Jill Marshall - Farm Credit Fellow

Jill Marshall of Elba, NY visited the Newport office the week of December 10-14 as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program.  Jill is currently a senior at Cornell University in the Agricultural Science department.  She grew up on her family’s wholesale vegetable and dairy farm.  They milk 1,400 cows and have a couple thousand acres of vegetables.  Their three biggest crops are onions, cabbage and cucumbers. After graduation Jill is hoping to pursue an opportunity bridging the gap between produce farmers and retailers.  Her long range goal is to return to the family farm.

Financing the Working Landscape

Ken Button (senior vice president in our Middlebury office) attended the second annual “Financing the Working Landscape” conference held at the American Legion in Middlebury on 11/29/2012.  The conference was organized by Growing Community Together in Addison County (ACORN), Addison County Economic Development Corporation, and Addison County Regional Planning Commission. 

Ken represented Yankee Farm Credit on a “Capital Continuum Panel”.  Other organizations represented included People’s United Bank, Vermont Agricultural Credit Corporation, Farm Service Agency, Fresh Tracks Capital, and the Small Business Administration.  The keynote speaker was Paul Costello, executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development. 

A major announcement was made at this conference: the rollout of the “Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Initiative”.  The Working Lands Enterprise Board (WLEB) is solicting applications for nearly $1 million in grants appropriated by the legislature to support Vermont's rural economy.

Click here for more details of this conference.

Q3 Financial Results

Third quarter net income for Yankee Farm Credit was $1.9 million, an increase of $331 thousand over 2011. Net interest income increased 6.0 percent to $3.1 million, up from $2.9 million in 2011. The most significant factors driving the increase in net income are increases in loan volume, fees for financial services, and a decrease in the provision for credit losses.

For the first nine months of 2012, net income increased 19.0 percent to $6.4 million, up from $5.4 million a year ago. Net interest income increased 4.1 percent to $9.1 million. There was a provision for credit losses of $151 thousand through the third quarter of 2012, as compared to $317 thousand for the same period in 2011. Other income increased by $677 thousand, primarily due to $393 thousand in refunds from the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation (FCSIC).

Loans held by the Association at September 30, 2012 were $362.9 million, up 6.7 percent from year end. The loan portfolio continues to be concentrated in the dairy industry, with 55.3 percent of the loans invested in dairy businesses. The second largest concentration is timber, with 11.5 percent of the loan volume at quarter-end.

Credit quality across Yankee’s loan portfolio improved during the quarter and was well within the risk-bearing capacity of the Association. At quarter end 1.6 percent of the Association loans were classified as nonperforming, no change from at the end of 2011. There were no loan charge-offs or recoveries in the quarter. The Association’s permanent capital ratio at quarter-end was 20.4%, down 0.2% from the end of 2011.

Promotion - April Smith

I am pleased to announce that April Smith has been promoted from Office Assistant/Credit Analyst to Loan Officer in our White River Junction office. April began her career with Yankee in 1991 as an Office Assistant and has held a variety of credit support positions since that time.

Please join me in congratulating April!

We will soon be posting a credit analyst position in our White River Junction office.

Promotion - Geoffrey Yates

I am pleased to announce that Geoff Yates has been promoted to Senior Vice President/Director–Financial Services. Geoff has long served the Association as Vice President/Director–Appraisal Services and as Chief Appraiser. Last year he assumed additional responsibility for other financial services including crop insurance and the recordkeeping and tax preparation services. This promotion to Senior Vice President recognizes Geoff’s leadership and the Association’s commitment to financial services. He continues to be Chief Appraiser.

Geoff has worked for Farm Credit since 1980. He started at the South Burlington office of the Federal Land Bank Association (FLBA) and Production Credit Association (PCA) of South Burlington. His first position was Manager of Financially Related Services. For a number of years as part of that job, Geoff provided consulting services to farmers.

In the 1990s the financial services industry began to place a greater emphasis on appraisals. The requirements for appraisals were increased and Congress decreed that appraisals would be done by independent appraisers not loan officers. Geoff led the way for the Association to meet these new requirements. He built up the Association’s Appraisal Department and became a sought-after and respected resource on appraisal matters throughout the Northeast, both inside and outside Farm Credit.

Geoff hails from Great Britain and holds the equivalent of a Bachelors Degree in Farm Management from Seale Hayne Agricultural College in Devon, England. He also holds a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. Prior to Farm Credit he worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension as a Regional Farm Management Specialist based at Miner Institute. Geoff serves as a trustee of the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Chazy, New York.

Please join me in recognizing Geoff’s valuable and continuing contributions to the Association!

Promotion - Morgan Greenwood Rilling

I am pleased to announce that Morgan has accepted the new position at Yankee Farm Credit of Assistant to Chief Credit Officer. Morgan will play a key administrative role assisting SVP/Chief Credit Officer John Peters in the development and implementation of credit policies and procedures as well as credit staff training and development. She has also been appointed Assistant Secretary and will assist with director and shareholder meetings.

Morgan started with Yankee as a summer intern in the Williston office in 2004. She worked part-time in Williston while a college senior in 2004-2005. Following graduation from UVM she was hired full-time in the White River Jct. office as a Credit Analyst/FRS Assistant. She was promoted to Loan Officer in 2006. Morgan holds an Associates Degree from Vermont Technical College in Agribusiness Management and Technology and a Bachelors Degree from the University of Vermont in Agricultural and Resource Entrepreneurship.

Please join me in congratulating Morgan on her new position!

