Yankee Farm Credit Approves Special Cash Patronage

Yankee Farm Credit Approves Special Cash Patronage

Members to receive $1.8 million mid-year patronage

Williston, Vermont (August 24, 2018) The Yankee Farm Credit Board of Directors recently approved the distribution of a mid-year patronage dividend of $1.8 million to their more than 1,400 members who are involved in farming and forestry. This distribution equals a return of approximately 30 bps of the average daily balance on loans.

This special patronage payment is possible because 2018 net income is significantly over budget for the first half of 2018. Several factors contributed to this positive performance in net income, including; an increased focus on portfolio diversification, a steadfast focus on cost controls and one-time payments received from partner organizations. We anticipate the payment will be distributed in the fourth quarter of 2018. This payment is separate from the $6.3 million patronage dividend that was paid in March 2018, which was based on 2017 earnings. The board will review net income at year-end with the anticipation that we will pay normal patronage in addition to this special patronage payment.

Our board's philosophy is that funds, which are not required to safely operate or capitalize our cooperative, should be returned to members. The special, one-time dividend reflects Yankee Farm Credit’s strong financial position, combined with our understanding and appreciation of the economic challenges faced by many of our members. Yankee's strong earnings allow us to continue to grow sustainably, while returning a portion of those earnings to our owner members.

"Kudos go to Yankee's management and staff for their hard work and wise management of our members’ funds, especially during the challenging times of Yankee's IT conversion,” said Paul Franklin, Chairperson of the Board.  “Their hard work resulted in achieving higher returns than necessary to meet Yankee's budgetary needs. Increased revenues combined with one time refunds allows the board to approve this distribution of funds to Yankee's members by a mid-year special patronage."

About Yankee

Yankee Farm Credit is a member-owned cooperative that provides loans and financial services to farmers and other rural customers. Yankee is an agricultural credit association (ACA) within the national Farm Credit System. Yankee serves all of Vermont, four counties in New Hampshire (Cheshire, Coos, Grafton and Sullivan) and two counties in New York (Clinton and Essex).

For more information about Yankee, visit the Association’s website at www.yankeefarmcredit.com. The complete quarterly report is available on the website.

Contact

Erika Quick
Marketing Coordinator
802-879-4700
equick@yankeefarmcredit.com

Dairy Farmers, Industry Groups Meet in Albany

Dairy farmers and industry supporters met in Albany, N.Y. on Monday, August 13 to discuss the current milk price and pricing environment. Hosted by the Agri-mark milk co-operative and co-sponsored by CoBank and Farm Credit East, the day was spent looking at what could be done to improve conditions going forward.

A tweet by Anson Tebbetts, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, Food, and Markets:

UNDERWAY. Dairy pricing meeting in Albany #NY. Laura Ginsberg from @VTAgencyofAg addressing forum about supply management programs. Details about meeting: https://t.co/JWW4fY6iaC pic.twitter.com/2rMB2Z9i9P

— Anson Tebbetts (@anson_ag) August 13, 2018

A historical timeline of previous attempts to better coordinate the supply of milk in the U.S was reviewed. Legal perspective of what other commodities do and what's acceptable with respect to public accountability was shared. Finally, presentations were made of a few proposals that have been put forth followed by a reaction from the audience and a panel of legal experts.

Bob Wellington, Sr. Vice President at Agrimark, ran the meeting, and encouraged attendees to review the proposals, submit comments, become familiar with them. Throughout the day he repeated,: "Our best chance for a positive solution is widespread involvement."

The proposals, along with a chance to comment on each have been posted on the following website:

Dairy Farm Income Enhancement Proposals

Meet our 2018 Summer Interns - Griffin Shaw

We are excited to have five interns join us this year. They will be an important part of several special projects this summer. We'll feature each one here, so you can get to know them. Please welcome them to the team!

Name: Griffin Shaw

Hometown: Bradford, VT

Where do you attend college and what do you study?

I’m a junior attending the University of Vermont and I’m studying Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting and Finance.

How did you hear about Yankee Farm Credit?

I heard about Yankee originally from farmers in my hometown, but I learned about this internship from Dr. DeWitt, who is a board member for Yankee.

What branch and department do you work in? Do you have any specific projects?

I am working out of the Williston branch under Lisa in the credit department. I just finished up adjusting data that had errors from the conversion and I will be working on other projects in different departments along with other data cleanup.

What do you hope to get out of your internship that you may not get from a traditional classroom?
I hope to learn how businesses run in a day to day sense and how that fits into the overall goals of the organization, along with gaining practical experience that can be applied better than classroom knowledge. 

What do you hope to do after you graduate?

I hope to get my Masters in Accountancy and become a CPA. From there maybe move into forensic accounting and see where that takes me.

For more information on internship opportunities,

contact Ruchel St. Hilaire, at rsthilaire@yankeefarmcredit.com or 800-639-3053.

Meet our 2018 Summer Interns - Joshua Lagerquist

We are excited to have five interns join us this year. They will be an important part of several special projects this summer. We'll feature each one here, so you can get to know them. Please welcome them to the team!

Name: Josh Lagerquist

Hometown: Bedford, NH

Where do you attend college and what do you study?:

I currently attend the University of Vermont and will be a senior going into this Fall. I am a part of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural resources and am majoring in natural resources with a degree concentration in resource ecology.

How did you hear about Yankee Farm Credit?

One of my forestry lab partners and a fraternity brother of mine were interns with Yankee last summer. They both had very positive experiences and encouraged me to look into the potential opportunity of interning here as well!

What branch location and department are you working in? Do you have any specific projects?

I am working with the appraisal department and am currently based out of the Williston office. One of the nice things is that travel comes with territory when doing appraisal work and it has allowed me to visit the other branches and see more parts of the state. This summer I have been pulling sales data to further develop the sales database, doing some GIS and mapping work as well as shadowing during appraisal inspections.

What do you hope to get out of your internship that you may not get from a traditional classroom?

This internship has given me some really great opportunities to apply skills I have learned through my coursework and then utilize them to solve unique problems. Also, I am hoping to use this internship to help determine my career interests for future.

What do you hope to do after you graduate?

Nothing specific at the moment, I would like to travel a little bit but otherwise hope to hop right into a job or career that is related to my field of study!

For more information on our summer internship opportunities, please email Ruchel St. Hilaire

RStHilaire@yankeefarmcredit.com