MOULTRIE — Member-borrowers of AgGeorgia Farm Credit received patronage refund checks for 2008 in April, Area Manager Ray Hendrick announced Tuesday.

The patronage refund for borrowers of AgGeorgia Farm Credit will total nearly $17.1 million. Thirty percent, or $5.1 million, of the refund was paid in cash. The balance was placed in surplus accounts allocated in the names of individual member-borrowers to be revolved at the direction of the board at a later date.

“AgGeorgia Farm Credit had another successful year in 2008,” Frank Wright, chairman of the AgGeorgia Farm Credit board and farmer from Talking Rock, said, “and we are pleased to be able to share our success with our borrowers, to put our profits in their pockets. This is the 21st consecutive year we’ve paid a patronage refund. Since 1988, AgGeorgia Farm Credit has returned a total of $249 million cash to its member-borrowers through patronage refunds and surplus revolvements.”

“When we distribute our profits to our borrowers, it reduces their effective cost of borrowing,” William Newberry, AgGeorgia President, said, “and it proves that there are distinct financial benefits in doing business on a cooperative basis.”

AgGeorgia Farm Credit, a farmer-owned cooperative, makes long-term farm and country home loans, intermediate-term loans for machinery, equipment and buildings and short-term production loans. Other financial services available through AgGeorgia Farm Credit are credit life insurance, crop insurance, appraisal services and leasing programs.

On Dec. 31, AgGeorgia Farm Credit had approximately $1.1 billion of loans outstanding to more than 3,900 members. AgGeorgia Farm Credit has 20 branch offices and serves 79 counties in the state, including a Moultrie branch office located at 22 Fifth Ave. S.E.