Newsletter - Association Insider

The first edition of our new newsletter, the Association Insider, was mailed today!

Click here to read it online.

Articles include:

• Is Farming a Business or Lifestyle?
• Westlands Farm Survives Despite Irene's Wrath
• Did You Know...Yankee Offers Crop Insurance?
• Payroll Changes for 2012
• Financial Status
• Maple Pudding Cake Recipe
• FarmStart Initiative - Steven Gleason and Michelle O'Rourke

We hope you enjoy our new newsletter. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know.

Celebrating the Fruits of Local Agriculture

Each Christmas Yankee directors and employees celebrate the diversity of local agriculture with a selection of tasty food products from farmers in Yankee's territory. This year's selection included:

Sausage - from Lincoln Farm in Randolph, VT
Eggnog - from Hatchland Farm in North Haverhill, NH
Landaff Cheese - from Landaff Creamery in Landaff, NH
Maple Syrup - from Doton Farm in Barnard, VT
Fudge - from Dutton Berry Farm in Newfane, VT
Wine - from Shelburne Vineyard in Shelburne, VT
Yogurt - from Kingdom Creamery in Hardwick, VT
Cookies - from Chazy Orchards in Chazy, NY

Once again we extend our sincere appreciation to all farmers in Yankee's territory for the wonderful bounty from their farms.

David Lane and Donald Wells

David Lane has accepted the position of Senior Loan Officer in our St. Albans branch. Dave started on November 30th. He has prior lending experience as an agricultural loan officer with Vermont Agricultural Credit Corporation (a division of VEDA) and for the Vermont Community Loan Fund where he was the Director of Lending. Prior to working at VACC, David was Deputy Secretary for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and Executive Director of the Intervale Foundation. David and his wife Julie reside in South Hero where they own Crescent Bay Farm Bed and Breakfast. Dave is a graduate of the University of Vermont.

Donald Wells has joined Yankee as a Loan Officer, also in the St. Albans branch. Don was the General Manager and Controller for CDL, USA (a Canadian maple equipment company in St. Albans) and has experience in financial management and tax preparation having worked for Hub Transportation Insurance, IBM, Jacobs, Marchand, & Morrisette and KPMG, LLP. Don grew up in Sheldon and resides in Fairfield. Don is a graduate of Champlain College.

Both Dave and Don will also serve customers in Clinton County, New York, from our Chazy satellite office along with Tom St. Pierre and Chuck Custeau.

Producing Excellence

For Farm Credit's 95th anniversary celebration it is featuring the "strength, ingenuity and integrity of our nation's successful farmers and ranchers" by creating profiles for customers across the U.S. Yankee Farm Credit is proud to feature Jim and Jane Danyow of Ferrisburg, VT in this series of stories called "Producing Excellence."

Vanda Ripley

Yankee is pleased to have Vanda Ripley join our ranks as an accounting assistant working in the Williston office. Vanda is a graduate of the University of Vermont and comes to us by way of St. Michaels College where she was a payroll specialist. In addition to payroll, Vanda also has experience as a bookkeeper and a financial analyst. All of her experiences will help her handle the responsibilities of accounts payable, fixed assets and general ledger reconciliation, among many other duties.

Vanda currently lives in Underhill with her husband David and their son Parker. They also have a daughter, Emily, who lives in New Jersey. When not crunching numbers, Vanda enjoys being an amateur logger and reading her Kindle on the treadmill.

FarmStart - Corey and Ann Chapman

Yankee recently made its third FarmStart investment to Corey and Ann Chapman of Tunbridge, VT:

Corey, age 32, has worked on dairy farms all of his life. In addition he served in the military for 6 years (he returned from a year long deployment in Afghanistan last December) and he ran his own concrete business. Corey’s wife Ann is currently a stay at home mom and is expecting their fourth child in February. Corey also does some snow plowing which provides additional income during the winter months.

During the 10 years that he worked for a local dairy farmer, Corey decided that dairy farming was what he wanted to do with his life. After he returned from Afghanistan last year he began managing a herd with the hope to buy the animals down the road. The opportunity to purchase those animals presented itself this fall.

Corey purchased a 50 cow organic Holstein herd with annual production of over 22,000 lbs/cow. He will rent the facilities and will have access to 60 acres of pasture land. Along with conventional financing, Corey applied for an investment through FarmStart to help fund the purchase of the herd.

Yankee's FarmStart Advisor for the Chapmans is Morgan Greenwood Rilling, a loan officer in the White River Jct. office. Morgan says: "The Chapmans are the type of people that the FarmStart program was designed for and their eagerness and drive makes me look forward to being their advisor. They were excited to be given the opportunity to have someone work with them on the financial aspects of their business and felt that they could benefit greatly from a relationship with FarmStart."

ACORN Meeting

Yankee Director Paul Saenger and Senior Vice President Ken Button attended a day meeting held at the American Legion in Middlebury on November 10, 2011. The topic was “Financing the Working Landscape”. It was organized by the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN), the Addison County Economic Development Corporation (ACEDC) and the Addison County Regional Planning Commission. Follow this link to a news report by the Addison Independent, it gives an excellent overview of the conference.

