Yankee ACA Blog

FarmStart - Jon and Kristie Lucas

2012-01-12T14:39:00.001-05:00

With help from FarmStart, Jon Lucas and his family have realized their dream of owning a dairy business. Lucas Dairy, LLC purchased a 170-cow dairy herd from David Russell in Starksboro, Vermont, earlier this month.

Jon spent the past three years managing the herd with this goal in mind. This was a mutual effort between Dave and Jon. Dave spent a number of years looking for the right person to pass his business onto. Jon’s ability, commitment and passion proved him to be this person.

Jon's experience prepared him for this milestone. Jon, age 31, participated in 4-H from age 8 to 18, attended Vermont Technical College, and then spent 10 years working on dairy farms.

This is a family effort. Jon’s wife Kristie will be using the CenterPoint accounting program provided by Red Wing to do the farm records.

Jon put his business plan together and obtained the necessary financing to purchase the dairy business. His final hurdle was how to cover his startup costs, particularly while waiting for his first milk check. This is where FarmStart provided the missing piece. Lucas Dairy, LLC applied for a $50,000 FarmStart investment to cover the startup costs and spring expenses.

Senior Loan Officer Sue Kelley from the Middlebury office says, "I’m very excited to be Yankee’s FarmStart Advisor for this young business!"

Urgent - IRS Mandates Disclosure for Form 1099 Filings

2012-01-09T11:49:00.002-05:00

Understated business income is definitely an area of IRS concern. One way in which the IRS encourages the reporting of income is by requiring those making payments to individuals to report those payments on Form 1099. For 2011 tax returns, the IRS has now mandated that taxpayers indicate whether or not they have filed all required 1099s. Taxpayers and their preparers can be penalized for failing to answer this question accurately. And, of course, there continue to be penalties for the failure to file 1099s.

Don’t be surprised when your tax preparer asks you questions about your 1099 reporting. If you are currently a tax client you will be receiving a more detailed letter in the mail in the next several days. We request that you answer the questions enclosed with it and return to us so that we can properly prepare your 2011 tax return. If you are still doing your own return, be careful about answering these new questions so that you don’t receive greetings from the IRS after you file. If you need help in filing your 1099s this year, please call your local Farm Credit office.

Celebrating the Fruits of Local Agriculture

2011-12-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

Each Christmas Yankee directors and employees celebrate the diversity of local agriculture with a selection of tasty food products from farmers in Yankee's territory. This year's selection included:

Sausage - from Lincoln Farm in Randolph, VT
Eggnog - from Hatchland Farm in North Haverhill, NH
Landaff Cheese - from Landaff Creamery in Landaff, NH
Maple Syrup - from Doton Farm in Barnard, VT
Fudge - from Dutton Berry Farm in Newfane, VT
Wine - from Shelburne Vineyard in Shelburne, VT
Yogurt - from Kingdom Creamery in Hardwick, VT
Cookies - from Chazy Orchards in Chazy, NY

Once again we extend our sincere appreciation to all farmers in Yankee's territory for the wonderful bounty from their farms.

David Lane and Donald Wells

2011-12-20T10:37:00.005-05:00

David Lane has accepted the position of Senior Loan Officer in our St. Albans branch. Dave started on November 30th. He has prior lending experience as an agricultural loan officer with Vermont Agricultural Credit Corporation (a division of VEDA) and for the Vermont Community Loan Fund where he was the Director of Lending. Prior to working at VACC, David was Deputy Secretary for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and Executive Director of the Intervale Foundation. David and his wife Julie reside in South Hero where they own Crescent Bay Farm Bed and Breakfast. Dave is a graduate of the University of Vermont.

Donald Wells has joined Yankee as a Loan Officer, also in the St. Albans branch. Don was the General Manager and Controller for CDL, USA (a Canadian maple equipment company in St. Albans) and has experience in financial management and tax preparation having worked for Hub Transportation Insurance, IBM, Jacobs, Marchand, & Morrisette and KPMG, LLP. Don grew up in Sheldon and resides in Fairfield. Don is a graduate of Champlain College.

Both Dave and Don will also serve customers in Clinton County, New York, from our Chazy satellite office along with Tom St. Pierre and Chuck Custeau.

Producing Excellence

2011-12-12T08:13:00.003-05:00

For Farm Credit's 95th anniversary celebration it is featuring the "strength, ingenuity and integrity of our nation's successful farmers and ranchers" by creating profiles for customers across the U.S. Yankee Farm Credit is proud to feature Jim and Jane Danyow of Ferrisburg, VT in this series of stories called "Producing Excellence."

Vanda Ripley

2011-12-08T09:09:00.004-05:00

Yankee is pleased to have Vanda Ripley join our ranks as an accounting assistant working in the Williston office. Vanda is a graduate of the University of Vermont and comes to us by way of St. Michaels College where she was a payroll specialist. In addition to payroll, Vanda also has experience as a bookkeeper and a financial analyst. All of her experiences will help her handle the responsibilities of accounts payable, fixed assets and general ledger reconciliation, among many other duties.

Vanda currently lives in Underhill with her husband David and their son Parker. They also have a daughter, Emily, who lives in New Jersey. When not crunching numbers, Vanda enjoys being an amateur logger and reading her Kindle on the treadmill.

FarmStart - Corey and Ann Chapman

2011-12-08T08:49:00.002-05:00

Yankee recently made its third FarmStart investment to Corey and Ann Chapman of Tunbridge, VT:

Corey, age 32, has worked on dairy farms all of his life. In addition he served in the military for 6 years (he returned from a year long deployment in Afghanistan last December) and he ran his own concrete business. Corey’s wife Ann is currently a stay at home mom and is expecting their fourth child in February. Corey also does some snow plowing which provides additional income during the winter months.

During the 10 years that he worked for a local dairy farmer, Corey decided that dairy farming was what he wanted to do with his life. After he returned from Afghanistan last year he began managing a herd with the hope to buy the animals down the road. The opportunity to purchase those animals presented itself this fall.

Corey purchased a 50 cow organic Holstein herd with annual production of over 22,000 lbs/cow. He will rent the facilities and will have access to 60 acres of pasture land. Along with conventional financing, Corey applied for a $50,000 investment through FarmStart to help fund the purchase of the herd.

Yankee's FarmStart Advisor for the Chapmans is Morgan Greenwood Rilling, a loan officer in the White River Jct. office. Morgan says: "The Chapmans are the type of people that the FarmStart program was designed for and their eagerness and drive makes me look forward to being their advisor. They were excited to be given the opportunity to have someone work with them on the financial aspects of their business and felt that they could benefit greatly from a relationship with FarmStart."

ACORN Meeting

2011-12-02T10:47:00.000-05:00

Yankee Director Paul Saenger and Senior Vice President Ken Button attended a day meeting held at the American Legion in Middlebury on November 10, 2011. The topic was “Financing the Working Landscape”. It was organized by the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN), the Addison County Economic Development Corporation (ACEDC) and the Addison County Regional Planning Commission. Follow this link to a news report by the Addison Independent, it gives an excellent overview of the conference.

Promotion - Jean Conklin

2011-11-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to announce that Jean Conklin in our White River Jct. office has been promoted to Senior Loan Officer. This promotion recognizes the key role that Jean fills in our White River Jct. office in terms of providing both credit and financial services to customers.

Jean started work for Yankee Farm Credit in 2004. Previously she worked for 16 years for UNH Cooperative Extension as a dairy specialist. Jean is a Farm Credit Tax Specialist and Payroll Tax Specialist, as well as an IRS Enrolled Agent. She represents the Farm Credit System on the board of directors of the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge. She holds a bachelors degree in animal science from the University of New Hampshire, a masters degree in dairy management from Virginia Tech, and a masters degree in business administration from Plymouth State University. Miles, her husband, and Jean operate a family dairy farm in Haverhill, NH. Jean also serves on the board of directors of Co-operative Insurance Companies of Middlebury, VT, a position she has held since 2001.

