Rise of the Richmond Creamery
Richmond Co-op manufactured dairy products in Richmond, VT from 1916 to 1983. Many Farm Credit members shipped milk to Richmond Co-op during those years. That was before Yankee Farm Credit was formed in 1995, so they would have been members of Champlain Valley Farm Credit or Farm Credit of the Connecticut Valley or their predecessors.
On a personal note, I worked for Richmond Co-op immediately before coming to Champlain Valley Farm Credit in 1984. I was hired as controller at Richmond Co-op in 1982. That was my introduction to the Farm Credit System. Richmond Co-op borrowed money from the Farm Credit System – specifically, the Bank for Cooperatives in Springfield, MA.
In 1983 Richmond Co-op merged with Eastern Milk Producers Cooperative Association of Syracuse, NY (now part of Dairy Farmers of America) and sold its processing plant in Richmond to one of its customers, Dari Desserts in Richmond. The last two employees at Richmond Co-op were Sylvia Peet and me. For a time in early 1984 the two of us worked out of the office of the co-op's attorney, Chet Ketcham in Middlebury, as we wound down the affairs of the co-op.
When that was over, I was looking for a job. Richmond Co-op's loan officer at the Springfield Bank for Cooperatives, Dean Moreau, suggested that I talk to the local Farm Credit association, Champlain Valley Farm Credit, and he introduced me to President and CEO Arlington Hazen. Arl hired me as a loan officer in the Williston office, and I've been in the Williston office ever since. Sadly Arl died last year.
One of the directors of Champlain Valley Farm Credit, soon to be chairman of the board, was Sylvia Peet's brother – Paul Eddy, a dairy farmer in Hinesburg. I did not know it at the time, but both Paul Eddy and Dean Moreau would have a significant influence on the evolution of my career at Farm Credit.
In the early 1990s the Springfield District in the Farm Credit System engaged in a major strategic planning initiative called the Springfield District Planning Project. Paul Eddy was co-chair of the Steering Committee for that project. Several major organizational changes occurred in Farm Credit on January 1, 1995 as a result of the Springfield District Planning Project, two of which are relevant to this post.
First, the Farm Credit Bank of Springfield and the Springfield Bank for Cooperatives merged into CoBank. CoBank is the part of the Farm Credit System that we at Yankee Farm Credit borrow our money from. Second, Champlain Valley Farm Credit and Farm Credit of the Connecticut Valley merged to form Yankee Farm Credit. I was the new chief financial officer of Yankee Farm Credit. The new president of Yankee Farm Credit, and therefore my new boss, was Dean Moreau.
It's a small world!
The image above is a metal advertising sign for Hump brand ice cream that I found when we were cleaning out the plant in Richmond when it was sold in 1983. The "Hump" is nearby Camels Hump, one of the highest mountains in Vermont (but not the highest).
