactions that we do well. Defining those fundamentals was key to being able to hold each other accountable and move our cooperative forward.   

Now that we’re one year into The Farm Credit East Way, I’m a strong proponent for defining an organization’s culture. Our recent Financial Partner magazine provides tips to embark on your own culture journey. I’ve experienced firsthand the value a defined culture can bring to the collective team and customers. As we enter 2026, we will continue to use those culture fundamentals to drive our organization forward. 

Customer Commitment 

As a relationship lender, the first fundamental in The Farm Credit East Way is to invest in relationships. As the agricultural industry faces challenges, this fundamental is core to who we are. Farm Credit East remains strong and committed to being a reliable partner to our customers in the year ahead and beyond. But as weather and industry conditions could impact your business, it’s important to keep your relationship team informed so we can work together toward the best solution.

Evolving with Purpose

As we look to the year ahead, we’re continuing to evolve our cooperative to provide more value to customers. In fact, be relentless about improvement is another of our fundamentals to ensure our organization is always moving forward in the best interest of our customers. 

A recent blog article took a deeper dive into how we’re modernizing our credit delivery to reduce turnaround time for loan decisions and create a more consistent lending experience. Our team is working hard to implement the tools and define the processes to provide the speed you desire, but we also need accurate, up-to-date financial information from our customers. Your relationship team will be working with you in early 2026 to collect this information. Let’s work together to deliver on this promise in 2026.

Commitment to Local Communities 

Another focus of our cooperative continues to be our commitment to local communities. Last year, in coordination with Farm Credit East Cares — our employee-initiated and employee-funded charitable giving program — our team volunteered their time at several organizations across the Northeast. Our team’s commitment to local communities is at the heart of our organization, and our fundamental to make a difference ensures we don’t lose sight of this. Learn more about recent stewardship activities. 

Culture Drives our Organization Forward

As we head into 2026, we will continue to utilize The Farm Credit East Way — the fundamentals that are core to who we are — to create value for customers. Thank you for being part of our journey and for helping shape the culture that has enabled Farm Credit East to be a partner to Northeast agriculture for more than 100 years.