Exhibit 99





                                 FARMER MAC NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        CONTACT
January 9, 2006                                              Mary K. Waters
                                                             202-872-7700



                              Farmer Mac Announces
                    Offering of $500 Million of Agricultural
                   Mortgage-Backed Guaranteed Notes Due 2011

     Washington,  D.C. -- The Federal Agricultural  Mortgage Corporation (Farmer
Mac,  NYSE:  AGM and AGM.A),  announced  today the  offering of $500  million of
Guaranteed Notes by the newly-created  Farmer Mac Guaranteed Notes Trust 2006-1.
The Notes will be collateralized by an obligation of Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company  ("Metropolitan  Life")  that is,  in  turn,  collateralized  by  Farmer
Mac-eligible  agricultural  real  estate  mortgage  loans.  Farmer Mac fully and
unconditionally  guarantees  the timely payment of interest and principal on the
Notes.

     This  transaction is a product of Farmer Mac's ongoing  diversification  of
its marketing  focus to include large program  transactions  that emphasize high
asset quality,  with greater  protection  against adverse credit performance and
commensurately  lower  compensation  for  the  assumption  of  credit  risk  and
administrative costs, resulting in marginal returns on equity equal to or better
than its current net return on equity,  as  discussed  in Farmer Mac's Form 10-Q
for third quarter 2005.

     The Notes will be offered,  under Rule 144A of the  Securities Act of 1933,
only to U.S. and non-U.S.  qualified  institutional  buyers.  The Notes have not
been and will not be registered  under the  Securities  Act of 1933 or any state
securities  laws,  and may not be offered or sold in the United  States,  except
pursuant to an exemption from the  registration  requirements  of the Securities
Act of 1933 and applicable  state  securities  laws. This press release does not
constitute an offer to sell, or the  solicitation  of an offer to buy, nor shall
there  be any  sale of the  Notes  in any  jurisdiction  in  which  such  offer,
solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

     Farmer Mac is a  stockholder-owned  instrumentality  of the  United  States
chartered  by Congress to  establish a secondary  market for  agricultural  real
estate and rural housing mortgage loans and to facilitate capital market funding
for USDA-guaranteed farm program and rural development loans. Farmer Mac's Class
C non-voting  and Class A voting  common stocks are listed on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbols AGM and AGM.A,  respectively.  Additional information
about Farmer Mac is available on Farmer Mac's website at www.farmermac.com.

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