FarmStart - Sam & Karlee Dimock, Hidden Bridge Farm

Karlee and Sam Dimock, Hidden Bridge Farm

Sam and Karlee Dimock formed Hidden Bridge, LLC, operating a beef farm.  The farm consists of 9 brood cows and a mix of heifers and steers.  The steers are raised to slaughter weight and are processed locally and sold to customers in the community. 

Their operation is on a farm rented from Sam’s parents.  This consists of their house, barn, feed lot, and pasture.  Sam and Karlee came to FarmStart for a source of capital to make improvements to the feed lot, purchase a tractor and loader, and to purchase additional breeding stock.

They also work full-time on Sam’s parent’s and grandparent’s 325 cow dairy farm.  In September of 2016 they welcomed their first child, a daughter, Emma into their world.

Sam & Karlee have a good business plan in place.  With a strong Ag background, they are eager to learn more about financial management and view FarmStart as a good source if information as well as capital to help them succeed.

For more about Hidden Bridge Farm, check out their Face Book page, @hiddenbridgefarmLLC

Check out more about the FarmStart program here.

Or give us a call at 1-800-639-3053

Data Backups are Critical

-Danielle Tierney, Financial Services Assistant

 Have you ever experienced a computer failure or lost your data somehow? If you have, you know how frustrating it can be and how important backing up your data is. If you haven’t experienced a data loss, backing up is a great way to avoid it happening.

Having both onsite and offsite backup is the best way to ensure data safety. Backups can be used to restore you to a point in the past. So when or if something goes wrong with your computer, whether it be data corruption or a catastrophic failure you have a restore point to go back to so you won’t have to re-enter all of your data. Think of it as insurance. Restoring to the last known backup saves time and ensures business continuity.

We can safely provide offsite backup for your accounting software. Simply send us a backup monthly or quarterly and we will provide you with assurance that you can restore your data in the event of data loss or computer failure.

Furthermore, we can restore your database in our office and review your records to assist you with making any corrections or adjustments needed, providing your operation with accurate financial reporting to use in the management of your business. Our team is here to assist you with whatever financial record services you need. For more information visit us at Yankeeaca.com.

Q1 2017 Financial Results

A sign of spring (at least for me) is when the first quarter financial results are published. Yankee can announce that we have had another good quarter with $2.4 million in net income. This is slightly lower than 2016, primarily due to the investment we are making in our new information technology platform and enhanced risk management practices.

Quarter end loans held at March 31st were $473.1 million, down slightly from year-end. This is a trend that we see each year, with a dip in the first quarter loan volume numbers. The portfolio continues to be concentrated in the dairy industry with 51.4 percent of loans invested in dairy businesses. The second largest concentration is timber with 13.8 percent of the volume at quarter-end.

Credit quality across the portfolio remained strong during the quarter and well within the risk-bearing capacity of the Association. At quarter end 1.2 percent of the Association loans were classified as nonperforming - unchanged from the end of 2016. The 2016 patronage refund to members in the amount of $5.1 million was paid 100% in cash on March 23, 2017 and the Association's capital position remains strong.

Click here for the full quarterly Report to Shareholders.