Farm Credit Proud to Help Sponsor Rodeo Austin

AUSTIN, Texas – Saddle up, pull on your boots and ride on over to Rodeo Austin, also known as the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, which kicks off Friday, March 8, 2013, in Austin.

For the fifth consecutive year, Farm Credit is proud to support the fair and rodeo, which runs from Friday, March 8, through Saturday, March 23. The rural lending organization will sponsor the steer-wrestling event at all 15 performances of the rodeo.

Established in 1938, Rodeo Austin brings the country to the city and features livestock shows, agricultural exhibits, a first-class rodeo and nightly musical performances by popular entertainers. Other attractions will include a barbecue cook-off, pig races, a mutton bustin’ contest, a Wild West Show, and the always-popular carnival rides and petting zoo.

Farm Credit also sponsored the Cowboy Breakfast held March 1 in downtown Austin to kick off Rodeo Austin. For many years, Farm Credit Bank of Texas employees have risen early to serve coffee and cowboy grub to several thousand hungry visitors at the annual breakfast.

With a mission of promoting youth education and preserving Western heritage, Rodeo Austin presented $469,000 in college scholarships to 45 students in 2012. The nonprofit organization has awarded $5.5 million in college scholarships since it started a scholarship program in 1981.

Farm Credit Bank of Texas is a wholesale bank that provides funds and services to 17 rural lending cooperatives in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. Headquartered in Austin, the 96-year-old bank is part of the nationwide Farm Credit System, the oldest and largest source of rural financing in the United States.