Promotion - Jean Conklin

I am pleased to announce that Jean Conklin in our White River Jct. office has been promoted to Senior Loan Officer. This promotion recognizes the key role that Jean fills in our White River Jct. office in terms of providing both credit and financial services to customers.

Jean started work for Yankee Farm Credit in 2004. Previously she worked for 16 years for UNH Cooperative Extension as a dairy specialist. Jean is a Farm Credit Tax Specialist and Payroll Tax Specialist, as well as an IRS Enrolled Agent. She represents the Farm Credit System on the board of directors of the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge. She holds a bachelors degree in animal science from the University of New Hampshire, a masters degree in dairy management from Virginia Tech, and a masters degree in business administration from Plymouth State University. Miles, her husband, and Jean operate a family dairy farm in Haverhill, NH. Jean also serves on the board of directors of Co-operative Insurance Companies of Middlebury, VT, a position she has held since 2001.

Congratulations, Jean!

Director Nominations

It's that time of year again when Yankee's Nominating Committee begins selecting director candidates for the elections in April 2012. There will be three elections, one director in each of the three regions. Each position is for a three year term. If you would like to be considered for nomination, please contact a member of the Nominating Committee at the numbers below or call your local branch.

Region #1 (Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle counties, Vt.; Essex and Clinton counties, N.Y.)
Arnold Mercy 802-326-4200
Wynn Paradee 802-524-4202
Mark Wrisley 518-963-4039

Region #2 (Caledonia, Essex, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Washington counties in Vt.; Coos and Grafton counties, N.H.)
Richard Hall 802-229-6342
Richard Martin 802-328-4120
Patrick Waterbury 802-785-4753

Region #3 (Addison, Bennington, Rutland, Windham, Windsor counties, Vt.; Cheshire and Sullivan counties, N.H.)
David Ainsworth 802-763-8017
Bruce Bascom 603-835-6361
Kim Harvey 802-483-6130

If you have any questions about the purpose or the procedures of the Nominating Committee, please contact John Peters, VP Operations at 800-639-3053.

You can find general information about the director nomination process and the role of directors on the Farm Credit Administration's web site.

Nicholas Bullock

Nick Bullock was recently hired as a Financial Services Representative in the White River Jct. office. He comes to Yankee with 10 years of extensive experience in income tax preparation and record keeping. His education includes a BA degree in Business from Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA.

Nick has spent some time in the UK including a semester at Oxford University (Westminster College). In his spare time Nick likes outdoors activities such as hunting and fishing and enjoys community involvement.

Sharon Perry

Sharon Perry started work as a Financial Services Assistant for the Association full time on October 5^th 2011. Prior to that she had worked part time in the appraisal department since July 2010. Sharon will be working out of the Chazy office in the tax and records program as well as continuing to assist with appraisals. Her past experience with bookkeeping will serve her well in her new role.

Sharon has two girls, Sierra and Tiffany and lives with husband Roy in Churubusco, NY. Outside of work she is an accomplished woodworker and enjoys a variety of arts and crafts.

FarmStart - Brandon Bucossi

Yankee recently made its second FarmStart investment to Brandon Bucossi of Randolph, VT:

(Photo from The Herald of Randolph, July 21, 2011 issue.)

Brandon, age 21, runs Cer-Krit Jerseys, a 60 cow dairy farm. He grew up in southern Vermont and was not involved in agriculture until he was a young teenager when he began helping a neighbor with haying and eventually took an interest in raising beef animals.

After high school he chose to go to Vermont Technical College to study Dairy Herd Management and graduated with his associate’s degree in 2009. After a year of working for other farmers, Brandon decided in May of 2010 to start farming on his own. He purchased 60 cows and found a farm in Randolph to rent. After a year of high culling he was faced with heading into the fall with lower cow numbers, making his operation less efficient. For this reason he turned to FarmStart and applied for an investment to purchase replacements.

Brandon is the type of business owner that FarmStart was designed for: skilled, young entrepreneurs that show promise of success. We look forward to working with Brandon in helping his business succeed so that he may have a strong future in Vermont’s dairy industry.

Brandon's FarmStart Advisor is Morgan Greenwood Rilling, a loan officer in the White River Jct. office.

FarmStart - Gleason/O'Rourke

Steven Gleason and his partner Michelle O’Rourke were Yankee Farm Credit’s first FarmStart investment.

In May Steven and Michelle started Gleason's Custom Spreading and Hauling in Derby, VT. With the help from a FarmStart investment they were able to purchase a truck with a sliding manure tank spreader, a forage box, and ag flotation tires.

Steven, age 23, has spent his life working around agriculture. He grew up on his parent’s organic dairy farm and still helps out whenever he can. He has spent the last several years working for a custom hire operation and a local maple sugaring operation. His hands-on experience makes him a great investment for the FarmStart program.

Steven runs the day-to-day activities of the business. Michelle assists him with managing his accounts, as well as working part-time and caring for their young son.

The FarmStart Advisor for Steven and Michelle is Kelly Richardson, a loan officer in the Newport office. In addition to being a financial advisor, Kelly helped Steven and Michelle consider an appropriate business structure for their enterprise.

Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund

The Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund was created by the Vermont Community Foundation (news release) and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture (news release) to help farmers affected by Tropical Storm Irene. Thanks to generous donors there is currently over $1 million available. Quick grants of up to $10,000 are available immediately. The deadline for applications is Friday, September 30. Applications are available here.