Newsletter - Association Insider

Check out our September issue of the Association Insider newsletter.

Topics include:

· Lessons about Sustainability
· LGM Dairy Gross Margin (income over feed) Insurance
· Financial Status as of June 30, 2012
· Tax Planning-Some Changes to Keep in Mind!
· Personnel News-lots of changes at Yankee!
· The Clock is Ticking on Gifting
· Does Leasing with Farm Credit Make Sense for Your Business?
· Did You Know...Yankee Will Help with Your Tuition for Extension Programs?
· FarmStart Initiative
· Zucchini Casserole Recipe

As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions, please drop us an e-mail or call Ruchel at 800-639-3053.

Adirondack Coast Wine, Cider & Food Festival

Yankee Farm Credit is proud to be a sponsor of the 2012 Adirondack Coast Wine, Cider and Food Festival (ACWCF) to be held on Saturday, October 6, 2012, from 2pm to 8pm at the Crete Civic Center in Plattsburgh, NY. 

The Adirondack Coast name is part of an effort to brand the region as a four season tourist destination.  The Adirondack Coast website provides information on events, activities, lodging, restaurants and more in the area.  The ACWCF is advertised on this page of their site.

The ACWCF will showcase local food and beverage producers in a farmer's market type atmosphere with the opportunity to sample and buy products made locally.  Attendees will be treated to live local music, a wine tasting demonstration and a home cider making demonstration in addition to the opportunity to interact with our local food producers and try their products.

Don't miss out!  The ACWCF will be held inside the Civic Center if it rains, but if mother nature cooperates, the event will be held outside the building to take advantage of our beautiful fall season.

There is also still time to sign up your business to be a vendor at the ACWCF.  A list of this year's vendors and information on how to sign up your business can be found here. 

See you there!

Association cars for sale

We have the following Association vehicles available for purchase:

Please contact Ruchel at 800-639-3053 or click here to send an e-mail.

Promotion - Alicia Marcy

I am pleased to announce that Alicia Marcy has been promoted from Office Assistant to Financial Services Assistant in our St. Albans office. When Alicia joined us in December 2008, she was working on an associate’s degree in accounting from Community College of Vermont. She earned that degree in June 2009 and she expects to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Champlain College in December. Alicia’s studies included courses in income taxation and she is currently taking internal Farm Credit tax training. She is looking forward to her new duties in our Financial Services Department.

We will soon be posting a position for an office assistant in our St. Albans office. Alicia’s transition to the Financial Services Department will be effective on or about November 1st to allow time to train her replacement.

Please join me in congratulating Alicia!

Stephen Gould - Farm Credit Fellow

Stephen Gould of Batavia, NY visited the Newport office the week of August 6-10 as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program.  Steve is going to be a senior at Cornell University this fall and is majoring in Animal Science with a concentration on dairy.  He received his two year degree from Alfred State and transferred to Cornell to finish his four year degree.  In addition to his week-long internship with Farm Credit, Steve did a full summer internship on a large dairy in central Michigan.  Steve’s family runs a 150-cow organic dairy in western New York.  After graduation he would like to return to the home farm.

Promotion - Suzanne Petig

I am pleased to announce that Suzanne Petig has been promoted from Credit Analyst to Loan Officer in our St. Albans office. Suzanne began her career with Yankee in 1988 as an Office Assistant and has held a variety of credit support positions since that time. She completed an associates degree in business administration from Trinity College in 1994. She has taken internal Farm Credit tax training, and has passed the Assistant Tax Specialist exams 1A and 1B.

Please join me in congratulating Suzanne!

We will soon be posting a credit analyst position in our St. Albans office.

Q2 Financial Results

Quarterly net income for Yankee was $2.5 million, an increase of $621 thousand over 2011. Net interest income increased 4.1 percent to $3.0 million, up from $2.9 million in 2011. The most significant factor driving the increase in net income is an increase of $484 thousand in other income as compared to 2011. The increase in other income resulted primary from $393 thousand in refunds from the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation (FCSIC).

For the first six months of 2012, net income increased 18.0 percent to $4.5 million, up from $3.8 million a year ago. Net interest income increased 3.1 percent to $6.0 million. There was a reversal of the provision for credit losses of $112 thousand through the second quarter of 2012, as compared to no provision for credit losses for the same period in 2011. Other income increased by $503 thousand, primarily due to the FCSIC refund of $393 thousand.

Loans held by the Association at June 30, 2012 were $351.6 million, up 3.4 percent from year end. The loan portfolio continues to be concentrated in the dairy industry, with 55.2 percent of the loans invested in dairy businesses. The second largest concentration is timber, with 12.0 percent of the loan volume at quarter end.

Credit quality across Yankee’s loan portfolio remained stable during the quarter and well within the risk-bearing capacity of the Association. At quarter end 1.7 percent of the Association loans were classified as nonperforming, up slightly from 1.6 percent at the end of 2011. There were no loan charge-offs or recoveries in the quarter. The Association’s permanent capital ratio at quarter end was 20.6%, unchanged from the end of 2011.

The 2011 patronage refund to members in the amount of $3.7 million was paid 100% in cash on March 23, 2012.

Promotion - John Peters

I am pleased to announce that John Peters will succeed Bill Heath as the Association’s Senior Vice President/Chief Credit Officer, effective 10/01/12. Bill’s last day in the office will be Friday, Sept. 28th. (This is one month later than previously announced.)

