Annual Report - CoBank

SupportingOur CustomersThe most remarkable strength of CoBank isits base of customers, every one of whichoperates in an industry that is vital to people.Our agribusiness customers deliver a meaningfulshare of the food products consumed everyday by people across the U.S. and, increasingly,around the world. Our power customersgenerate and distribute reliable, affordableelectricity to millions of rural homes andbusinesses. Our water customers provideclean water that rural communities depend onto survive and thrive. And our communicationscustomers offer voice, video and data servicesthat rural subscribers rely on every day. Equallyimportant are our affiliated Farm Creditassociations. As a group in 2012, these borrowerownedlending institutions will providedependable credit and financial services tomore than 70,000 farmers, ranchers and otherrural borrowers in 23 states around the country.A wonderful cross-section of these businessesis featured in the customer profiles thatfollow this letter. As you’ll see in the stories,our borrowers are also actively investing in thefuture, seeking to improve the value they deliverto their customers and other stakeholders.Examples include the Midwestern grain co-opopening a new 50,000-ton storage facility towarehouse fertilizer. Or the apple processingcooperative leveraging solar power to lower itsoperating costs. An electric cooperative in ruralVermont is using “smart grid” technology toreduce outage times and improve efficiency onbehalf of its subscribers. And Farm CreditCoBank’sfinancialperformancein 2011 wasremarkablystrong.BUILDING FORTOMORROW5