Vermont Ag Hall of Fame

Four individuals were inducted into the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame on August 31st at the Champlain Valley Exposition:

Robert E. Graf (deceased)
Frederick H. Webster
Ed Eurich (deceased)
Kenley Squier

Congratulations to the 2011 inductees to the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame!

(Click on image to enlarge.)

This was the 9th induction ceremony. Here is the program from the ceremony, which lists all of the past winners:

Cassie Osgood - Farm Credit Fellow

Cassie Osgood of New Haven, VT was in the St. Albans office the week of August 15-19 for her one week internship for the Farm Credit Fellows program. She has completed two years at Vermont Tech and is currently in her second year at UVM as part of the FARMS 2+2 program. She has been very active in 4-H and showing cattle for her family on Four Hills Farm.

Orleans County Fair

The 144th Orleans County Fair was held this month from Wednesday the 17th through Sunday the 21st at the fairgrounds in Barton, VT. This year featured the new world record setting of the largest Cadillac parade at 298 cars, the new Farm-to-Plate restaurant called The Farmers Table, fresh cheese curds made daily at the one-of-a-kind Dairy on the Moove traveling cheese plant, and many more exciting activities.

Yankee was represented at the fair by staff and recognized for its financial support via dairy show premiums, and the Dairy on the Moove project. Loren Petzoldt, Randy Smith, Clara Hall, and Kelly Richardson all made the time to stop in.

Clara was there to assist her family, Fairmont Farm and Dairy, as well as the East Montpelier Udderly Crazy 4-H Club. Pictured is Clara with her sister Isabel.

Kelly Richardson is a director for the Orleans County Fair.

Yankee Directors in the News

Two magazines have recently mentioned several Yankee directors.

Steve Taylor and his family were featured in the Spring 2011 edition of UNH Magazine Online. Steve graduated from UNH in 1962. All of us here at Yankee extend sincere condolences to Steve and his family on the recent death of Steve's wife, Gretchen—also a 1962 UNH graduate, shortly after the publication of that article.

The newest Yankee director, Paul Franklin, is also mentioned in the article about Steve Taylor.

Yankee Chairperson Paul Gingue and his family were featured in the Spring 2011 edition of Vermont Fences, published by Vermont Farm Bureau. (Not available online.) The article is about how the Gingue family farming operation expanded to accommodate four sons.

The same issue of Vermont Fences includes an article about former Yankee director Rupert Chamberlin and his wife Muriel. Rupert and Muriel recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Rupert is a past president of Vermont Farm Bureau. The current president of Vermont Farm Bureau, Clark Hinsdale III, is also a former Yankee director.

NEASDA Meeting at Jay Peak

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) assists the 50 state departments of agriculture with development, implementation and communication of sound public policy. NASDA was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

NASDA is divided into four regions. The northeast region, known as NEASDA (NE=northeast), includes ten states: the six New England states, NY, NJ, PA and DE. Each summer NEASDA holds a meeting in one of those ten states. This year's NEASDA meeting is at Jay Peak on June 5-7 (info). Yankee and Farm Credit East are sponsors of this meeting.

The events on the first day of the meeting included the presentation of a donation to Keep Local Farms from Ski Vermont:

Left to right: Parker Riehle, President of Ski Vermont; Jane Clifford, representing Keep Local Farms; and Diane Bothfeld, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture for Vermont.

Jay Peak is presently undergoing a major expansion, including new lodges, golf course and clubhouse, indoor ice arena, and covered water park. Parts of the expansion are now complete. The rest is under construction and will be completed over the next nine months or so. Below is a photo from the tram of the newest lodge under construction. The waterpark is to the right.

New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association

The New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA) was formed as a result of cooperation between woodland owners and the state and federal governments and originally worked primarily in forest fire control. Today, NHTOA is a statewide trade association including landowners, foresters, loggers, truckers, mill owners, manufacturers, and others in the industry.

On May 20-22, 2011 NHTOA held their 100th annual meeting and centennial celebration. The event was held at the Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield, New Hampshire. There were field trips featuring old and modern forestry equipment and demonstrating silviculture objectives.



Yankee Farm Credit, ACA was proud to be a sponsor of this event. Christopher Bessette, Senior Loan Officer, from White River Junction and Ken Button, Senior Vice President, from Middlebury represented Yankee Farm Credit. They are pictured to the right on their way to various equipment demonstrations.

AgEnhancement Grants

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program recently awarded grants totaling $26,550 to 10 organizations. The grants help promote northeast agriculture. The recipients were:

Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water Conservation District - $500 to support development of a new program in Maine focused on reducing farm energy costs while improving farm productivity and profitability.

Concord Grape Belt Heritage Association - $5,000 to complete exhibits for the Grape Discovery Center, a major visitor attraction which will support the Eastern Lake Erie Grape Industry. The Center will tell the story of grape growing in the region for over 150 years.

Maine TREE Foundation - $5,000 to support the Teachers’ Tours of the Maine Forest program. This program provides teachers with a first-hand experience to share with students, colleagues and their community.