John has 39 years of experience with Farm Credit, having started in 1973 following graduation from UVM with a BS in plant and soil science. His initial position was fieldman in the South Burlington office of the Federal Land Bank Association (FLBA) and Production Credit Association (PCA) of South Burlington. John was branch manager of the Middlebury office from 1974 to 1986. From 1986 to 1993 he held a variety of positions in credit, financial services, appraisal and training, and also managed the St. Albans office for a time. John moved into appraisal full-time in 1993 and still maintains his license as a certified general real estate appraiser.

Shortly after Yankee Farm Credit was formed in 1995 John became our first Director of Quality Control, in charge of internal credit and collateral review (ICR) and internal audit. He also continued to do fee appraisal work for a time. In 2006 John became Vice President/Operations and Corporate Secretary. The Association hired out the ICR work 2006-2011, but John resumed this job in 2012.

Some northeast Farm Credit history: When John started with Farm Credit in 1973, the northeast training program for newly hired college graduates was called START; later that program evolved into the Career Development Program (CDP). There were eight people in the 1973 START class. John is the last remaining member of that class to be working full time for Farm Credit, but three other members of that class also had long careers with Farm Credit and only recently retired: Bill VanEe, appraiser for Farm Credit in western New York; Dick Baldwin, most recently employed by Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI) as director of training for northeast Farm Credit; and Bob Egerton, most recently employed by CoBank as eastern region president.

Please join me in thanking Bill for his service to Yankee (summary here) and in congratulating John on this promotion.

UPDATE 8/04/12: My bad! Dick Baldwin hasn't retired yet. FPI convinced him to put off retirement for a year.

Future of Food Forum

Washington Post Live hosted a Future of Food Forum in Burlington on July 27th, one of a series:

June 14 - Washington, DC
June 28 - Colorado
July 16 - Arizona
July 27 - Vermont

A forum is planned for Chicago on October 3rd.

The overall theme of these forums is: How do we feed the world's growing population? Washington Post Live came to Vermont because of all the interesting things going on in Vermont agriculture. They wanted to know what the rest of the country could learn from Vermont.

Pulitzer Prize winning editor Mary Jordan moderated two panel discussions at the Burlington Sheraton:

Panel I: Building a Resilient and Secure Food System
Chuck Ross, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture
Will Raap, Founder and Chairman of Gardener's Supply
Marie Audet, Owner of Blue Spruce Farm

Panel II: Preserving Local Farming and Increasing Sustainability
Rob Michalak, Global Director of Social Mission at Ben and Jerry's
Ellen Kahler, Executive Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
Katherine Sims, Founder and Executive Director of Green Mountain Farm to School

There certainly are many exciting things going on in Vermont agriculture. Here are just a few of the things these panelists have been doing:

• Will Raap founded not only Gardener's Supply but also the Intervale Center in Burlington.
• Among other innovations, Blue Spruce Farm generates electricity from methane produced from cow manure. They were the first farm to participate in the Cow Power program developed by Central Vermont Public Service. Earlier this year Blue Spruce Farm was one of three farms in the country honored with the Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
• Ben and Jerry's worked with the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery to develop the Caring Dairy program. Ben and Jerry's took the pilot program developed in Vermont (at the time it was called the Dairy Stewardship Alliance) and rolled it out worldwide as Caring Dairy.
• The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund is the lead organization behind the Farm to Plate program in Vermont.
• Green Mountain Farm to School works with 24 schools in northern Vermont to provide hands-on education about nutrition and agriculture with the goal of helping students acquire the knowledge and skills needed to make healthy food choices.

And there are many other new and interesting things going on in Vermont agriculture that were not represented on the panels, from cheese (cow, goat, sheep) to ice wine and cider to maple syrup to The Town That Food Saved to UVM's Food Systems Spire of Excellence and more. Will Raap had a great line that Vermont is essentially a compost pile of ideas about food systems! (At 25:50 in the main video.)

Washington Post Live hosts forums and conferences around the country on a variety of topics. All events are streamed live and archived online by the Washington Post. The Future of Food Forum in Vermont was sponsored by the New England Dairy and Food Council and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Yankee Farm Credit Director Bryan Davis and President George Putnam attended this event.

Newsletter - Association Insider

Check out our June issue of the Association Insider newsletter.
 
Topics include:

· Who is Yankee Farm Credit?
· Annual Meeting Results
· Duclos-Thompson Farm: Maintaining Vermont's Sheep Heritage
· There's Still Time to Submit an Application!
· Did You Know Yankee Has a New Certified Appraiser?
· Association Director News
· Financial Status as of 3/31/12
· FarmStart Initiative
· Easy Strawberry Pie Recipe

As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions, please drop us an e-mail or call Ruchel at 800-639-3053.

Join our Team!

We are looking for some folks to join the Yankee family and provide exceptional service to our customers.  Please check out the career opportunities on our website to read more about our open positions.  Currently we are looking for:

• Senior Vice President/Chief Credit Officer - location TBD
• Appraiser Trainee - Chazy, NY or St. Albans, VT
• Credit Analyst - White River Junction
• Financial Service Representative - White River Junction

We offer a full, progressive benefits package.  EO/AA Employer - M/F/D/V

UPDATE 8/04/12: The SVP/CCO position has been filled. Still looking for good people for the other positions!

Where to find local foods

Yankee has a variety of producers in our territory who are involved in direct to consumer retail sales. We thought it would be helpful to compile a list of resources. This list is not exhaustive and we welcome comments with links to other resources! Below are some resources to help you find local foods in Yankee's territory:

Vermont

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture maintains two lists:
Where to buy Vermont farm and food products
Regional directories of local food producers

Those lists are extensive. The only thing I didn't find at those links was a list of Vermont wineries.