Congratulations, Jean!

Director Nominations

2011-11-21T15:42:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year again when Yankee's Nominating Committee begins selecting director candidates for the elections in April 2012. There will be three elections, one director in each of the three regions. Each position is for a three year term. If you would like to be considered for nomination, please contact a member of the Nominating Committee at the numbers below or call your local branch.

Region #1 (Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle counties, Vt.; Essex and Clinton counties, N.Y.)
Arnold Mercy 802-326-4200
Wynn Paradee 802-524-4202
Mark Wrisley 518-963-4039

Region #2 (Caledonia, Essex, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Washington counties in Vt.; Coos and Grafton counties, N.H.)
Richard Hall 802-229-6342
Richard Martin 802-328-4120
Patrick Waterbury 802-785-4753

Region #3 (Addison, Bennington, Rutland, Windham, Windsor counties, Vt.; Cheshire and Sullivan counties, N.H.)
David Ainsworth 802-763-8017
Bruce Bascom 603-835-6361
Kim Harvey 802-483-6130

If you have any questions about the purpose or the procedures of the Nominating Committee, please contact John Peters, VP Operations at 800-639-3053.

You can find general information about the director nomination process and the role of directors on the Farm Credit Administration's web site.

Nicholas Bullock

2011-11-15T13:25:00.003-05:00

Nick Bullock was recently hired as a Financial Services Representative in the White River Jct. office. He comes to Yankee with 10 years of extensive experience in income tax preparation and record keeping. His education includes a BA degree in Business from Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA.

Nick has spent some time in the UK including a semester at Oxford University (Westminster College). In his spare time Nick likes outdoors activities such as hunting and fishing and enjoys community involvement.

Sharon Perry

2011-11-15T13:19:00.003-05:00

Sharon Perry started work as a Financial Services Assistant for the Association full time on October 5^th 2011. Prior to that she had worked part time in the appraisal department since July 2010. Sharon will be working out of the Chazy office in the tax and records program as well as continuing to assist with appraisals. Her past experience with bookkeeping will serve her well in her new role.

Sharon has two girls, Sierra and Tiffany and lives with husband Roy in Churubusco, NY. Outside of work she is an accomplished woodworker and enjoys a variety of arts and crafts.

FarmStart - Brandon Bucossi

2011-09-29T08:02:00.000-04:00

Yankee recently made its second FarmStart investment to Brandon Bucossi of Randolph, VT:

(Photo from The Herald of Randolph, July 21, 2011 issue.)

Brandon, age 21, runs Cer-Krit Jerseys, a 60 cow dairy farm. He grew up in southern Vermont and was not involved in agriculture until he was a young teenager when he began helping a neighbor with haying and eventually took an interest in raising beef animals.

After high school he chose to go to Vermont Technical College to study Dairy Herd Management and graduated with his associate’s degree in 2009. After a year of working for other farmers, Brandon decided in May of 2010 to start farming on his own. He purchased 60 cows and found a farm in Randolph to rent. After a year of high culling he was faced with heading into the fall with lower cow numbers, making his operation less efficient. For this reason he turned to FarmStart and applied for a $28,000 investment to purchase replacements.

Brandon is the type of business owner that FarmStart was designed for: skilled, young entrepreneurs that show promise of success. We look forward to working with Brandon in helping his business succeed so that he may have a strong future in Vermont’s dairy industry.

Brandon's FarmStart Advisor is Morgan Greenwood Rilling, a loan officer in the White River Jct. office.

FarmStart - Gleason/O'Rourke

2011-09-28T08:01:00.000-04:00

Steven Gleason and his partner Michelle O’Rourke were Yankee Farm Credit’s first FarmStart investment.

In May Steven and Michelle started Gleason's Custom Spreading and Hauling in Derby, VT. With the help of the FarmStart investment they were able to purchase a truck with a sliding manure tank spreader, a forage box, and ag flotation tires.

Steven, age 23, has spent his life working around agriculture. He grew up on his parent’s organic dairy farm and still helps out whenever he can. He has spent the last several years working for a custom hire operation and a local maple sugaring operation. His hands-on experience makes him a great investment for the FarmStart program.

Steven runs the day-to-day activities of the business. Michelle assists him with managing his accounts, as well as working part-time and caring for their young son.

The FarmStart Advisor for Steven and Michelle is Kelly Richardson, a loan officer in the Newport office. In addition to being a financial advisor, Kelly helped Steven and Michelle consider an appropriate business structure for their enterprise.

Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund

2011-09-26T11:12:00.005-04:00

The Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund was created by the Vermont Community Foundation (news release) and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture (news release) to help farmers affected by Tropical Storm Irene. Thanks to generous donors there is currently over $1 million available. Quick grants of up to $10,000 are available immediately. The deadline for applications is Friday, September 30. Applications are available here.

Vermont Ag Hall of Fame

2011-09-15T08:38:00.011-04:00

Four individuals were inducted into the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame on August 31st at the Champlain Valley Exposition:

Robert E. Graf (deceased)
Frederick H. Webster
Ed Eurich (deceased)
Kenley Squier

Congratulations to the 2011 inductees to the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame!

(Click on image to enlarge.)

This was the 9th induction ceremony. Here is the program from the ceremony, which lists all of the past winners:

Cassie Osgood - Farm Credit Fellow

2011-08-31T17:00:00.000-04:00

Cassie Osgood of New Haven, VT was in the St. Albans office the week of August 15-19 for her one week internship for the Farm Credit Fellows program. She has completed two years at Vermont Tech and is currently in her second year at UVM as part of the FARMS 2+2 program. She has been very active in 4-H and showing cattle for her family on Four Hills Farm.

Orleans County Fair

2011-08-29T10:34:00.002-04:00

The 144th Orleans County Fair was held this month from Wednesday the 17th through Sunday the 21st at the fairgrounds in Barton, VT. This year featured the new world record setting of the largest Cadillac parade at 298 cars, the new Farm-to-Plate restaurant called The Farmers Table, fresh cheese curds made daily at the one-of-a-kind Dairy on the Moove traveling cheese plant, and many more exciting activities.

Yankee was represented at the fair by staff and recognized for its financial support via dairy show premiums, and the Dairy on the Moove project. Loren Petzoldt, Randy Smith, Clara Hall, and Kelly Richardson all made the time to stop in.

Clara was there to assist her family, Fairmont Farm and Dairy, as well as the East Montpelier Udderly Crazy 4-H Club. Pictured is Clara with her sister Isabel.

Kelly Richardson is a director for the Orleans County Fair.

Yankee Directors in the News

2011-07-01T18:00:00.001-04:00

Two magazines have recently mentioned several Yankee directors.

Steve Taylor and his family were featured in the Spring 2011 edition of UNH Magazine Online. Steve graduated from UNH in 1962. All of us here at Yankee extend sincere condolences to Steve and his family on the recent death of Steve's wife, Gretchen—also a 1962 UNH graduate, shortly after the publication of that article.

The newest Yankee director, Paul Franklin, is also mentioned in the article about Steve Taylor.

Yankee Chairperson Paul Gingue and his family were featured in the Spring 2011 edition of Vermont Fences, published by Vermont Farm Bureau. (Not available online.) The article is about how the Gingue family farming operation expanded to accommodate four sons.

The same issue of Vermont Fences includes an article about former Yankee director Rupert Chamberlin and his wife Muriel. Rupert and Muriel recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Rupert is a past president of Vermont Farm Bureau. The current president of Vermont Farm Bureau, Clark Hinsdale III, is also a former Yankee director.