New Hampshire Farm to Restaurant Connection - $500 to support their efforts to establish a certification program to ensure that restaurants advertising they serve local products are, in fact, using significant amounts of local farm products.

New York FFA Foundation - $11,550 to support a four day leadership development program for FFA officers from seven states (New England states and New York). (This is approved as 7 state requests for $1,650 per state.)

New York Pork Producers Empire Swine Youth Program - $1,000 for a youth program and contest held at the New York State fair. This multi-faceted program involves contests on the knowledge of the swine industry, management capabilities and interviewing skills.

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Connecticut - $500 to support a New Farmer Summit that will allow information sharing on local food production opportunities.

Orleans County, NY Cooperative Extension - $500 to support the Western New York educational event to promote the capine industry (Goat-A-Palooza). The event includes workshops for youth and adults.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension - $1,000 to support the New Jersey 4-H Equine Science programs which use a “Learn by Doing” approach to educate youth about all types of agriculture.

Walton Regional Livestock Show - $1,000 to support a regional livestock show to encourage and promote the breeding, raising and marketing of better livestock and farm products.

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program is a shared effort of Farm Credit East, Yankee Farm Credit, Farm Credit of Maine and CoBank. Grants are awarded in April, August and December each year. Since its inception in 1996 the program has awarded 457 grants totaling $1.2 million.

NH 4-H Golf Tournament

The 8th Annual Tom Fairchild Friend of NH 4-H Golf Tournament was held on May 20th at Candia Woods Golf Links in Candia, NH. Approximately 100 people participated, and the event raised about $21,000 for NH 4-H.

Yankee Farm Credit was a Bronze Sponsor. Below are Wendy Brock and Tom St. Pierre. Wendy is the Program Leader for 4-H Youth Development with UNH Cooperative Extension. Tom is a Yankee Farm Credit loan officer in our St. Albans office.

Lisa Gravel, Dena Verdin, Kyle Lussier and Tom St. Pierre represented Yankee this year:

Cameron Clark - Farm Credit Fellow

Cameron Clark of Williston, VT was in the Newport office this past week as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program. Cameron is the 8th generation on the family farm. She has completed two years at Vermont Tech and just finished her first year at UVM as part of the FARMS 2+2 program. Next spring she will graduate with her bachelor’s degree in Animal Science. For the last four years she has boarded heifers for a nearby dairy and continued to crop or rent out the crop land. After graduation she plans to start the dairy farm back up as an organic dairy and begin utilizing the sugarbush on the farm. Best wishes to Cameron from the Newport office and congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Katie Bliss - Farm Credit Fellow

Katie Bliss- of Bliss, NY was in the Middlebury office the week of May 16-20 for her one week internship for the Farm Credit Fellow program. Katie is an agricultural science major with a concentration in business at Cornell University and will graduate in May 2012 with a BA of Science. Her family runs a dairy replacement operation. After graduating Katie wants to pursue a career in ag finance.

Ricky Hall - Farm Credit Fellow

Written by Ricky Hall...

I am going into my senior year at Cornell University, majoring in Dairy Management. I am from an 1100 cow Holstein farm in East Montpelier, Vermont. I look forward to the Farm Credit Fellows program to get a better understanding of agricultural finance overall, but more specifically how Farm Credit works and understanding the basis for agricultural lending. I plan on pursuing a career in dairy production. I will be doing an internship on a 700 cow dairy in northern New York this summer to get a feel for managing a farm and everything it entails.

Farm Credit Fellows

The Farm Credit Fellows program is once again getting students involved in Farm Credit and learning about ag lending by putting them out in offices throughout New York and New England. This week there are three students in Yankee territory alone. Another will come later in the summer.

The one-week internship program has 28 students this year from the University of Vermont, the University of Maine, and Cornell University. While visiting a Farm Credit office students are learning about the relationship between lenders and members, understanding financials, and how understanding the numbers can help you run a better business.

The students from the University of Vermont are pictured below at their spring trip to Farm Credit East in Enfield, CT.


The four Fellows that will be visiting Yankee Farm Credit are:
Cameron Clark - Newport, May 16-20
Katie Bliss - Middlebury, May 16-20
Ricky Hall - White River Junction, May 16-20
Cassie Osgood - St. Albans, August 15-19

For more info on the Farm Credit Fellows program contact Kelly Richardson in the Newport office.

Greg LeDuc

I am pleased to announce that Greg LeDuc has joined our staff as Chief Financial Officer. Greg came to Yankee from 13 years at Vermont Teddy Bear Company where he was most recently their Vice President, Finance. Greg lives in Colchester and will be working out of our Williston office. If you have the opportunity - stop by and say "hi" to Greg!

FarmStart - the first 5 years

Farm Credit East recently published an informative booklet about the first five years of the FarmStart program: Celebrating Five Years.

Yankee Farm Credit joined FarmStart earlier this year, just as the program was beginning its 6th year. So there are no stories in Celebrating Five Years about FarmStart investments in Yankee's territory. But we are working on potential FarmStart investments in our territory. As we make FarmStart investments in our territory, look for blog posts here.