UPDATE 8/21/12: DigInVT has an extensive list of agriculture and food experiences in Vermont. DigInVT is a project of the Vermont Agriculture and Culinary Tourism Council (VtACT).

New Hampshire

Click here for a variety of lists published by the NH Department of Agriculture including farm stands, farmers' markets, and much more.

Click here for information about where to eat in New Hampshire including "tasty NH itineraries."

New York

The Farm Fresh Guide is a searchable database maintained by the NY Department of Agriculture.

The 2012-2013 Guide to Local Food is a printer friendly brochure with information about local foods in Clinton, Essex and Franklin Counties, including contact information for farmstands, farmer's markets and restaurants selling local foods.

Please let us know if you find useful links to other resources. We hope you enjoy the wide variety of local foods!

Sheena Brown - Farm Credit Fellow

Sheena Brown of Derby, VT worked in the Middlebury office the week of May 21-25 for her one week internship for the Farm Credit Fellow program. Sheena is an animal science major with a concentration in business at the University of Vermont. She is part of the VTC/UVM FARMS 2+2 program and will graduate in May 2013 with a Bachelors of Science. Sheena was raised on a dairy farm in Derby and has worked on a neighboring farm for 6 years. In the future Sheena hopes to own a farm in Vermont.

Abby Scholten - Farm Credit Fellow

Abby Scholten of Weybridge, VT visited the St. Albans office the week of June 4-8 as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program.  Abby’s family has an 80 cow organic dairy in Weybridge where they turn the milk from their Holsteins and Dutch Belts into farmstead cheese.  Their popular cheese, “Weybridge”, is marketed through the Cellars at Jasper Hill.  Abby graduated with an Associate’s degree in Dairy Farm Management from Vermont Technical College.  She is part of the VTC/UVM FARMS 2+2 program and has just finished up her junior year at the University of Vermont.

Farm Credit Fellows

We are pleased to have the opportunity to take part in the Farm Credit Fellows program again this year.  Fellows spend a week in a Farm Credit office learning about ag lending.  Farm Credit offices throughout New York and New England are involved in this valuable program.  Yankee has hosted two Fellows students so far this year and another will come later in the summer.

The one-week internship program has 23 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.

University of Vermont - 2012 Farm Credit Fellows

From Left to Right:  Abby Scholten, Rick Brisson, Sheena Brown

The three Fellows that will be visiting Yankee Farm Credit are:

Sheena Brown - Middlebury, May 21-25

Abby Scholten - St. Albans, June 4-8

Stephen Gould - Newport, August 5-12

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

Kueffner Kows @ Cowtown

On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 a large crowd gathered for the dispersal of a great herd of Holstein cattle. Ernie Kueffner and his family from Connecticut hosted the event at Cowtown Holsteins in Derby, VT. Hundreds of people from both sides of the border were on hand to get a chance at purchasing some of the best Holstein genetics in the world. Approximately 150 lots were sold with a sale average of $17,685. The high seller was Rainyridge Talent Barbara EX-95 EEEEE at $230,000.

The event started Monday evening with a pig roast and live band hosted by St. Jacobs ABS Inc. to preview the cattle for the sale. Tuesday kicked off with breakfast from 8-10 AM hosted by Taurus Service and provided by the Northeast Kingdom Holstein Club. The auction started at 10 AM and wrapped up at about 3:30 PM. Lunch was also provided by the Northeast Kingdom Holstein Club.

Loan Officer Kelly Richardson from our Newport office was on hand to make pancakes and flip burgers for the day. AVP/Branch Manager Loren Petzoldt, also from our Newport office, was able to make it to watch the sale.

See Holstein World’s All Breeds Blog for photos and more info about this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Thanks to Kelly Richardson for the above report about this event.

Promotion - Clara Hall

I am pleased to announce that Clara Hall has been promoted from Credit Analyst to Loan Officer in our White River Jct. office. Clara joined us two years ago following graduation from Cornell University with a BS in animal science. She has passed the Assistant Tax Specialist exams 1A and 1B and the Tax Specialist exam.

In addition to her regular duties these past two years, Clara created and maintains Yankee Farm Credit's page on Facebook.

Please join me in congratulating Clara!

We will soon be posting a credit analyst position in our White River Jct. office.

SVP/Chief Credit Officer

SVP/Chief Credit Officer Bill Heath has announced his retirement this fall. His last day in the office will be August 31st.

Bill has worked for Farm Credit for 28 years. He graduated from UVM in 1977 with a BS in business administration. After farming for a few years with his brother-in-law, he was hired in 1984 as a credit representative by the Watertown, New York association, now part of Farm Credit East. In 1985 Bill transferred to the Newport office of the Connecticut Valley association, one of the predecessor associations of Yankee Farm Credit, eventually becoming the manager of that branch and chief appraiser of the association. In 1995 Bill moved to the White River Jct. office to become VP/Branch Manager there. Bill was promoted to SVP/Regional Manager in 2005, and to SVP/Chief Credit Officer in 2006.

Bill has been a significant factor in Yankee's success over the years, and especially during the downturn of 2008-2010. He will be greatly missed.

Bill, congratulations on this milestone. We wish all the best for you in the next stage of life. Don't be a stranger.

We have posted a job opening for SVP/Chief Credit Officer. Details on our web site: Career Opportunities.

