On June
7th, I attended the third NH Ag Financiers (NHAF) meeting this year.
We had a representative from SCORE, a volunteer organization made up of retired
business executives from major corporations, retired business owners, and
subject matter experts that uses its expertise to mentor start-up and existing
businesses. It is a nationwide organization with over 10,000
volunteers. There are 6 chapters in NH with 100 mentors. This is a free
service for the life of the business with the mentors either acting as advisers
in a more hands off role or physically getting into the business in one way or
another and working with them to improve an identified area such as records,
marketing, or human resources. SCORE has recently partnered with the USDA
to try to recruit both farm clients and farm volunteers. NHAF has
identified potential in working with this group to connect them with local
farms. Our next step is to attend a SCORE chapter meeting to talk about
what each organization offers their market and how we can work together to best
serve our farmers.
In the
afternoon, I led a discussion on the dairy industry for the group and some
guests. We discussed the current state of the dairy industry. There was a
lot of participation and interest in the discussion. Some good thoughts on possible
ways to improve the situation included:
- State branding
for products
- Creating
new business models
- Comprehensible
and accessible training
Major updates
from the group were from FSA and UNH Extension. Jeff Holmes, the state director
for FSA, discussed the new MPP enrollment and improvements to the
program. Payments should be starting to go out this week to those farms
who signed up. He also discussed the weather emergencies that have kept
the FSA offices busy this year including the field damage from the storms from
last October (which was covered with snow until recently), flooding and debris
in fields and farms, and the confirmed tornado in Sullivan and Merrimack
counties last month
Seth Wilner
from the UNH Extension talked about the new focuses for Extension going
forward. Their three initiatives for the year are:
1.
Benchmarking– farm financial health assessments and making data driven
decisions.
2. Farm
Transfer and succession planning – three year plans.
3. Women in
agriculture – livestock production and business skills.
NHAF
is a group that meets four times a year to discuss different ways we can work
together to help NH agriculture, whether that means with financing, education,
consulting, records, etc. It is made up of agriculture professionals from
around the state and we bring in guest speakers some times to educate us on a
particular tool, industry, or area that will allow us to better help our
farmers. Members of the group include Farm Credit East, FSA, Community Loan
Fund, Land for Good, NH Ag Mediation, rural development, small business
association, the NH Commissioner of Agriculture, and representatives from the
congresswoman and senators offices.
For more information on the New Hampshire Ag Financiers group, you can email Yankee Farm Credit Loan Officer Katy Coombs at KCoombs@yankeefarmcredit.com