10th Annual Flavors of the Valley

Jean Conklin, Loan Officer, and Desi Gauthier, Office Assistant, attended the 10th Annual Flavors of the Valley was held on Sunday, April 17th at Hartford High School. Billed as the premier expo for locally grown food in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, this event, organized by Vital Communities featured over 50 vendors. The Co-Op Food Stores of Hanover and Lebanon, NH and White River Junction, VT were the site sponsor. The event was attended by over 1,300 people and provided the opportunity to meet local farmers and chefs, buy local food, as well as sample tasty tidbits.

Vendors included: Blue Ox Farm, Bountiful Backyards Bees, Bunten Farmhouse Kitchen, Canoe Club, Cedar Circle Farm and Educational Center, Cedar Mountain Farm, Cobb Hill Cheese, Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt, Country Critters, D Acres of New Hampshire, Delicata Catering, Edgewater Farm, Edible White Mountain, Flora Fauna Farm, Gizmo’s Pickled Plus, Green Mountain Flour, Harmony Farm, Hogwash Farm, Home Hill Country Inn and Restaurant, Hulbert Outdoor Center, Idlewood, The Restaurant/Marceau’s Fine Foods, Juniper Hill Inn, Killdeer Farm, King Arthur Flour, Lyme Inn, Murphy’s, NH Cheesemaker’s Guild, NH Dept. of Agriculture, NOFA-VT, Norwich Inn, Oak Knoll Dairy, Parmelee Farm, Piermont Plant Pantry, Red Kite Candy Company, Rocky Top Beefalo and Swine Farm, Spring Ledge Farm, Sugarbush Farm, Taylor Brothers Farm, The Song Garden, Thompson Goat Farm, Transition Town, Upper Valley Farm to School Network, Upper Valley Land Trust, Valley Food & Farm, Vermont Chocolatiers, Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company, Vermont Smoke and Cure, Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery and Walpole Creamery.

10th Anniversary Dairy Challenge

An innovative dairy educational program celebrated its 10th anniversary March 31-April 2 in Hickory, NC with 127 students from 30 colleges participating. Over 10 years, North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge (NAIDC) has helped prepare over 3,000 students for careers in the dairy industry. Farm Credit is a 5 star platinum sponsor of this event which hosts 4 regional and 1 national contest each year. The program is fully funded through the generous support of companies and producer associations serving the dairy industry, as well as a growing number of alumni and individual dairy farm owners.

Yankee's territory was well represented with 13 students on 4 teams representing UNH, UVM and Cornell as well as a member on an aggregate team formed to fill the 32 available team slots. Cornell received a Platinum Award and was represented by Jason McNamara(NH), Corey Kayhart(VT) Matthew Bull(NY) and Samuel Fessenden(NY). Both UNH and UVM received Gold Awards and were represented by Trevor Beaudry, Bridget O'Donnell, Nicol Antaya, and Nicole Guindon from UNH and Rayan Carabeau, Dallas Barabeau, Ashley Beaudoin, Nicholas Manning and Cassie Osgood from UVM.

Pictured above from Vermont are: Cassie Osgood, Wanda Emerich, Coach, Ashley Beaudon, Nicholas Manning, Ryan Carabeau

Pictured at left from Cornell are: Matthew Bull, Michael Van Amburgh, Corey Kayhart, Samuel Fessenden, Jason McNamara

Pictured at left are:

Bridget O’Donnell, Nicole Guindon, Nicole Antaya, Trevor Beaudry, Peter Erickson, Coach

2011 Northeast Youth Show Calf Summit

The 2011 Northeast Youth Show Calf Summit was held on April 1st and 2nd at Cowtown Holsteins in Derby, Vermont. The Calf Summit is open to all youth in the northeast that are interested in showing dairy cattle of any breed. In this fourth year of the Summit the approximately 150 participants attended clinics and workshops to learn more about showing and the dairy industry from some of the biggest names in the show world. Yankee Farm Credit was a sponsor of the Summit this year and Kelly Richardson from the Newport office attended the event to lend a hand. Isabel Hall of Fairmont Farm in East Montpelier was an eager participant this year. She was kind enough to model her new t-shirt received at registration that shows the sponsors of this years event. Please click here for more information about the event.

Director Election Results

The last of four annual meetings was held last night in St. Albans, VT. Members completed voting for directors, ballots were counted, and the results were announced before the meeting was adjourned. Elected to three year terms on the board of directors were:

Region 1 – Celeste Kane-Stebbins
Region 2 – Walter Gladstone
Region 3 – Paul Franklin

Congratulations to Celeste, Walt and Paul. And thanks to CJ Manchester and Paul Harlow for participating in the elections as candidates. There were 159 ballots cast this year, which was 14% of eligible voters.

Thank you to everyone for participating, and a special thanks to employees for organizing and running successful meetings.

For comparison, voter participation in recent years was:

2010 - 164 ballots (15%)
2009 - 180 ballots (17%)
2008 - 151 ballots (15%)

Food from the Farm: Eating Local in Clinton County

We are fortunate here in the Northeast to have an abundance of agriculture, and hence, a wide variety of local foods. On Saturday, March 19, nearly 200 people gathered in Plattsburgh to enjoy a delicious meal prepared with local foods from Northern NY’s Clinton and Essex Counties. The event, “Food from the Farm: Eating Local in Clinton County,” was put on by Cornell Cooperative Extension in conjunction with Adirondack Harvest.

