Northwest Farm Credit Services, of Spokane, has posted 2010 net income of $150.1 million, up substantially from a down year in 2009, during which the federally chartered agricultural-lending cooperative reported $106.1 million in net income.

Tom Nakano, chief financial officer at Farm Credit, says the organization attributes nearly all of the $44 million year-to-year income increase to three major factors. First, he says, the lending co-op's net-interest income increased by $17 million. Also, it had a smaller loan-loss provision in 2010 than it did in 2009, which accounted for $16 million in additional income. Finally, it received a one-time, $10 million refund from the Farm Credit Insurance Corp.

In addition to its jump in net income, Farm Credit saw its net loans and total assets increase, albeit at more modest rates.

The cooperative reported $8.2 billion in net loans as of last Dec. 31, up 2.5 percent compared with $8 billion in net loans a year earlier. Its total assets inched up to $8.7 billion at the end of last year from $8.6 billion at year-end 2009.

This year, Nakano says, Farm Credit is projecting a 4 percent to 5 percent increase in loan activity. Compared with the years of double-digit increases in lending activity at Farm Credit during the 2000s, this year's growth pace will be slow, but better than that experienced in 2010.

"It will be a pretty good year, but not a home-run type of a year," he says.

Farm Credit has 45 branch offices in five states—Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Alaska. The cooperative is part of the 90-year-old Farm Credit System.