NEASDA Meeting at Jay Peak

2011-06-06T08:33:00.000-04:00

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) assists the 50 state departments of agriculture with development, implementation and communication of sound public policy. NASDA was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

NASDA is divided into four regions. The northeast region, known as NEASDA (NE=northeast), includes ten states: the six New England states, NY, NJ, PA and DE. Each summer NEASDA holds a meeting in one of those ten states. This year's NEASDA meeting is at Jay Peak on June 5-7 (info). Yankee and Farm Credit East are sponsors of this meeting.

The events on the first day of the meeting included the presentation of a donation to Keep Local Farms from Ski Vermont:

Left to right: Parker Riehle, President of Ski Vermont; Jane Clifford, representing Keep Local Farms; and Diane Bothfeld, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture for Vermont.

Jay Peak is presently undergoing a major expansion, including new lodges, golf course and clubhouse, indoor ice arena, and covered water park. Parts of the expansion are now complete. The rest is under construction and will be completed over the next nine months or so. Below is a photo from the tram of the newest lodge under construction. The waterpark is to the right.

New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association

2011-05-26T11:18:00.002-04:00

The New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA) was formed as a result of cooperation between woodland owners and the state and federal governments and originally worked primarily in forest fire control. Today, NHTOA is a statewide trade association including landowners, foresters, loggers, truckers, mill owners, manufacturers, and others in the industry.

On May 20-22, 2011 NHTOA held their 100th annual meeting and centennial celebration. The event was held at the Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield, New Hampshire. There were field trips featuring old and modern forestry equipment and demonstrating silviculture objectives.

Yankee Farm Credit, ACA was proud to be a sponsor of this event. Christopher Bessette, Senior Loan Officer, from White River Junction and Ken Button, Senior Vice President, from Middlebury represented Yankee Farm Credit. They are pictured to the right on their way to various equipment demonstrations.

AgEnhancement Grants

2011-05-24T16:45:00.001-04:00

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program recently awarded grants totaling $26,550 to 10 organizations. The grants help promote northeast agriculture. The recipients were:

Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water Conservation District - $500 to support development of a new program in Maine focused on reducing farm energy costs while improving farm productivity and profitability.

Concord Grape Belt Heritage Association - $5,000 to complete exhibits for the Grape Discovery Center, a major visitor attraction which will support the Eastern Lake Erie Grape Industry. The Center will tell the story of grape growing in the region for over 150 years.

Maine TREE Foundation - $5,000 to support the Teachers’ Tours of the Maine Forest program. This program provides teachers with a first-hand experience to share with students, colleagues and their community.

New Hampshire Farm to Restaurant Connection - $500 to support their efforts to establish a certification program to ensure that restaurants advertising they serve local products are, in fact, using significant amounts of local farm products.

New York FFA Foundation - $11,550 to support a four day leadership development program for FFA officers from seven states (New England states and New York). (This is approved as 7 state requests for $1,650 per state.)

New York Pork Producers Empire Swine Youth Program - $1,000 for a youth program and contest held at the New York State fair. This multi-faceted program involves contests on the knowledge of the swine industry, management capabilities and interviewing skills.

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Connecticut - $500 to support a New Farmer Summit that will allow information sharing on local food production opportunities.

Orleans County, NY Cooperative Extension - $500 to support the Western New York educational event to promote the capine industry (Goat-A-Palooza). The event includes workshops for youth and adults.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension - $1,000 to support the New Jersey 4-H Equine Science programs which use a “Learn by Doing” approach to educate youth about all types of agriculture.

Walton Regional Livestock Show - $1,000 to support a regional livestock show to encourage and promote the breeding, raising and marketing of better livestock and farm products.

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program is a shared effort of Farm Credit East, Yankee Farm Credit, Farm Credit of Maine and CoBank. Grants are awarded in April, August and December each year. Since its inception in 1996 the program has awarded 457 grants totaling $1.2 million.

NH 4-H Golf Tournament

2011-05-24T10:42:00.003-04:00

The 8th Annual Tom Fairchild Friend of NH 4-H Golf Tournament was held on May 20th at Candia Woods Golf Links in Candia, NH. Approximately 100 people participated, and the event raised about $21,000 for NH 4-H.

Yankee Farm Credit was a Bronze Sponsor. Below are Wendy Brock and Tom St. Pierre. Wendy is the Program Leader for 4-H Youth Development with UNH Cooperative Extension. Tom is a Yankee Farm Credit loan officer in our St. Albans office.

Lisa Gravel, Dena Verdin, Kyle Lussier and Tom St. Pierre represented Yankee this year:

Cameron Clark - Farm Credit Fellow

2011-05-23T10:46:00.002-04:00

Cameron Clark of Williston, VT was in the Newport office this past week as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program. Cameron is the 8th generation on the family farm. She has completed two years at Vermont Tech and just finished her first year at UVM as part of the FARMS 2+2 program. Next spring she will graduate with her bachelor’s degree in Animal Science. For the last four years she has boarded heifers for a nearby dairy and continued to crop or rent out the crop land. After graduation she plans to start the dairy farm back up as an organic dairy and begin utilizing the sugarbush on the farm. Best wishes to Cameron from the Newport office and congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Katie Bliss - Farm Credit Fellow

2011-05-23T10:45:00.004-04:00

Katie Bliss- of Bliss, NY was in the Middlebury office the week of May 16-20 for her one week internship for the Farm Credit Fellow program. Katie is an agricultural science major with a concentration in business at Cornell University and will graduate in May 2012 with a BA of Science. Her family runs a dairy replacement operation. After graduating Katie wants to pursue a career in ag finance.

Ricky Hall - Farm Credit Fellow

2011-05-23T10:33:00.004-04:00

Written by Ricky Hall...

I am going into my senior year at Cornell University, majoring in Dairy Management. I am from an 1100 cow Holstein farm in East Montpelier, Vermont. I look forward to the Farm Credit Fellows program to get a better understanding of agricultural finance overall, but more specifically how Farm Credit works and understanding the basis for agricultural lending. I plan on pursuing a career in dairy production. I will be doing an internship on a 700 cow dairy in northern New York this summer to get a feel for managing a farm and everything it entails.

Farm Credit Fellows

2011-05-23T10:27:00.012-04:00

The Farm Credit Fellows program is once again getting students involved in Farm Credit and learning about ag lending by putting them out in offices throughout New York and New England. This week there are three students in Yankee territory alone. Another will come later in the summer.

The one-week internship program has 28 students this year from the University of Vermont, the University of Maine, and Cornell University. While visiting a Farm Credit office students are learning about the relationship between lenders and members, understanding financials, and how understanding the numbers can help you run a better business.

The students from the University of Vermont are pictured below at their spring trip to Farm Credit East in Enfield, CT.

The four Fellows that will be visiting Yankee Farm Credit are:
Cameron Clark - Newport, May 16-20
Katie Bliss - Middlebury, May 16-20
Ricky Hall - White River Junction, May 16-20
Cassie Osgood - St. Albans, August 15-19

For more info on the Farm Credit Fellows program contact Kelly Richardson in the Newport office.

Greg LeDuc

2011-05-20T13:19:00.004-04:00

I am pleased to announce that Greg LeDuc has joined our staff as Chief Financial Officer. Greg came to Yankee from 13 years at Vermont Teddy Bear Company where he was most recently their Vice President, Finance. Greg lives in Colchester and will be working out of our Williston office. If you have the opportunity - stop by and say "hi" to Greg!