Local chef and owner of The Great Adirondack Soup Company, Chris Dominianni prepared a meal that featured local meat, produce, fruit preserves, and maple syrup. Participating producers included: The Bakery at Conroy’s Organics in West Chazy; Campbell’s Greenhouses in Saranac; Caton Acres Farm in Saranac; Everett Orchards in Peru; Fledging Crow Vegetables in Keeseville; Gonyo’s Sweet Corn & Vegetables in West Chazy; Hid-In-Pines Vineyard in Morrisonville; Jubert-Castine Farms in West Chazy; Northern Orchard in Peru; Parker Family Maple Farm in West Chazy; Quarry Garden Vegetable & Art Farm in Chazy; Rehoboth Homestead in Peru; Rulf’s Orchard in Peru; Saranac Valley Farms in Saranac; Shields Vegetables in Plattsburgh; Suprenant’s Berry Farm in Mooers; and Underwood Herbs in Plattsburgh.

The event provided a unique opportunity to meet the producers and get a deeper appreciation of our local farmers and enjoy a delightful meal.

Vermont Dairy Producers' Conference

The Vermont Dairy Producers’ Conference was held on February 24, 2011 at the Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center in South Burlington. There were 40 vendors and 230 registered attendees. Tony Kitsos from UVM Extension made the opening remarks and led the conference. Yankee Farm Credit Employees Mike Farmer, Kelly Richardson, Tom St. Pierre and Clara Hall were present at the conference. To read more about the conference please click here.

Paul Doton

The Board of Directors celebrated Paul Doton's service to Yankee Farm Credit at its meeting on March 25. Paul has been a director since 1998. He served as board chairperson 2007-2009. He will leave the board next month due to term limits.

Below are the board and CEO at the March board meeting:

Left to right: Rocki-Lee DeWitt, President and CEO George Putnam, Alan Bourbeau, Paul Saenger, Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Walt Gladstone, Chairperson Paul Gingue, Bryan Davis, Paul Doton, Vice Chairperson Rocky Giroux, Charlie Sniffen. Missing: Steve Taylor.

Paul, thank you for your leadership, guidance and wisdom over the years! Best wishes to you and Sherry.

Facebook

Yankee now has a presence on Facebook! Check it out.

2010 Annual Report

Our 2010 Annual Report is now available on our website. Thanks to all our members, employees and directors who help Yankee continue to be a successful Association. Special thanks go out to the Maxwell Family from Coventry for letting us share part of their history on our cover.

Dairy Challenge Training

On March 2nd Mike Farmer concluded a two day training session for the Northeast Dairy Challenge at Miner Institute. Yankee has sponsored and provided training for the Dairy Challenge program for 6 years. This years students include Cassie Osgood, Ashley Beaudoin, Dallas Carabeau, Ryan Carabeau, Nicholas Manning, John Franklin, and Cameron Clark. All 7 students are enrolled in the FARMS 2+2 Program at VTC and UVM and spend one semester at Miner Institute.


This year North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge will be held March 31 to April 2 and hosted by North Carolina State University & Virginia Tech. It will be held in Hickory, NC. Please check out the website at http://www.dairychallenge.org/ for the history and purpose of the Dairy Challenge.

What Ceres Might Say

Roger Allbee has a new blog, What Ceres Might Say, where he will write about Vermont's rich agricultural history. Roger was Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture from January 2007 to January 2011.

Roger is familiar to readers of this blog. In fact he was responsible for the start of this blog. The initial purpose of this blog was to document my trip to China in October 2007 as part of an agricultural delegation from Vermont led by Roger.

Ceres was the Roman goddess of agriculture, and there is a statue of her atop the golden dome of the Statehouse in Montpelier. I included the above photo with my column in the Summer 2007 issue of Financial Partner magazine: Ceres watches over an ever-changing landscape (5 MB PDF file, see p. 2).

Roger, welcome to blogging! I look forward to reading your posts about the history of Vermont agriculture.

We have joined FarmStart!

Finally, after years of bureaucratic delays, we have joined FarmStart! We started this process in 2008. The Farm Credit Adminstration approved the request for Yankee Farm Credit to join FarmStart on January 28, 2011, with conditions. We have complied with those conditions and made our first payment to FarmStart: today we wired $200,000. Our board has approved an investment of up to $500,000. Additional funds will be called for as needed from the three partners. FarmStart, LLP is owned by Farm Credit East (45%), CoBank (45%) and Yankee Farm Credit (10%).

Dairy Farmer Appreciation Day at Jay Peak

A good time was had by all at the Jay Peak Resort in Jay, Vermont on Friday, January 28, 2011. Once again Jay Peak Resort hosted Farmer Appreciation Day also known as Farmer Ski Day. The weather was perfect – the snow conditions ideal and before the day was over 300 plus farmers and families enjoyed a day of skiing and snowboarding. This was the 23rd year in a row that Jay has hosted this popular event. Rob Guay, Appraiser Trainee from the Chazy office; and Ken Buzzell, Senior Vice President of the Newport office, attended the event for Yankee and donated a few door prizes.
At left are: Dan Laggis, John Laggis and Ted Foster from Laggis Brothers Farm in Hardwick, Vermont and Ken Buzzell preparing to ride the lift to the top.

