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For Immediate Release
November 2, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas – The Tenth Farm Credit District, a family of rural financing cooperatives, today reported double-digit growth in earnings and loan volume for the third quarter of 2006.

The Tenth District is composed of the Austin-based Farm Credit Bank of Texas (FCBT) and 20 affiliated lending co-ops, which finance rural real estate, country homes, agribusinesses and agriculture in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. Together, they form the largest rural lending network serving the five states.

District net income of $63.7 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2006, was up $6.4 million, or 11.2 percent, from the same quarter of 2005. Net income for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2006, totaled $178.9 million, a 9.5 percent increase from the same period in 2005.

Several factors fueled the earnings growth, including an increase in net interest income due primarily to loan growth, as well as an increase in noninterest income.

Gross loan volume at Sept. 30, 2006, totaled $11.9 billion. This is an increase of $1.7 billion, or 16.5 percent, since Dec. 31, 2005, and an increase of $2.2 billion, or 22.5 percent, since Sept. 30, 2005. At the same time, the credit quality of the Tenth District’s loan portfolio grew even stronger during the third quarter.

“The Tenth Farm Credit District is pleased to once again report another outstanding quarter,” FCBT Chief Executive Officer Larry Doyle said.

“Spectacular results like these don’t just happen, however, even in a strong rural real estate market like we have experienced this year. They are more the result of the focus and drive of association and bank staff, who are working harder and harder every day to capture a growing share of our market through competitive pricing and improved customer service,” he said.

District assets totaled $15.2 billion at Sept. 30, 2006, an increase of 14.9 percent from the $13.2 billion reported at Dec. 31, 2005. Members’ equity in the district lending cooperatives increased by 7.5 percent over the nine months to total $2.1 billion at Sept. 30, 2006.

“As a cooperatively owned lending institution, we are proud to report these favorable results. They underscore our concerted efforts to provide value to our customer-owners,” said Ralph W. “Buddy” Cortese, FCBT board chairman.

The Tenth Farm Credit District is part of the nationwide Farm Credit System, which is currently celebrating 90 years of financing agriculture and rural America.