10th Annual Flavors of the Valley

2011-04-21T14:22:00.004-04:00

Jean Conklin, Loan Officer, and Desi Gauthier, Office Assistant, attended the 10th Annual Flavors of the Valley was held on Sunday, April 17th at Hartford High School. Billed as the premier expo for locally grown food in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, this event, organized by Vital Communities featured over 50 vendors. The Co-Op Food Stores of Hanover and Lebanon, NH and White River Junction, VT were the site sponsor. The event was attended by over 1,300 people and provided the opportunity to meet local farmers and chefs, buy local food, as well as sample tasty tidbits.

Vendors included: Blue Ox Farm, Bountiful Backyards Bees, Bunten Farmhouse Kitchen, Canoe Club, Cedar Circle Farm and Educational Center, Cedar Mountain Farm, Cobb Hill Cheese, Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt, Country Critters, D Acres of New Hampshire, Delicata Catering, Edgewater Farm, Edible White Mountain, Flora Fauna Farm, Gizmo’s Pickled Plus, Green Mountain Flour, Harmony Farm, Hogwash Farm, Home Hill Country Inn and Restaurant, Hulbert Outdoor Center, Idlewood, The Restaurant/Marceau’s Fine Foods, Juniper Hill Inn, Killdeer Farm, King Arthur Flour, Lyme Inn, Murphy’s, NH Cheesemaker’s Guild, NH Dept. of Agriculture, NOFA-VT, Norwich Inn, Oak Knoll Dairy, Parmelee Farm, Piermont Plant Pantry, Red Kite Candy Company, Rocky Top Beefalo and Swine Farm, Spring Ledge Farm, Sugarbush Farm, Taylor Brothers Farm, The Song Garden, Thompson Goat Farm, Transition Town, Upper Valley Farm to School Network, Upper Valley Land Trust, Valley Food & Farm, Vermont Chocolatiers, Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company, Vermont Smoke and Cure, Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery and Walpole Creamery.

10th Anniversary Dairy Challenge

2011-04-15T11:24:00.010-04:00

An innovative dairy educational program celebrated its 10th anniversary March 31-April 2 in Hickory, NC with 127 students from 30 colleges participating. Over 10 years, North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge (NAIDC) has helped prepare over 3,000 students for careers in the dairy industry. Farm Credit is a 5 star platinum sponsor of this event which hosts 4 regional and 1 national contest each year. The program is fully funded through the generous support of companies and producer associations serving the dairy industry, as well as a growing number of alumni and individual dairy farm owners.

Yankee's territory was well represented with 13 students on 4 teams representing UNH, UVM and Cornell as well as a member on an aggregate team formed to fill the 32 available team slots. Cornell received a Platinum Award and was represented by Jason McNamara(NH), Corey Kayhart(VT) Matthew Bull(NY) and Samuel Fessenden(NY). Both UNH and UVM received Gold Awards and were represented by Trevor Beaudry, Bridget O'Donnell, Nicol Antaya, and Nicole Guindon from UNH and Rayan Carabeau, Dallas Barabeau, Ashley Beaudoin, Nicholas Manning and Cassie Osgood from UVM.

Pictured above from Vermont are: Cassie Osgood, Wanda Emerich, Coach, Ashley Beaudon, Nicholas Manning, Ryan Carabeau

Pictured at left from Cornell are: Matthew Bull, Michael Van Amburgh, Corey Kayhart, Samuel Fessenden, Jason McNamara

Pictured at left are:

Bridget O’Donnell, Nicole Guindon, Nicole Antaya, Trevor Beaudry, Peter Erickson, Coach

2011 Northeast Youth Show Calf Summit

2011-04-15T11:19:00.004-04:00

The 2011 Northeast Youth Show Calf Summit was held on April 1st and 2nd at Cowtown Holsteins in Derby, Vermont. The Calf Summit is open to all youth in the northeast that are interested in showing dairy cattle of any breed. In this fourth year of the Summit the approximately 150 participants attended clinics and workshops to learn more about showing and the dairy industry from some of the biggest names in the show world. Yankee Farm Credit was a sponsor of the Summit this year and Kelly Richardson from the Newport office attended the event to lend a hand. Isabel Hall of Fairmont Farm in East Montpelier was an eager participant this year. She was kind enough to model her new t-shirt received at registration that shows the sponsors of this years event. Please click here for more information about the event.

Director Election Results

2011-04-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

The last of four annual meetings was held last night in St. Albans, VT. Members completed voting for directors, ballots were counted, and the results were announced before the meeting was adjourned. Elected to three year terms on the board of directors were:

Region 1 – Celeste Kane-Stebbins
Region 2 – Walter Gladstone
Region 3 – Paul Franklin

Congratulations to Celeste, Walt and Paul. And thanks to CJ Manchester and Paul Harlow for participating in the elections as candidates. There were 159 ballots cast this year, which was 14% of eligible voters.

Thank you to everyone for participating, and a special thanks to employees for organizing and running successful meetings.

For comparison, voter participation in recent years was:

2010 - 164 ballots (15%)
2009 - 180 ballots (17%)
2008 - 151 ballots (15%)

Food from the Farm: Eating Local in Clinton County

2011-03-30T14:02:00.009-04:00

We are fortunate here in the Northeast to have an abundance of agriculture, and hence, a wide variety of local foods. On Saturday, March 19, nearly 200 people gathered in Plattsburgh to enjoy a delicious meal prepared with local foods from Northern NY’s Clinton and Essex Counties. The event, “Food from the Farm: Eating Local in Clinton County,” was put on by Cornell Cooperative Extension in conjunction with Adirondack Harvest.

Local chef and owner of The Great Adirondack Soup Company, Chris Dominianni prepared a meal that featured local meat, produce, fruit preserves, and maple syrup. Participating producers included: The Bakery at Conroy’s Organics in West Chazy; Campbell’s Greenhouses in Saranac; Caton Acres Farm in Saranac; Everett Orchards in Peru; Fledging Crow Vegetables in Keeseville; Gonyo’s Sweet Corn & Vegetables in West Chazy; Hid-In-Pines Vineyard in Morrisonville; Jubert-Castine Farms in West Chazy; Northern Orchard in Peru; Parker Family Maple Farm in West Chazy; Quarry Garden Vegetable & Art Farm in Chazy; Rehoboth Homestead in Peru; Rulf’s Orchard in Peru; Saranac Valley Farms in Saranac; Shields Vegetables in Plattsburgh; Suprenant’s Berry Farm in Mooers; and Underwood Herbs in Plattsburgh.

The event provided a unique opportunity to meet the producers and get a deeper appreciation of our local farmers and enjoy a delightful meal.

Vermont Dairy Producers' Conference

2011-03-28T08:32:00.002-04:00

The Vermont Dairy Producers’ Conference was held on February 24, 2011 at the Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center in South Burlington. There were 40 vendors and 230 registered attendees. Tony Kitsos from UVM Extension made the opening remarks and led the conference. Yankee Farm Credit Employees Mike Farmer, Kelly Richardson, Tom St. Pierre and Clara Hall were present at the conference. To read more about the conference please click here.

Facebook

2011-03-23T15:20:00.002-04:00

Yankee now has a presence on Facebook! Check it out.

2010 Annual Report

2011-03-16T09:46:00.001-04:00

Our 2010 Annual Report is now available on our website. Thanks to all our members, employees and directors who help Yankee continue to be a successful Association. Special thanks go out to the Maxwell Family from Coventry for letting us share part of their history on our cover.

Dairy Challenge Training

2011-03-16T09:15:00.006-04:00

On March 2nd Mike Farmer concluded a two day training session for the Northeast Dairy Challenge at Miner Institute. Yankee has sponsored and provided training for the Dairy Challenge program for 6 years. This years students include Cassie Osgood, Ashley Beaudoin, Dallas Carabeau, Ryan Carabeau, Nicholas Manning, John Franklin, and Cameron Clark. All 7 students are enrolled in the FARMS 2+2 Program at VTC and UVM and spend one semester at Miner Institute.