Each Vermont dairy farm has the opportunity to take advantage of discounted rental equipment, free lessons and up to three complimentary lift passes. An après-ski party is held following the day on the slopes and fun events are held throughout the day. If you missed it this year, mark you calendars for next January! It is a great chance to enjoy what the Vermont winter has to offer. For more information please check out the Jay Peak website.

2011 Vermont Farm Show

The 2011 Vermont Farm Show was held January 25 - 27, 2011 at the Barre Civic Center in Barre, VT. Many thanks to the employees who represented Yankee over the three day event: Loren Petzoldt, Kendra Burroughs, Chris Bessette, Ken Nelson, Jean Conklin, Kyle Lussier, Tom St. Pierre, Chuck Custeau, Clara Hall, Ken Button, Jeff Temple, Ken Buzzell and Kelly Richardson. Yankee was one of 140 exhibitors present this year.

Ken Buzzell and Jeff Temple are pictured in Yankee’s booth with their “best of show” ribbon!

There were many annual banquets and meetings around the area during the Farm Show. Some of the organizations that held meetings were: the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association, the Vermont Christmas Tree Association, Vermont Beekeepers Association, Vermont Organic Farmers, Vermont Maple Sugarmaker’s Association, Vermont FFA, LFO Farmers and the Vermont Dairy Industry Association. Yankee congratulates the winners in the various categories from the Dairy banquet on January 27, 2010.

The 2010 Vermont Dairy Farmer of the year is the Swanton Family, Longway Farms, please click here for more details.

The John C. Finley Award went to Enid Wonnacott, NOFA. This award is presented annually for distinguished service to Vermont agriculture. John C. Finley was the Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture and a great advocate for agriculture in Vermont.

Milk Quality Awards:
- Overall Dairy Winner: Meyer Farm, Hardwick
- Best Somatic Cell Count: Meyer Farm
- Best Raw Count: Richardson Farm, Hartland
- Best Pasteurized Count: Richardson Farm
- Best PI Count: Briggs Farm, Addison
- Best Flavor: Coarse Farm

Each year the Farm Show holds the “Political Pull”, this year the House won the competition once again. Check out this link for more on that story and a short clip from WCAX.

2011 Vermont Maple Conferences

The University of Vermont Extension, Addison County Maple Sugarmakers’ Association and Vermont Maple Sugarmakers’ Association held the annual Vermont Maple Conferences January 15 in Middlebury, January 22 in Hyde Park, and January 29 in Bellows Falls. Ken Button attended Middlebury, Tom St Pierre (pictured) and Rob Guay Hyde Park, and Ken Nelson and Kendra Burroughs Bellows Falls. Yankee employees had a display at each location. Attendance is very strong at these conferences with over 700 registrations.

Various topics on the agendas included marketing, forest management, maple pests, vacuum and tubing systems and more. A very informative session titled “state of the industry” was led by Gary Gaudet, President of Leader Evaporator.

Rob Guay also attended the Adirondack Maple School at Miner Institute on January 28. This educational conference was put on by the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Research on the effects of tap contamination were displayed as well as tips on value added products. This was well attended with approximately 30 producers from Clinton County. The Extension is doing one in each county in New York.

2010 Patronage Refund

The Board of Directors has approved a patronage refund for 2010 of $3,659,000, payable 100% in cash. The 2010 patronage refund is 1.00% of average member loan volume and 52% of net income.

In comparison, the 2009 patronage refund was $2,573,000. There are two reasons the size of the patronage refund increased by more than $1 million from 2009 to 2010. First, we increased the patronage refund rate from 0.80% in 2009 to 1.00% in 2010. Second, in 2009 and previous years we paid patronage refunds only on member loan volume held by the Association. Beginning in 2010 we are generally paying patronage refunds on all member loan volume originated by the Association. We made this change as part of our response to new accounting rules (FAS 166) that became effective in 2010.

Payment of the patronage refund is contingent upon satisfactory completion of the 2010 audit and the Association's receipt of its 2010 patronage refund from CoBank. Both conditions are expected to be satisfied in March, and payment of the 2010 patronage refund is tentatively scheduled for March 25, 2011.

Payment will be made via ACH for customers who were signed up for electronic funds transfer as of December 31, 2010. The plan for ACH customers is to mail the statement on Wednesday, March 23 and initiate the ACH transaction on Thursday, March 24. Most ACH customers should receive the funds in their bank account on Friday, March 25.

Introducing Randy Smith

I'm pleased to announce that Randy Smith has joined the Yankee staff as a credit analyst/tax specialist in our Newport office. Randy has worked part-time for Yankee since July 2009 as a farm tax assistant. In 2010 Randy passed the Farm Credit Tax Specialist exam, and he became a full-time employee on December 31st.

Previously Randy worked in various engineering jobs for Vermont Electric Cooperative and the Vermont Electric Division of Citizens Communications Company in Newport. He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

2011 Director Nominees

The Nominating Committee has nominated the following individuals for director:

Region 1:
Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Sheldon, VT

Region 2:
Walter Gladstone, Bradford, VT
CJ Manchester, Cambridge, VT

Region 3:
Paul Harlow, Westminster, VT
Paul Franklin, Plainfield, NH

One director from each region will be elected at the 2011 Annual Meeting which will be held in four sectional meetings April 4-12, 2011. Nominations from the floor are allowed, but may be made only at the first sectional meeting on April 4 in Middlebury. Voting members as of February 28, 2011 will be eligible to vote at Annual Meeting.

