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For Immediate Release
February 18, 2003

AUSTIN, Texas - The board of directors of the Austin-based Farm Credit Bank of Texas (FCBT) recently re-elected Ralph "Buddy" Cortese chairman of the board and Jon "Mike" Garnett vice chairman. Cortese is a farmer and rancher from Fort Sumner, N.M., and Garnett is an agricultural producer from Spearman, Texas. They have held their respective positions since January 2000.

The board also re-elected Dr. William Staats of Baton Rouge, La., to his third term as the board-appointed director. Staats is a professor emeritus of finance at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he held the Louisiana Bankers Association Chair of Banking and the Hermann Moyse Jr. Distinguished Professorship. He recently joined the board of the Money Management International Educational Foundation, based in Houston.

The FCBT Board of Directors sets policy for the bank, which provides funding and services for the Tenth Farm Credit District. With a loan volume of $6.7 billion, the Tenth District consists of 22 local lending cooperatives that finance farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, and rural landowners and homeowners in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas.

Cortese joined the six-member bank board in 1995 and was elected vice chairman in 1998. Prior to joining the board, he was chairman of the Production Credit Association (PCA) of Eastern New Mexico and a member of the Tenth Farm Credit District PCA Stockholders' Advisory Committee. He currently serves on the American Land Foundation Board of Directors.

Garnett produces wheat, alfalfa and forage crops, feeds stocker cattle, and operates a custom haying and baling business. He joined the bank board in 1999 after serving as a director of Panhandle-Plains Federal Land Bank Association for 23 years, including four years as chairman. In 2003, he joined The Farm Credit Council Board of Directors as a representative of the Tenth Farm Credit District and was appointed to the USDA Texas State Technical Committee.

Other members of the FCBT Board of Directors include Kenneth Andrews of Madisonville, Texas; Joe R. Crawford of Baileyton, Ala.; and Jimmy Dodson of Robstown, Texas.