This year North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge will be held March 31 to April 2 and hosted by North Carolina State University & Virginia Tech. It will be held in Hickory, NC. Please check out the website at http://www.dairychallenge.org/ for the history and purpose of the Dairy Challenge.

What Ceres Might Say

2011-03-01T07:59:00.006-05:00

Roger Allbee has a new blog, What Ceres Might Say, where he will write about Vermont's rich agricultural history. Roger was Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture from January 2007 to January 2011.

Roger is familiar to readers of this blog. In fact he was responsible for the start of this blog. The initial purpose of this blog was to document my trip to China in October 2007 as part of an agricultural delegation from Vermont led by Roger.

Ceres was the Roman goddess of agriculture, and there is a statue of her atop the golden dome of the Statehouse in Montpelier. I included the above photo with my column in the Summer 2007 issue of Financial Partner magazine: Ceres watches over an ever-changing landscape (5 MB PDF file, see p. 2).

Roger, welcome to blogging! I look forward to reading your posts about the history of Vermont agriculture.

Dairy Farmer Appreciation Day at Jay Peak

2011-02-07T08:48:00.004-05:00

A good time was had by all at the Jay Peak Resort in Jay, Vermont on Friday, January 28, 2011. Once again Jay Peak Resort hosted Farmer Appreciation Day also known as Farmer Ski Day. The weather was perfect – the snow conditions ideal and before the day was over 300 plus farmers and families enjoyed a day of skiing and snowboarding. This was the 23rd year in a row that Jay has hosted this popular event. Rob Guay, Appraiser Trainee from the Chazy office; and Ken Buzzell, Senior Vice President of the Newport office, attended the event for Yankee and donated a few door prizes.
At left are: Dan Laggis, John Laggis and Ted Foster from Laggis Brothers Farm in Hardwick, Vermont and Ken Buzzell preparing to ride the lift to the top.

Each Vermont dairy farm has the opportunity to take advantage of discounted rental equipment, free lessons and up to three complimentary lift passes. An après-ski party is held following the day on the slopes and fun events are held throughout the day. If you missed it this year, mark you calendars for next January! It is a great chance to enjoy what the Vermont winter has to offer. For more information please check out the Jay Peak website.

2011 Vermont Farm Show

2011-02-04T08:42:00.001-05:00

The 2011 Vermont Farm Show was held January 25 - 27, 2011 at the Barre Civic Center in Barre, VT. Many thanks to the employees who represented Yankee over the three day event: Loren Petzoldt, Kendra Burroughs, Chris Bessette, Ken Nelson, Jean Conklin, Kyle Lussier, Tom St. Pierre, Chuck Custeau, Clara Hall, Ken Button, Jeff Temple, Ken Buzzell and Kelly Richardson. Yankee was one of 140 exhibitors present this year.

Ken Buzzell and Jeff Temple are pictured in Yankee’s booth with their “best of show” ribbon!

There were many annual banquets and meetings around the area during the Farm Show. Some of the organizations that held meetings were: the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association, the Vermont Christmas Tree Association, Vermont Beekeepers Association, Vermont Organic Farmers, Vermont Maple Sugarmaker’s Association, Vermont FFA, LFO Farmers and the Vermont Dairy Industry Association. Yankee congratulates the winners in the various categories from the Dairy banquet on January 27, 2010.

The 2010 Vermont Dairy Farmer of the year is the Swanton Family, Longway Farms, please click here for more details.

The John C. Finley Award went to Enid Wonnacott, NOFA. This award is presented annually for distinguished service to Vermont agriculture. John C. Finley was the Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture and a great advocate for agriculture in Vermont.

Milk Quality Awards:
- Overall Dairy Winner: Meyer Farm, Hardwick
- Best Somatic Cell Count: Meyer Farm
- Best Raw Count: Richardson Farm, Hartland
- Best Pasteurized Count: Richardson Farm
- Best PI Count: Briggs Farm, Addison
- Best Flavor: Coarse Farm

Each year the Farm Show holds the “Political Pull”, this year the House won the competition once again. Check out this link for more on that story and a short clip from WCAX.

2011 Vermont Maple Conferences

2011-02-02T13:51:00.003-05:00

The University of Vermont Extension, Addison County Maple Sugarmakers’ Association and Vermont Maple Sugarmakers’ Association held the annual Vermont Maple Conferences January 15 in Middlebury, January 22 in Hyde Park, and January 29 in Bellows Falls. Ken Button attended Middlebury, Tom St Pierre (pictured) and Rob Guay Hyde Park, and Ken Nelson and Kendra Burroughs Bellows Falls. Yankee employees had a display at each location. Attendance is very strong at these conferences with over 700 registrations.

Various topics on the agendas included marketing, forest management, maple pests, vacuum and tubing systems and more. A very informative session titled “state of the industry” was led by Gary Gaudet, President of Leader Evaporator.

Rob Guay also attended the Adirondack Maple School at Miner Institute on January 28. This educational conference was put on by the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Research on the effects of tap contamination were displayed as well as tips on value added products. This was well attended with approximately 30 producers from Clinton County. The Extension is doing one in each county in New York.

2010 Patronage Refund

2011-02-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Board of Directors has approved a patronage refund for 2010 of $3,659,000, payable 100% in cash. The 2010 patronage refund is 1.00% of average member loan volume and 52% of net income.

In comparison, the 2009 patronage refund was $2,573,000. There are two reasons the size of the patronage refund increased by more than $1 million from 2009 to 2010. First, we increased the patronage refund rate from 0.80% in 2009 to 1.00% in 2010. Second, in 2009 and previous years we paid patronage refunds only on member loan volume held by the Association. Beginning in 2010 we are generally paying patronage refunds on all member loan volume originated by the Association. We made this change as part of our response to new accounting rules (FAS 166) that became effective in 2010.

Payment of the patronage refund is contingent upon satisfactory completion of the 2010 audit and the Association's receipt of its 2010 patronage refund from CoBank. Both conditions are expected to be satisfied in March, and payment of the 2010 patronage refund is tentatively scheduled for March 25, 2011.

Payment will be made via ACH for customers who were signed up for electronic funds transfer as of December 31, 2010. The plan for ACH customers is to mail the statement on Wednesday, March 23 and initiate the ACH transaction on Thursday, March 24. Most ACH customers should receive the funds in their bank account on Friday, March 25.

Introducing Randy Smith

2011-01-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

I'm pleased to announce that Randy Smith has joined the Yankee staff as a credit analyst/tax specialist in our Newport office. Randy has worked part-time for Yankee since July 2009 as a farm tax assistant. In 2010 Randy passed the Farm Credit Tax Specialist exam, and he became a full-time employee on December 31st.

Previously Randy worked in various engineering jobs for Vermont Electric Cooperative and the Vermont Electric Division of Citizens Communications Company in Newport. He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

2011 Director Nominees

2011-01-22T09:45:00.003-05:00

The Nominating Committee has nominated the following individuals for director:

Region 1:
Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Sheldon, VT

Region 2:
Walter Gladstone, Bradford, VT
CJ Manchester, Cambridge, VT

Region 3:
Paul Harlow, Westminster, VT
Paul Franklin, Plainfield, NH

One director from each region will be elected at the 2011 Annual Meeting which will be held in four sectional meetings April 4-12, 2011. Nominations from the floor are allowed, but may be made only at the first sectional meeting on April 4 in Middlebury. Voting members as of February 28, 2011 will be eligible to vote at Annual Meeting.