Directors serve for 3-year terms, and are subject to term limits of four 3-year terms. Both Ms. Stebbins and Mr. Gladstone are incumbents in their first term. There is no incumbent running in Region 3 this year because current director Paul Doton has reached his term limit. The next time after 2011 that there will be an "open" seat in each region due to term limits, and the current director who would reach their term limit at that time, is as follows:

Region 1 - 2015 - Rocky Giroux (if re-elected in 2012)
Region 2 - 2012 - Paul Gingue
Region 3 - 2019 - Paul Saenger (if re-elected in 2013 and 2016)

See this post for definitions of the regions and contact information for the Nominating Committee.

Promotions - Northern Region

I am pleased to announce two promotions in the Northern Region, which includes our St. Albans, Newport and Chazy offices.

Mike Farmer is being promoted to Senior Vice President/Regional Manager; he will remain the St. Albans office manager. Loren Petzoldt is being promoted to Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager in the Newport office. Both promotions will be effective 3/01/11, upon Ken Buzzell's retirement.

Mike has 21 years of experience with Farm Credit. He was hired as a loan officer in the White River Jct. office of the Connecticut Valley association in 1989. In 1998 Mike moved to the St. Albans office as a senior loan officer. He was promoted to assistant vice president in 2005 and vice president in 2008. Mike is a Farm Credit tax specialist and a certified general real estate appraiser in Vermont. He holds a degree in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Vermont.

Loren has 24 years of experience with Farm Credit. He worked for the Farm Credit Administration as an associate examiner for three years beginning in 1986. He was hired as a loan officer in the Newport office of the Connecticut Valley association in 1989. In 2004 Loren was promoted to senior loan officer, and in 2005 he began to split his time between the St. Albans and Newport offices. Loren is a Farm Credit tax specialist. He holds a degree in applied economics and business management from Cornell University.

Congratulations to Mike and Loren!

Please note we are posting a loan officer position in St. Albans. Details on our web site: Career Opportunities.

Steve Taylor Promotes Cabot Cheese

This YouTube video promoting Cabot Cheese features Yankee Director Steve Taylor:



What about Evelyn's Jack Cheese and Mill Hollow Cheese??

Farm to Plate

Yesterday the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund released the Executive Summary of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan: a 10-year strategic plan for Vermont's food system.

Ellen Kahler, executive director of the VSJF, made the presentation at a press conference in the statehouse in Montpelier. Also speaking were Governor Peter Shumlin, Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross, Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Miller, and numerous members of the legislature. All were enthusiastic about this initiative. House Agriculture Committee Chair Carolyn Partridge said to remember just four words: "Vermont agriculture means business."

Click here for more info
Download the Executive Summary (4 MB PDF file)

Yankee participation in the Farm to Plate initiative over the past 18 months has included:

- VP/Operations John Peters participated in a focus group on 11/18/09
- Records & Tax Specialist Lisa Gravel participated in a working session on 3/03/10
- Vice President Jeff Temple participated in the Statewide Food Summit on 4/10/10

Senior Vice President Ken Button has also participated. In 2009 Kit Perkins visited Ken in his office and spent a couple of hours learning about Farm Credit. Kit is the Farm to Plate project manager at VSJF.

New Payroll Tax Rates for 2011

These are important changes for every employer:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/newsroom/notice_1036.pdf

Tax Tip Newsletters

For the latest edition of our Tax Tip Newsletter please click here. You will find articles about the following:

1) Reminder - Federal Tax Deposit Coupons No Longer Available
2) Changes for 2010
3) Self Employes Health Insurance Premiums will Reduce SE Tax for 2010
4) Domestic Production Activities Deduction

If you missed our July issue - it featured the following:

1) HIRE Act and Agricultural Business
2) General Payroll Tax Overview
3) Recent Tax Law Change to Payroll Deposits May Affect You.

Liz Bayne - Appraiser

I am pleased to announce that Liz Bayne has earned the status of Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in Vermont.

The requirements to become a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser are daunting. They include 300 classroom hours in a rigorous training program developed by the Appraisal Qualifications Board, a board of The Appraisal Foundation, and administered by the individual states. Another requirement is 3,000 hours of supervised appraisal practice. The applicant must also pass a comprehensive final examination, in addition to tests in the various training sessions.

Liz completed her course work and passed the comprehensive exam last fall. This week she completed the final step in the process, which was the acceptance of her appraisal practice hours by the Vermont Board of Real Estate Appraisers.

Liz has advised Farm Credit customers on complex tax issues for more than 30 years. She is a Farm Credit Tax Specialist and an IRS Enrolled Agent. Her appraisal expertise together with her tax expertise present a unique combination that we hope will benefit Farm Credit customers for many years to come.

Special thanks to Vice President/Director-Appraisal Services Geoff Yates for mentoring Liz during her appraiser trainee period.

Congratulations, Liz, on this significant accomplishment!