Thoughts on "Slow"

In the previous two posts I wrote about the Slow Living Summit in Brattleboro last week and why this is important for Yankee Farm Credit to think about.

But what exactly should we think about it? In this post I share some personal thoughts on that question, and I propose a new concept: SLOW Government.

Not everyone in agriculture is persuaded by the philosophy of Slow. Vermont agriculture is overwhelmingly dairy, mostly non-organic dairy. More than half of our loan portfolio at Yankee is to non-organic family dairy farmers. Most non-organic farmers are skeptical about placing too much emphasis on the philosophy of Slow. (Full disclosure: I grew up on a non-organic five-generation Vermont family dairy farm.)

Our mission at Farm Credit is to serve all of agriculture. How do we balance these competing views within the agricultural community? Almost by definition, most of agriculture is mainstream agriculture. How do we consider the philosophy of Slow without showing disregard and disrespect for mainstream agriculture?

Yankee Farm Credit is a cooperative and for us discussions about these questions will include the farmers who own Yankee; Yankee's board of directors, management and employees; and constituencies outside Yankee. The discussions that occurred at the Middlebury annual meeting earlier this year were part of these discussions. This blog is part of these discussions.

I offer the following thoughts as a contribution to these discussions. I come to these discussions both in my role as president and CEO of Yankee Farm Credit and in my role on the Vermont Agricultural and Forest Products Development Board, but I am just one of many voices in these discussions.

Like all movements, including the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Slow movement includes some good ideas and some bad ideas. Our job, whatever our role, is to separate the wheat from the chaff, the sense from the nonsense.

My approach to that job is indirect. If we start out directly talking about the sense and the nonsense of Slow, people will stake out positions, attacks will be made, defenses will go up, and little will be accomplished. I prefer to start out by talking about what is missing from Slow.

Slow Living, Slow Food and Slow Money are all part of a larger movement. The Wikipedia entry for Slow Movement lists all of these initiatives and many more. How could anything possibly be missing? And yet something important is missing.

What is missing is what I call SLOW Government.

SLOW Government is the opposite of fast government. Fast government seeks to use the power of government to solve more and more of life's problems, resulting in more laws, more regulations, more government programs, more government bureaucracy. SLOW Government first asks the question: Is this a necessary and proper function of government? In a country founded on the principle of limited government, this is a question that we too often fail to ask.

The inspiration for SLOW Government came from one of the principles of Slow Money: "There is such a thing as money that is too fast, companies that are too big, finance that is too complex." (source) I believe that there is such a thing as government that is too fast, too big, and too complex.

A good way to think about SLOW Government is as an acronym, which is why it is capitalized:

S is for sustainable. Primarily I am referring to government finances. Current policies are not sustainable. Cash outflows cannot indefinitely exceed cash inflows. Unfunded promises of future benefits put the sustainability of government itself at risk. Debt cannot increase without limit. We in Farm Credit have some experience in this area. We have experience with borrowers, of course. Not all borrowers succeed; some fail. We also have our own experience. At present the Farm Credit System is highly successful, but the Farm Credit System itself has had several near-death experiences in its long and storied history. We in Farm Credit have some basis for speaking to the issue of what is sustainable and what is not when it comes to finances.

L is for local. Government should be kept as local as possible. We can learn much from Alexis de Tocqueville. This blog has two posts about Alexis de Tocqueville's views on the importance of local government, using New York and China as examples.

O is for organic. In this context I mean something similar to what businesses mean by "organic growth." Organic growth in business is natural, internal growth—as opposed to growth from acquisitions. A corresponding meaning in the context of government is growth that is natural—as opposed to growth from stimulus. In short, organic government is Hayekian, not Keynesian. This blog has two posts about the philosophies of Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes: the rap version and the non-rap version.

W is for wise. Here I am referring to wisdom in the sense of this proverb from Lao Tzu, the founder of Daoism (or Taoism if you prefer): "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day." (source) Our political leaders are full of knowledge, and they have added so many things to government that it has become unmanageable. No one can understand the Byzantine complexity of the endless laws, regulations, programs, agencies, departments, boards, etc. that constitute our government. We need political leaders who are rich in wisdom, who will subtract things from government until it is once again manageable.

One of the intellectual fathers of the Slow Movement is Henry David Thoreau. His influential 1849 essay "Civil Disobedience" begins with this sentence:

I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.

That summarizes what I mean by SLOW Government.

In 2010 I started talking about SLO Agriculture - for Sustainable, Local, and/or Organic Agriculture. (source) Now we need to start talking about SLOW Government - for Sustainable, Local, Organic, and Wise Government. I am not advocating for NO government. I am advocating for government that is more Sustainable, more Local, more Organic, and Wiser than our current government. SLOW Government would be good for agriculture, good for rural America, and good for the country.

The Farm Credit System has been around for nearly 100 years. We are a significant part of the history of financing the production end of the food system, and we will be a significant part of the future—for all of agriculture.

Why is "Slow" important for Yankee?

In the previous post I wrote about the Slow Living Summit in Brattleboro last week. What does this have to do with Yankee Farm Credit?

Much of Slow Living is about Slow Food. I have written several posts on this blog about a related concept that I call SLO agriculture - sustainable, local, and/or organic agriculture. Many Yankee members are involved in SLO agriculture.

How many? There is no standard definition for "sustainable" or "local" so it is only possible to discuss these categories qualitatively, not quantitatively. I would guess, however, that nearly 100% of our members consider themselves both sustainable and involved in local food markets. Others may have a different view, but even under the most stringent definitions a significant number of Yankee members are involved in sustainable and/or local agriculture.