Directors serve for 3-year terms, and are subject to term limits of four 3-year terms. Both Ms. Stebbins and Mr. Gladstone are incumbents in their first term. There is no incumbent running in Region 3 this year because current director Paul Doton has reached his term limit. The next time after 2011 that there will be an "open" seat in each region due to term limits, and the current director who would reach their term limit at that time, is as follows:

Region 1 - 2015 - Rocky Giroux (if re-elected in 2012)
Region 2 - 2012 - Paul Gingue
Region 3 - 2019 - Paul Saenger (if re-elected in 2013 and 2016)

See this post for definitions of the regions and contact information for the Nominating Committee.

Promotions - Northern Region

2011-01-18T18:45:00.001-05:00

I am pleased to announce two promotions in the Northern Region, which includes our St. Albans, Newport and Chazy offices.

Mike Farmer is being promoted to Senior Vice President/Regional Manager; he will remain the St. Albans office manager. Loren Petzoldt is being promoted to Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager in the Newport office. Both promotions will be effective 3/01/11, upon Ken Buzzell's retirement.

Mike has 21 years of experience with Farm Credit. He was hired as a loan officer in the White River Jct. office of the Connecticut Valley association in 1989. In 1998 Mike moved to the St. Albans office as a senior loan officer. He was promoted to assistant vice president in 2005 and vice president in 2008. Mike is a Farm Credit tax specialist and a certified general real estate appraiser in Vermont. He holds a degree in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Vermont.

Loren has 24 years of experience with Farm Credit. He worked for the Farm Credit Administration as an associate examiner for three years beginning in 1986. He was hired as a loan officer in the Newport office of the Connecticut Valley association in 1989. In 2004 Loren was promoted to senior loan officer, and in 2005 he began to split his time between the St. Albans and Newport offices. Loren is a Farm Credit tax specialist. He holds a degree in applied economics and business management from Cornell University.

Congratulations to Mike and Loren!

Please note we are posting a loan officer position in St. Albans. Details on our web site: Career Opportunities.

Steve Taylor Promotes Cabot Cheese

2011-01-17T21:00:00.003-05:00

This YouTube video promoting Cabot Cheese features Yankee Director Steve Taylor:

What about Evelyn's Jack Cheese and Mill Hollow Cheese??

Farm to Plate

2011-01-13T17:30:00.006-05:00

Yesterday the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund released the Executive Summary of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan: a 10-year strategic plan for Vermont's food system.

Ellen Kahler, executive director of the VSJF, made the presentation at a press conference in the statehouse in Montpelier. Also speaking were Governor Peter Shumlin, Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross, Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Miller, and numerous members of the legislature. All were enthusiastic about this initiative. House Agriculture Committee Chair Carolyn Partridge said to remember just four words: "Vermont agriculture means business."

Click here for more info
Download the Executive Summary (4 MB PDF file)

Yankee participation in the Farm to Plate initiative over the past 18 months has included:

- VP/Operations John Peters participated in a focus group on 11/18/09
- Records & Tax Specialist Lisa Gravel participated in a working session on 3/03/10
- Vice President Jeff Temple participated in the Statewide Food Summit on 4/10/10

Senior Vice President Ken Button has also participated. In 2009 Kit Perkins visited Ken in his office and spent a couple of hours learning about Farm Credit. Kit is the Farm to Plate project manager at VSJF.

New Payroll Tax Rates for 2011

2011-01-11T07:07:00.002-05:00

These are important changes for every employer:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/newsroom/notice_1036.pdf

Tax Tip Newsletters

2011-01-10T12:21:00.004-05:00

For the latest edition of our Tax Tip Newsletter please click here. You will find articles about the following:

1) Reminder - Federal Tax Deposit Coupons No Longer Available
2) Changes for 2010
3) Self Employes Health Insurance Premiums will Reduce SE Tax for 2010
4) Domestic Production Activities Deduction

If you missed our July issue - it featured the following:

1) HIRE Act and Agricultural Business
2) General Payroll Tax Overview
3) Recent Tax Law Change to Payroll Deposits May Affect You.

Liz Bayne - Appraiser

2011-01-07T14:00:00.003-05:00

I am pleased to announce that Liz Bayne has earned the status of Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in Vermont.

The requirements to become a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser are daunting. They include 300 classroom hours in a rigorous training program developed by the Appraisal Qualifications Board, a board of The Appraisal Foundation, and administered by the individual states. Another requirement is 3,000 hours of supervised appraisal practice. The applicant must also pass a comprehensive final examination, in addition to tests in the various training sessions.

Liz completed her course work and passed the comprehensive exam last fall. This week she completed the final step in the process, which was the acceptance of her appraisal practice hours by the Vermont Board of Real Estate Appraisers.

Liz has advised Farm Credit customers on complex tax issues for more than 30 years. She is a Farm Credit Tax Specialist and an IRS Enrolled Agent. Her appraisal expertise together with her tax expertise present a unique combination that we hope will benefit Farm Credit customers for many years to come.

Special thanks to Vice President/Director-Appraisal Services Geoff Yates for mentoring Liz during her appraiser trainee period.

Congratulations, Liz, on this significant accomplishment!

National Dairy Producers Organization

2010-12-31T16:27:00.010-05:00

A new organization in the dairy industry is the National Dairy Producers Organization. Headquartered in Fresno, California, the NDPO was organized last September. The primary organizer is Tom Van Nortwick, editor of Agribusiness Dairyman magazine.

The NDPO seeks to represent dairy producers regardless of size or region. The mission of the NDPO is to influence dairy policy discussions—with the goal of improving profitability for producers. The organization has formed a board of directors, and is in the process of forming state delegations.

The board chair is Bill Rowell. Readers of this blog will recognize Mr. Rowell. Together with his brother Brian Rowell, Bill is involved in Green Mountain Dairy in Sheldon, VT, which was Vermont Farm of the Year in 2008. The Yankee board and staff toured Green Mountain Dairy last summer. Bill Rowell has been active in recent dairy policy discussions through Dairy Farmers Working Together.

Click here for more information (1 MB PDF file) about the National Dairy Producers Organization including a membership application.

News articles about the formation of the National Dairy Producers Organization:
The Evening Sun 10/11/10
The Country Today 11/10/10
Capital Press 11/19/10

UPDATE 1/04/11: Additional information about the National Dairy Producers Organization and more links can be found in the first comment.

UPDATE 1/13/11: The NDPO has approved a Contract with Producers which states its positions.

UPDATE 1/27/11: The NDPO will hold a conference call specifically for Vermont dairy producers on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 8:00 PM. The call in number is 424-203-8000, the participant code is 327974 #. For more information contact Bill Rowell.

UPDATE 1/27/11: The NDPO will hold its first annual meeting at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, on Feb. 8-10. All dairy producers are invited to attend. For more information contact Bill Rowell.

Two Senior Management Positions Open

2010-12-30T18:00:00.001-05:00

We have openings for two senior management positions on our staff: a Senior Vice President/Regional Manager and a Chief Financial Officer. Details on our web site here:

Career Opportunities

The SVP/Regional Manager position is for our Northern Region. This position is to replace Ken Buzzell who is retiring next March after nearly 30 years of service.

The CFO position is a new position. We have not had a senior manager with that title since 2003.

If you know of anyone who might be a good fit for either position, please feel free to refer them to the link above. Anyone with questions may contact either Ruchel or me.

LGM-Dairy Update

2010-12-30T17:00:00.007-05:00

Below is the second report from a dairy farmer using Livestock Gross Margin insurance (LGM-Dairy):

LGM-Dairy Blog Update

It has been awhile since I last wrote, but I thought I would write an update with our latest.

I think since I last wrote, LGM-Dairy has picked up a lot of interest and awareness. I know it was a topic of conversation with my husband’s family at Thanksgiving. His cousin was thinking of signing up for it and found out that there was only two contracts in the whole state that had been signed up till then – you guessed it, ours!

