The New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA) held a reception on March 5 at the offices of The Lyme Timber Company in Hanover, NH. The Lyme Timber Company and Yankee Farm Credit co-sponsored the reception. About 30 people attended, representing all aspects of the timber industry in NH. Making brief remarks were Peter Stein of The Lyme Timber Company, Ned Therrien, Jason Stock and me. Ned is president of the NHTOA, and Jason is the executive director. Bill Heath, Yankee's chief credit officer, also attended the reception.
The timber industry is important to Yankee, and we are pleased to support the NHTOA. Internally, when we talk about our industry concentration, we usually talk about net loan volume, because that represents the risk on our books that we need to think about. It may be more appropriate in this context to talk about gross loan volume, because that represents our presence in the market. (Click here for the definition of gross and net loan volume.)
Overall, dairy is our largest concentration, comprising 52% of gross loan volume at 12/31/07. Timber is #2 at 22%. (The corresponding net volume concentrations are 58% dairy and 14% timber.) In New Hampshire, however, timber is king, with 59% of gross loan volume--$46 million. Dairy is a distant #2 at 15%.