There is a standard definition for "organic" - a farm is either certified organic under USDA's National Organic Program or it is not. Nationally 0.7% of farms are organic. (Source: 14,450 organic farms from the 2008 Organic Survey divided by 2.2 million total farms from the 2007 Census of Agriculture.) In Yankee's loan portfolio 6% of customers and 5% of loan volume are certified organic. This is small but growing, and much more significant in Yankee's territory than in many other areas of the country.

Another aspect of Slow Living is Slow Money, which relates to the business of investing and lending money, especially involving food systems. Congress created the Farm Credit System specifically to provide debt capital to the production end of the nation's food systems. The Farm Credit System is nearly 100 years old and is a huge success. In Yankee's territory we provide $400 million of financing to 1,300 customers. Our territory includes all of Vermont and six neighboring counties in New Hampshire and New York. In Vermont alone we provide $250 million of financing to 1,000 customers. We are by far the largest provider of credit to agriculture in our territory. The next two largest providers, and valued partners with Yankee, are the Vermont Agricultural Credit Corporation and USDA's Farm Service Agency. Together they provide about half of the financing that Yankee Farm Credit provides in Vermont.

In addition to all of the above, Vermont seems to be a focal point for much of the activity around the emerging philosophy of Slow. Since 2010 Vermont has been host to two Slow Living Summits and a Slow Money National Gathering. The University of Vermont has adopted food systems as one of its three Spires of Excellence. And there has been a great deal of entrepreneurial activity in Vermont around this movement (example).

Taking all of these things together, I cannot think of many issues that are more directly related to the mission of Yankee Farm Credit.

Where does mainstream agriculture fit into this discussion? After all, mainstream agriculture is our core business. How do we balance mainstream agriculture and SLO agriculture? Some thoughts on that in the next post.

Slow Living Summit

The second annual Slow Living Summit was held May 30-June 1 in Brattleboro, VT. More than 350 people attended. Yankee Farm Credit was a sponsor, and I was a participant. Speakers included Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Summit was organized by Orly Munzing and the Strolling of the Heifers organization. The 11th annual Strolling of the Heifers was held in Brattleboro immediately following the Slow Living Summit. Thousands of people attend the world-famous Strolling of the Heifers each year.

What is Slow Living? The following short explanation is from the program brochure:

We would define "slow living" as the intention to build a more reflective, balanced future respecting each other and our life-sustaining natural environment - seeking common solutions for the common good.

In short, Slow Living is a metaphor for sustainability. Click here for a longer explanation.

In one of the many breakout sessions I participated in a panel discussion led by Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross about "collaboration between the public, private and quasi public/private entities around vision, planning, programs and activities to help develop and sustain an agriculturally based local food system." Other participants on the panel included Ela Chapin, director of the Vermont Farm Viability Program at the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board; Paul Costello, executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development; and Ryan Torres, philanthropic advisor at the Vermont Community Foundation.

The Slow Living Summit ran for an evening and two full days. I counted five general sessions and more than 50 breakout sessions in the program brochure.

Articles about the Summit from the Brattleboro Reformer 6/02/12:

Slow Living Summit gets off to fast start
Gov. Shumlin praises 'slow living' advocates

Related posts:

Why is "Slow" important for Yankee?
Thoughts on "Slow"

Promotion - Ken Nelson

I am pleased to announce that Ken Nelson has been promoted to Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager in our White River Jct. office. This promotion is effective 7/01/12 when Jeff Temple steps down from full-time employment.

Ken has 30 years of experience with Farm Credit. He graduated from UVM in 1974 with a BS in animal science. After farming for a few years with his father, he was hired in 1982 as a credit representative in the St. Johnsbury office. Ken began working out of the White River Jct. office in 1992 when the St. Johnsbury office was closed. From 1995 to 1998, he was an Association appraiser. Ken has been a senior loan officer since 2004.

Congratulations, Ken!

Please note that we are posting a loan officer position in White River Jct. Details on our web site: Career Opportunities.

Funding Corp. CEO Visits Yankee

Tracey McCabe, President and CEO of the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation, visited Yankee Farm Credit on May 10th. The Funding Corporation issues Farm Credit System debt to investors on Wall Street and all over the world. This is the primary source of funds for the Farm Credit System to lend to borrowers. The Funding Corporation is located in Jersey City, New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan.

In order to sell bonds and other financial instruments to investors, the Funding Corporation has to be able to explain the risks inherent in that debt. Tracey was interested in how Yankee Farm Credit analyzes risk: how we capture and report data relative to risk, and how we use that data. Several staff members demonstrated various software systems and analyses to Tracey, including Credit Analyst April Smith and Senior Loan Officer Ken Nelson from our White River Jct. office, and Chief Financial Officer Greg LeDuc and VP/Operations John Peters from our Williston office.

Following discussions in the office, Tracey visited a nearby farm – Conants' Riverside Farm in Richmond, VT. This 430 cow dairy farm in the Winooski River Valley has been in the Conant family since 1854. Dave and Deb Conant, with their son Ransom, currently manage the farm. Dave’s mother, Gloria, who passed away earlier this year, was a past Farm Credit director. From 1976 to 1983 Gloria Conant served on the board of one of the associations that preceded Yankee Farm Credit, and from 1983 to 1987 she was the first woman on the board of directors of the Springfield Farm Credit Banks.