We shared our strategy with him – basically to maintain some sort of coverage at all times, or for however long we can. But really, we’re just testing it all out! We are using the default feed rations and trying out 100 cwts per month of coverage.

We should find out what happens for the December actual margin in the next few days. We first signed up in October, so December is our first month of coverage.

We also signed up in November for January margin coverage. We did the same thing that we did the previous month. However, we did change things up for the December sign-ups. A bunch of changes have been made and put into place for the program starting with applications completed in December.

You no longer pay the premium up front, but rather at the end of the premium. Boy, does that take a hurdle out of signing up! For our low level of coverage- 100 cwts - the premium was not too bad for one month. But if we wanted to consider signing up more than one month, ten for example, that means we would have had to pay ten times what we were!
There is a subsidy to go against the premium now, but you have to sign up for a minimum of two months. So, we signed up 100 cwts for two months – February and March. In the future I think we may look to sign up for more consecutive months.
There are also deductibles that you can take off the top to help with your premium if you are signing up a lot of margin coverage. With our 25 cows, 100 cwts actually ends up being 22% of our total monthly milk production. We may look to increase that somehow – whether its overlap coverage so at any given time 44% of our margin and/or to simply increase the cwts of coverage.>

Another consideration we may make at some point is to figure out how our feed ration compares to the default and if it would advantageous to convert the energy in our ration and use our own.

I’m excited that the program is catching on. No doubt volatility is here to stay – even if we do reform milk pricing in the U.S. A paper that was put out by Mark Stephensen and Chuck Nicholson that analyzed the different policy proposals showed different levels of impact on a future projected price. One thing was true of all the proposals, however, while volatility may have been lessened, it was not eliminated.

There are tools out there already existing like LGM-Dairy and there are more to be created I’m sure to help alleviate this risk. I don’t want to wait for reform that may or may not happen. We’re taking whatever steps right now to try to manage the swings better. Someone once said, “If it is to be, it is up to me.”

************************************************************************
Many thanks to our anonymous farmer for sharing this experience with us!

See also:
Testing LGM-Dairy (the first report in this series)
LGM-Dairy Calculations (online LGM Analyzer)

Anyone with questions may post a comment on any of these blog posts. You may also directly e-mail our insurance agent Shantel Thomas or me.

UPDATE 1/03/11: Shantel had a baby boy this morning! Both mother and son are doing well. Until Shantel returns from maternity leave, Yankee's contact for crop insurance and LGM-Dairy insurance is Jeremy Forrett of Crop Growers. Anyone with questions can e-mail Jeremy or me.

AgEnhancement Grants

2010-12-29T16:00:00.009-05:00

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program recently awarded grants totaling $32,360 to 16 organizations. The grants are intended to promote northeast agriculture. The recipients were:

New York Farm Bureau Young Farmers Program - $1,000 to support a leadership development conference to provide educational and motivational sessions for young farmers.

Down East Business Alliance - $1,000 to support workshops and speakers at the Maine Farmers’ Market Convention. The event provides direct marketing training for farmers and farmers’ market managers.

Vermont Holstein Association - $2,000 to support their Northeast Show Calf Summit in April. This event brings together over 150 youth from New England and New York to educate both farm and non-farm youth on animal agriculture and the selection and care of dairy heifers.

Harvest New England - $2,000 to support the 2011 Harvest New England Agricultural Marketing Conference & Trade Show. The funds will be used for speaker sponsorships. The focus and goal of the conference is to provide the participants with the tools and skills needed to increase markets for agricultural products and grow New England agriculture.

Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA–VT) - $500 to support their Annual Winter Conference, which brings together nearly 1,500 organic farmers, to take part in a variety of workshops.

University of New Hampshire (UNH) Dairy Club - $3,500 to support the Northeast Student Affiliate Animal Agriculture Academic Triathlon. This event is expected to draw 160 animal science or agricultural college students from 13 colleges and universities in the Northeast.

New York Holstein Association - $1,000 to support their annual New York Spring Dairy Carousel which offers judging contests to develop leadership skills and increases knowledge of cattle.

Cornell Dairy Fellows Program - $5,000 to provide an in-depth understanding of the dairy industry for its current class of Fellows. Cornell Dairy Fellows is a comprehensive undergraduate program that is nationally recognized as one of the best training opportunities for students considering careers in the dairy industry.

Granite State Association of FFA - $1,000 to support a leadership training conference for high school students of agriculture. The weekend-long program will include sessions on goal setting, character development, teamwork, agricultural issues and leadership skills.

Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) - $500 to support the NOFA-NY Winter Conference held in January. The conference will provide workshops on farm profitability and business planning, organic farming methods, marketing, and other topics.

Connecticut Agricultural Education Foundation - $3,000 to purchase selected books for educating about agriculture. This Ag Literacy program is in support of its mission of fostering awareness, understanding and a positive public perception of agriculture, and an appreciation of Connecticut’s agriculture and the food, fiber, flower and fuel system.

New York State Maple Producers Association - $1,500 for the Maple Producer’s Association Urban Youth Education project. This ongoing project brings local maple agriculture to the urban elementary/middle school students of New York City.

Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom - $2,860 to initiate a new effort for educators who are new to classroom teaching or who work in low-income urban communities. The new Agriculture in the Classroom scholarship initiative for teachers will promote an understanding of agriculture and develop connections from the farm to the classroom. The teachers will then educate children about modern day agriculture.

New Jersey Agricultural Society - $5,000 to support the New Jersey Agricultural Leadership Development Program which provides young farmers and agri-business professionals with the training and support to become leaders in the agricultural industry.

Northeast Livestock Exposition - $2,000 to support this group’s Youth Events segment of the Exposition which will focus on the variety of agricultural careers available to youth in the Northeast. Skill development, knowledge of the many facets of agri-business, leadership and teamwork skills are the focus of this three day event.

Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) - $500 to support their one-day Winter Conference to provide training, mentoring and resources to new and beginner farmers and the next generation of farmers; children and youth and those educators who have successfully integrated agriculture into academic curricula.

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program is a shared effort of Farm Credit East, Yankee Farm Credit, Farm Credit of Maine and CoBank. Grants are awarded in April, August and December each year. For 2010 the program awarded 41 grants totaling $92,160. Since its inception in 1996 the program has awarded 448 grants totaling $1.2 million.

Celebrating the Fruits of Local Agriculture

2010-12-28T08:00:00.006-05:00

Each Christmas Yankee directors and employees celebrate the diversity of local agriculture with a selection of tasty food products from farmers in Yankee's territory. This year's selection included:

Sheep Sticks – from Tom Duclos & Lisa Thompson's operation on Sheep Farm Road in Weybridge, VT
Maple Cream – from James & Gayle Rowe, Mountainside Maple, Huntington, VT
Pickles/Beets – from Sandy Aylward, Fairfield ,VT
Gouda or Jack Cheese – from Taylor Brothers Creamery in Meriden, NH
Sparkling Cider – from Poverty Lane Orchards & Farnum Hill Ciders in Lebanon, NH
Maple Candy – from Couture’s Maple Shop in Westfield, VT
Horseradish – from Jed’s Maple in Westfield, VT
Pizzelles & Rolls - from "A Little Organic" by Susan Fournier of Swanton, VT

Once again we extend our sincere appreciation to all farmers in Yankee's territory for the wonderful bounty from their farms.

LGM-Dairy Calculations

2010-12-27T14:00:00.007-05:00

We recently started following the experience of a dairy farmer using Livestock Gross Margin (LGM-Dairy) contracts. Click here for the first post in this series.

Let's see if we can duplicate these numbers from that post: "Our premium is $40 for the month and we are insuring $1,468 gross margin." Recall that the example in that post was to insure 100 cwt with no deductible. The contract was entered into in October 2010, and one month was insured - December 2010.

