The first-quarter earnings report from Northwest Farm Credit Services offers good news. The leading ag lending cooperative in the Northwest announced earnings of $65.4 million, compared to $58.4 million for the same quarter in 2016. The cooperative reports the higher earnings came mainly from lower expenses for credit losses in its loan portfolio.

Total capital increased 1.8% during the quarter to $2.3 billion. The association's portfolio also grew about 5% from a year ago.

In announcing the earnings, Phil DePofi, president and CEO, commented: "Despite a significant downturn in the nation's ag economy, our customer-members in the Northwest have come through the 2016 growing season relatively well, and most are in a good position to deal with the continued economic volatility. We're pleased with our company's continued strong financial performance, which allows us to support our customer-members through the economic cycles in agriculture, forestry and fisheries."

The financial cooperative's customer-members get a share of returns from the organization. Northwest FCS returns a share of its net earnings in the form of patronage dividends. In the first quarter of 2017, the cooperative returned $99.4 million to eligible customers as cash patronage, based on the organization's financial performance in 2016 and the amount of the customer's business with the association.

This year's payment represents an 8.2% increase in total cash patronage returned in 2017, compared to 2016. Northwest FCS has returned about $690 million in cash patronage since the program began in 2000.

Source: Northwest Farm Credit Services