The Conants belong to Agri-Mark, which makes Cabot Cheese, hence the Cabot sign on the barn in the photo below. They also grow sweet corn, pumpkins and squash for roadside sales. Left to right in the photo below are Tracey, Deb, Ransom and Dave.

Q1 2012 Financial Results

Quarterly net income for Yankee was $2.1 million, an increase of $66 thousand over 2011. Net interest income increased 2.1 percent to $3.0 million, up from $2.9 million in 2011. The most significant factor driving the increase in net income was the provision for credit losses; which was $76 thousand lower in 2012 due to an improvement in credit quality. The decrease in the provision for credit losses was offset by a decrease of $17 thousand in other income and an increase in other expenses of $88 thousand.

Quarter-end loans held by the Association at March 31, 2012 were $337.4 million, up 2.7 percent from the prior year. The loan portfolio continues to be concentrated in the dairy industry, with 56.5 percent of the loans invested in dairy businesses. The second largest concentration is timber, with 12.5 percent of the loan volume at quarter-end.

Credit quality across Yankee’s loan portfolio improved slightly during the quarter and remained well within the risk-bearing capacity of the Association. At quarter-end 1.6 percent of the Association loans were classified as nonperforming, unchanged from the end of 2011. There were no loan charge-offs, but recoveries of $6 thousand in the quarter. The Association’s permanent capital ratio at quarter end was 20.7%, up from 20.6% at the end of 2011.

The 2011 patronage refund to members in the amount of $3.7 million was paid 100% in cash on March 23, 2012.

The complete quarterly report is available on our web site.

Rob Guay - Appraiser

I am pleased to announce that Rob Guay 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.

Rob completed his course work last fall and passed the comprehensive exam in January. On April 4th he completed the final step in the process, which was the acceptance of his appraisal practice hours by the Vermont Board of Real Estate Appraisers.

Rob started working for Yankee Farm Credit in the summer of 2008 and became an appraiser trainee in November 2008. He worked hard to become a licensed appraiser in just over three years.

Rob joins Liz Bayne and Geoff Yates as licensed appraisers in Yankee’s Appraisal Department. Special thanks to Vice President/Director-Appraisal Services Geoff Yates for mentoring Rob during his appraiser trainee period.

Congratulations, Rob, on this significant accomplishment!

800 Telephone Numbers

We have been experiencing problems with our 800 telephone numbers since Wednesday morning, April 25, 2012. Until the problem is resolved, please use our regular phone numbers if you need to call us:

802-388-2692 Middlebury
802-334-8050 Newport
802-524-2938 St. Albans
802-295-3670 White River Jct.
802-879-4700 Williston

We are working to resolve this problem as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 4/27/12: The problem was resolved after the close of business today.

Board Officers and Committees

At the April 26, 2012 board meeting, the Board of Directors elected the following officers:

Chairperson – Rocklyn A. Giroux
Vice Chairperson – Alan J. Bourbeau

Also approved were committee assignments:

Executive Committee
Rocklyn A. Giroux, Chairperson
Alan J. Bourbeau
Bryan E. Davis
Walter M. Gladstone
Celeste Kane-Stebbins

Audit Committee
Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Chairperson
Thomas J. Colgan
Paul B. Franklin
Paul F. Saenger
Stephen H. Taylor

Compensation Committee
Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Chairperson
Rocki-Lee DeWitt
Walter M. Gladstone
Paul F. Saenger
Stephen H. Taylor

Membership/Governance Committee
Alan J. Bourbeau, Chairperson
Thomas J. Colgan
Bryan E. Davis
Paul B. Franklin
Bradley N. Maxwell

Director Election Results

The last of four annual meetings was held last night in Newport, 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 – Rocklyn Giroux 
Region 2 – Bradley Maxwell
Region 3 – Stephen Taylor

Congratulations to Rocky, Brad and Steve. And thanks to Bill Johnson and Scott Mitchell for participating in the elections as candidates. There were 151 ballots cast this year, which was 13% of eligible voters.

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

11th Annual Flavors of the Valley

April Smith, Credit Analyst, and Desi Smith, Office Assistant, attended the 11th Annual Flavors of the Valley on Sunday, April 15th 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 approximately 53 vendors. This year’s site sponsors were Co-op Food Stores, Mascoma Savings Bank, Three Tomatoes Trattoria, Upper Valley Co-op, Edgewater Farm, Cedar Circle Farm, King Arthur Flour, and the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food. The event was held from 11:00-3:00 and attended by over 1,000 people and provided the opportunity to meet local farmers and chefs, buy local food, as well as sample tasty tidbits.

This year's vendors included: Blue Ox Farm, Canaan Farmers Market, Cedar Circle Farm and Educational Center, Cedar Mountain Farm, Cobb Hill Cheese, Cherry Hill Farm, Community Garden at Enfield Shaker Museum, Co-op Food Stores, D Acres of New Hampshire, Edgewater Farm, Farm Plate, Flora Fauna Farm, Green Mountain Flour, Hogwash farm, Home Hill Inn and Restaurant, Hulbert Outdoor Center, Hasper Murdoch's Alehouse at Norwich Inn, Killdeer Farm, King Arthur Flour, Kingdom Creamery, Luna Bleu Farm, Mariam’s African Restaurant, NH Cheesemaker’s Guild, NH Dept. of Agriculture, NOFA-VT, Oak Wood Farm, One Chicken-at-a-time Farm, Ottauquechee Natural Resource Conservation District, Peach Blow Farm, Piermont Plant Pantry, Red Kite Candy Company, Rural Vermont, Springmore Farm, Sugarbush Cheese and Maple Farm, Taylor Brothers Farm, The Gardening Guy, Thompson Goat Farm, Three Tomatoes Trattoria, Transition Town White River Junction, Turkey Hill Farm, Upper Valley Farm to School Network, Upper Valley Food Co-op, Upper Valley Land Trust, Upper Valley Strong, Valley Food and Farm, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, Vermont Chocolatiers, Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company, Vital Communities, Walpole Creamery, White River Junction Community Gardens

