5th C: Courage in Capital

5th C was founded by Zach Ducheneaux, a third-generation rancher from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and former Administrator of the USDA Farm Service Agency. From 2021 to 2025, Zach led FSA, where he oversaw one of the nation’s most important agricultural lending institutions and advanced reforms to federal lending and loan guarantee programs. His perspective on agricultural finance is also deeply personal: he has experienced the system from the producer side, growing up on his family’s ranch and seeing firsthand how the structure of capital can shape the choices available to farmers and ranchers.

5th C grew from a deceptively simple question: If we change the way farms are financed, can we change the way farms operate? Traditional agricultural finance is largely designed around the performance of the loan: annual repayment, collateral protection, risk mitigation, and the efficient return of capital. Those are important considerations, but the structure that protects a loan can also constrain the business behind it. When cash must leave the farm on a rigid schedule, producers may have less ability to build working capital, invest in infrastructure, withstand transition periods, or make decisions whose returns unfold over years rather than a single production cycle.

5th C tests a different approach to agricultural finance, one that measures success not only by whether capital is repaid, but by whether the producer and the farm become stronger over time. Through flexible, long-duration financing designed to increase Retained Producer Income, 5th C seeks to preserve more financial capacity within agricultural businesses so producers can reinvest, adapt, innovate, and pursue regenerative transitions on timelines that make sense for their operations. The goal is not simply to make different loans. It is to demonstrate whether a different design of capital can improve long-term farm viability and, ultimately, help reshape how agriculture is financed.