2013 Congressional Visits

On June 19th Yankee Farm Credit visited Congressional offices in Washington, DC. Participating were: Chairperson Rocky Giroux, Vice Chairperson Alan Bourbeau, Board Member Steve Taylor, Senior Loan Officer Dave Lane and Bob Smith. Bob Smith is a senior vice president of Farm Credit East who assists several associations with government relations.

The Yankee group visited people in eight Congressional offices:

• Adrienne Wojciechowski in Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Office
• Leah Drew in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Office
• Emily Lynch in Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s Office
• Erica Anhalt in Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s Office
• Rep. Bill Owens and Nell Maceda
• Rep. Peter Welch and Bob Rogan
• Rep. Ann McLane Kuster and Blake Anderson
• Tony Hobbs in Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s Office

In addition, they attended “coffees” with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Ann McLane Kuster.

Our main message this year was an update on how Yankee Farm Credit is meeting the needs of our members by providing constructive credit that grew our diverse loan portfolio by 13%. In addition, Yankee Farm Credit paid $4.9 million in patronage refunds to member-customers by maintaining excellent financial results. The message was well received. In addition, the Congressional Offices were keenly interested in Yankee Farm Credit’s involvement and success with the FarmStart program serving beginning, young and small farmers.

The Senate had passed a Farm Bill the previous week and the House version of the Farm Bill was on the floor. Representatives were encouraged to pass out of the House a Farm Bill in order to get a bill into Conference Committee. The message included the need to establish through a Farm Bill the future policies and direction of agriculture on which our members could plan. The Farm Bill in the House was defeated on June 20th by 195 yes to 234 no votes.

Other issues mentioned were the need to maintain a strong crop insurance program, the importance of the Farm Service Agency’s Loan Guarantee program, and immigration reform that would improve farm labor by stabilizing the labor force now and creating a provision for foreign labor going forward. Each office was provided with a copy of the Association Insider and Yankee Farm Credit Annual Report.

While in DC the group also visited with Jeff Shipp and Robbie Boone of the Farm Credit Council and Sarah Tyree of CoBank.

Note from George Putnam: Thanks to Senior Loan Officer Dave Lane for representing Yankee Farm Credit, together with three directors and Bob Smith, and for writing the above report.

Kelsey Derstein - Intern

Kelsey Derstein of Lewistown, PA is working in the Williston office as a summer intern. She is going to be a senior this fall at Pennsylvania State University studying Animal Science Business and minoring in Agribusiness Management. While attending Penn State, Kelsey has been active in several clubs including the Navigators and the Penn State Block and Bridle. Last year she joined the AgChoice Scholars program which is two-year program for a select group of Penn State students run by AgChoice Farm Credit. Kelsey grew up on her family’s 3,000 head swine operation and hopes to work in the business aspect of the swine industry after graduation.

2013 North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge

The North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge (NAIDC) held its 2013 national contest in Fort Wayne, IN this past April. NAIDC is a two day competition for students to represent their dairy science programs from North American universities. During the contest, students apply theory and learning to evaluate a working dairy farm. The students are then expected to develop recommendations for nutrition, reproduction, milking procedures, animal health, housing and financial management. These recommendations are presented to a panel of five judges for consideration.

The panel of judges includes dairy producers and industry experts in dairy finances, reproduction, nutrition, and animal health. Jean Conklin, Senior Loan Officer and Tax Specialist from the White River Jct. Office, became involved with the Dairy Challenge in 2003 when Don Rogers invited her to be on the judges’ panel for the first Northeast Regional contest. Jean, who works with her husband on their dairy farm in New Hampshire, thought that this opportunity sounded interesting and looked forward to working with the students and the other judges. She was elected in 2007 to the National Board of Directors and was re-elected in 2010.

The National Board is made up of 15 members. Jean represented both the Northeast and Farm Credit. She mentions that being on the board is very hands on and it is important for members to secure funding for the annual event. Farm Credit is the biggest contributor for the NAIDC and is a 16 star platinum sponsor as listed in the 2013 program.

Over the past few years it was noticed that the National Dairy Challenge was meeting its limit of 128 students and wanted to add something that was not competitive but educational. The Dairy Challenge Academy saw its first event this past April running in conjunction with the Dairy Challenge as a separate program. Jean says that the great thing about the Dairy Challenge Academy is that students participating do not have to be from a 4 year school which is one of the requirements for the NAIDC. Instead students from a 1 year or a 2 year school can also attend. The addition of the academy attracted 95 more students to the event. The academy places these students into larger teams that analyze the same farms as the Dairy Challenge while providing an educational aspect. Jean reports that the board has received positive feedback on the Dairy Challenge Academy and hopes that the academy continues to grow in numbers.

When asked what some of the opportunities are for students participating in the Dairy Challenge, Jean says that it is a great opportunity to visit different parts of the country. In 2010 the national contest was held in California. Students had the opportunity to visit other dairies before the contest began since most students had never visited a California dairy farm. The contest also allows students to meet other students, interact with the industry through tradeshows, and participate in seminars. The academy featured a career panel as well as a tech presentation in which Jean presented the 5 C’s of Credit to the students.

While Jean’s time on the national board is coming to an end, she plans to stay involved regionally. She would encourage those who are considering becoming a board member to get involved at the regional level. The Northeast contest will be taking place in the Plattsburgh/Chazy, NY area this fall. The mission of the NAIDC is to facilitate education, communication, and an exchange of ideas among students, agribusiness, dairy producers and universities that enhances the development of the dairy industry and its leaders. We can support the contest and the dairy industry by being at the regional contest this fall, volunteering and getting involved. For more information please visit http://www.dairychallenge.org/.

Cassie Bromley - Farm Credit Fellow

Yankee’s second Farm Credit Fellow of the summer was Cassie Bromley. Cassie visited the White River Junction office the week of May 20th. She grew up on a 65 cow family dairy farm in Wallingford, Vermont. She graduated from Mill River Union High School in 2009 and then went on to Vermont Technical College where she participated in the 2+2 program, majored in Dairy Farm Management and worked on the VTC farm. Cassie graduated from VTC in 2011 before taking a year off to work on a goat dairy farm in Manchester, VT. She returned to the 2+2 program for the fall 2012 semester at UVM and then spent the Spring 2013 semester at the Miner Research Institute in Chazy, NY. While at Miner, Cassie and her peers worked closely with progressive dairy researchers, attended meetings around the Country, heard speakers from throughout the northeast and attended the regional and national Dairy Challenges.

When Cassie was asked to write about her time with us in White River, here is what she had to say: “During this week I was able to see and hear about at least nine different types of businesses within the agricultural industry in Yankee’s territory. Farm Credit reaches out to help a lot of different types of farms and without Farm Credit’s help I believe our industry wouldn’t have the financial stability to continue.”