North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge

The North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge (NAIDC) holds four regional and one national contest each year. The 2012 national contest was held March 29-31 in Roanoke, VA (press release, photos). 128 students from 32 colleges participated in this annual event now in its 11th year. Jean Conklin, Senior Loan Officer and Tax Specialist from the White River Jct. office, attended as a National Board and Northeast Committee member.

NAIDC has helped prepare over 3,000 students for careers in the dairy industry. Farm Credit was a 5-star platinum sponsor of the 2012 national contest. The program is 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 students from UNH, UVM and Cornell. Cornell received a First Place Award.

Pictured above from Cornell University are:

Front: Daniel Durfee; Ariel Garland; Jordan Fisher.

Back: Coach Betsey Howland; Theodore Christoph; Coach Michael Van Amburgh.

(all names are listed left to right)

Pictured above from the University of Vermont are:

Front: Sarah Morrison; Abigail Scholten; Sheena Brown.

Back: Coach Wanda Emerich; Richard Brisson.

Pictured above from the University of New Hampshire are:

Front: Lindsay Peterson; Barbara Heins; Hannah Flint.

Back: Hannah Medico; Coach Peter Erickson.

UVM also participated in Aggregate Team #1:

Front: Margaret Quaassdorff, University of Vermont; Alison R. Crane, Berry College; Kenneth Sharp, Berry College.

Back: Coach Wanda Emerich, University of Vermont; Coach Lee Kilmer, Iowa State University; Ben Selman, Iowa State University; Coach Ben Wilson, Berry College.

Farm to Plate Appendix B - Dairy

On 2/10/12 the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund published Appendix B of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan: Revitalizing Vermont's Dairy Industry. Click here for the link and scroll down. (Click here for an earlier post about Farm to Plate.) The appendix does a nice job of pulling together in one place a lot of information about Vermont's dairy industry.

One of the interesting things about the appendix is how it incorporates quotes from the 1976 report of the Governor's Commission on Food. So much of it still applies! Some of the issues affecting Vermont's dairy industry today go back even further, as evidenced by the booklet "This Milk Problem" published by UVM Extension in 1937.

Appendix B makes the following comment about financing today's dairy industry: “sufficient financing [for large dairy farms] is not available from one source.” We would not agree, as we provide all of the financing needs for many of Vermont’s largest dairy farms. I did a quick count (might have missed a few) and came up with loan commitments in excess of $100 million to 20 large dairy farms. That's an average of $5 million per farm. A few of those farms are in neighboring counties in New Hampshire and New York, but most are in Vermont.

There is no farm that we are unable to finance simply because it is too large.

UPDATE 4/19/12: Appendix B has been updated to include a discussion of Yankee Farm Credit's role in financing the dairy industry in Vermont. We appreciate the willingness of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund to consider our comments.

FarmStart - Robbie Morrill

Yankee recently made a FarmStart investment to Robbie Morrill of Milton, Vermont. Robbie is a maple producer operating as R. Sweet Maples. (The t-shirt in the photo shows a maple tree with the caption "I'd tap that".)

Robbie, age 19, began at an early age setting up 900 taps on neighboring land and building a sugarhouse on his parent’s land. He has expanded to 4,000 taps on rented land for the 2012 season. He sells syrup both in bulk and retail. In 2011 he started producing maple coated nuts and maple cream for retail sales that he is selling at farmer's markets and school functions.

Robbie was voted the 2010-2011 Vermont "Maple King" which entails many public speaking appearances at maple events throughout the state – for example at the 2011 Governor’s Tree Tapping Ceremony. Robbie also works full time for CDL USA which is a maple sugaring equipment sales company in St. Albans.

Robbie put his business plan together needing "Seed Capital" to get to his current 4,000 tap level. This is where FarmStart came in. Robbie applied for a FarmStart investment to cover the cost of a new evaporator, expanded tubing system, and start-up costs for the 2012 season.

Loan Officer Thomas St. Pierre in the St. Albans office is Robbie’s FarmStart Advisor.

Tom Colgan

The Board of Directors has appointed Tom Colgan to replace Charlie Sniffen as a director.

Tom is President and CEO of Wagner Forest Management, Ltd. of Lyme, NH, a position he had held since 1994. He previously worked for Scott Paper Company in Maine. Tom holds forestry degrees from Duke University.

As noted in this post, Charlie is stepping down from the board. The Board of Directors started a process about a year ago to replace Charlie. While Yankee's second largest industry concentration is the timber industry, Yankee has never had a director from this industry. The board amended the bylaws so that the position held by Charlie could be held by either a non-member (i.e., an outside director such as Charlie) or a member who was appointed by the other directors. The Farm Credit Administration has encouraged institutions to use appointed directors to achieve desired diversity on the board. Tom is Yankee's first appointed director.

Tom's appointment is effective with the close of annual meetings in April. He plans to attend all four annual meetings to meet members. Tom, welcome aboard!