a kind of life skill that we try to teach them,” Wolke adds. The investment in education is a longer view of community banking, where customer relationships can bridge generations rather than quarters. UNDERSTANDING AGRICULTURAL BANKING CYCLES Agricultural lending requires a fundamentally different evaluation framework than standard commercial banking. Wolke describes an industry reality that larger institutions often struggle to accommodate.“It’s a boom-and-bust business, but if you’re familiar with the ups and downs as a financial institution, then it’s easier in terms of being able to provide that financial support where you can,” she says. The Kansas agricultural economy has faced significant headwinds recently. Farm finances and credit conditions continued weakening through the second quarter of 2025, with deterioration most pronounced in areas dependent on crop revenues. Farm debt at agricultural banks grew approximately 7 percent from the previous year as weak profit margins for key crops reduced working capital and increased loan demand.Against this backdrop, character-based lending becomes not just philosophy but practical risk management. “That’s how we’ve received some of our best customers,” Wolke explains. “Some of the bigger guys, no offense to them, but they can only look at the numbers, and they don’t have the ability to look at the character of the customers much. So, when there are downtimes, that is typically when they’re not getting great treatment. And so, if you can take on a customer during downtime, then when they have the boom, you are at the bank behind them.” The approach includes mortgage servicing, where Vintage Bank Kansas maintains control rather than selling loans to third parties. “On the home loans that we sell, we do them to the Federal Home Loan Bank, and we maintain the servicing of those loans,” Worrell says. “We want the customers, if they have an issue, they don’t have to call a one 800 number, they just call their local community banker, and we’ll 117 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 12 VINTAGE BANK KANSAS
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