Prof. Brian W. Gould of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has helpfully created an online LGM Analyzer:

http://future.aae.wisc.edu/lgm_analyzer_new/

Open the LGM Analyzer at the link above in a new window and follow these steps:

Select "Premium Estimator" tab
Change the insurance contract month to 2010 October
Change the deductible to $0.0
Select "Default" for feed values

In the table:

Uncheck the box in the header that says "Coverage Month"
Check the box in that column for "Dec 2010"
On the row for "Dec 2010" enter 100 for Milk Qty.
On the same row, the column for "% covered" should autofill to 100

The three columns to the right should now show the insured gross margin: $11.06/cwt or $1,106 total. So why does the post say $1,468? That is (approximately) the "Milk Revenue" in the third column. I get $1,463.

Now scroll down and click the "Calculate LGM Premium" button. You will see that the premium is $0.40/cwt or $40 total. Voila!

Director Nominations

2010-12-20T16:30:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again when Yankee's Nominating Committee begins selecting director candidates for the elections in April 2011. There will be three elections, one director in each of the three regions. Each position is for a three year term. If you would like to be considered for nomination, please contact a member of the Nominating Committee at the numbers below or call your local branch.

Region #1 (Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle counties, Vt.; Essex, Clinton counties, N.Y.)
Arnold Mercy 802-326-4200
Wynn Paradee 802-524-4202
Mark Wrisley 518-963-4039

Region #2 (Caledonia, Essex, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Washington counties in Vt.; Coos and Grafton counties, N.H.)
Richard Hall 802-229-6342
Richard Martin 802-328-4120
Patrick Waterbury 802-785-4753

Region #3 (Addison, Bennington, Rutland, Windham, Windsor counties, Vt.; Cheshire and Sullivan counties, N.H.)
David Ainsworth 802-763-8017
N. Kimber Harvey 802-483-6130
Bruce Bascom 603-835-6361

If you have any questions about the purpose or the procedures of the Nominating Committee, please contact John Peters, VP Operations at 800-639-3053.

You can find general information about the director nomination process and the role of directors on the Farm Credit Administration's web site.

Testing LGM-Dairy

2010-12-05T16:31:00.008-05:00

Livestock Gross Margin insurance for dairy farmers (LGM-Dairy) has been available since 2008, but there has been little interest in it until recently. In October we worked with a dairy farmer who wanted to try a small contract—just to see how it worked, with real numbers. The farmer agreed to anonymously write about their experience and let us discuss it here on the blog.

We are pleased and excited to follow this farmer's experience. We hope this will be an educational experience for the dairy community. If you have questions as we go along, please feel free to post a comment. You may also directly e-mail our insurance agent Shantel Thomas or me.

Here is the farmer's first report:

Testing LGM-Dairy… Protecting Against the Squeeze

I’m a numbers person. My fiancé is not. However, we are both dairy farmers. As a numbers person who spends a lot of time analyzing businesses, I know that one of the biggest drivers of profitability is driving gross sales. What makes up gross sales? Volume of production and price. As dairy farmers, while we determine how much milk we sell simply by how many cows we milk and how productive we get them, we have little control over the price that we are paid. Unless you are retailing your own product, this is one of the most frustrating things about the dairy farming business.

Up until a year ago I just raised heifers so I have only been watching what has been happening with various price risk management tools, (wishing I could actually use them). There are several available now, compared to a few years back. These choices are important as it seemed like the first few options that were out there did not quite fit our farm – 25 cows milking. Many tools seem to fit various larger farms of different scale – 150, 500 and 1,000-cow plus.

I first learned about LGM-Dairy about two years ago and it was very confusing. Monitoring its progress though, I did hear of a few farms that used it and who had experienced good results – a sufficient payout. However, there were still many drawbacks. It seemed to me that this product needed more testing.

In a recent newsletter about LGM-Dairy that I received, the author threw out the idea to test the program yourself with 100 hundredweights. My immediate thought was: how much would that cost? I did a little digging and found that the premiums range of course, depending on what you choose for a deductible but generally from $0.65 per cwt. downward. Well, shoot, that makes it only about $65 to try it out.

I shared what I learned with my fiancé and we decided to dig a little deeper. Couldn’t hurt! LGM-Dairy uses corn and soybean meal prices along with Class III milk prices in its gross margin equation. Well, we don’t grow corn on our farm and feed grass-based silage. Nothing against corn, it just does not like to grow where we are, though we are hopeful to try again sometime in the future. I didn’t know how our grass-based ration would work with LGM-Dairy. That, combined with a few more questions including how to sign up, led me to find a crop insurance agent. We found Shantel Thomas who works for Crop Growers, LLP at the Yankee Farm Credit office.

Shantel was able to answer our questions and explain that we could either convert our own ration or use a default ration to determine the gross margin we would be insuring. We chose the default because quite frankly, it was the easiest. Essentially, we would be insuring a national gross margin, not necessarily what we have on our farm. I think the drawback to this is that if we achieve a better gross margin ourselves than the national average in a lower feed cost, then we are not insuring as much margin as we could. But, hey, it’s a place to start.

So, that’s what we are doing: testing out the program for one month – December 2010, insuring 100 hundredweights, no deductible, for $0.40 per cwt. and using the default feed ration. We faxed over our application and a copy of the check to Shantel and put originals in the mail during the short sign-up window which is the last business Friday and Saturday of October from 4:30 pm Friday to 9:00 pm Saturday. Our premium is $40 for the month and we are insuring $1,468 gross margin. Our expectations are not that we will get a higher price in the milk check, but rather that we are protecting ourselves against higher feed costs and a lower milk price that may actually occur in December.

We plan to do the same thing at the end of November to cover January margin. In the future, we would consider insuring more hundredweights and potentially for a longer period of time. That newsletter I mentioned earlier also explained some recent changes that are coming, namely subsidies and the timing of premium payment. Currently you have to pay the premium at the beginning of the policy and starting with contracts made in December, you’ll pay at the end. Seems to make more sense to me, matching closer to when you actually get paid for your milk.

We are happy to share our experience with other dairy farmers. It seems that as an industry, we may be on the cusp of some changes in the way we market and get paid for our milk in this country. However, if changes are made, it does not look like they will happen very quickly – the 2012 Farm Bill maybe, but there is no guarantee the bill would actually pass in 2012 or even 2013 and then any new program would need funding to be worked out anyway. We would rather try something that has the potential to help now than wait on anyone else any longer.

What We Offer

2010-11-15T09:00:00.006-05:00

The following column appears in the Fall 2010 issue of Financial Partner magazine:

What We Offer

At our annual meetings last spring I talked about something that your board of directors and management added to our planning process this year. We tried to capture in three short phrases the most important things that Yankee offers to its customers. Here’s what we came up with:

1. Readily available capital
2. Competitive interest rates and services
3. Employees who represent our values

What do we mean?

Readily available capital

We are proud to be part of the Farm Credit System, which has been serving rural America since 1916. Within the Farm Credit System, Yankee’s relationship with CoBank helps us meet the credit needs of our customers. The Farm Credit System, CoBank and Yankee are all well-capitalized and profitable, which enabled us to operate throughout the financial crisis of 2008 without a hitch.

Competitive interest rates and services

Our interest rates are competitive, even after our October 1st increase of 0.25% in variable interest rates. Our rates look even better considering patronage refunds. We have paid patronage refunds every year since 1995.

Our financial services are also competitive, and include recordkeeping, income tax preparation, appraisal services, credit life insurance and crop insurance.

Employees who represent our values

It is our employees who make Yankee special. We have a talented group of employees, ranging from recent college graduates to veteran employees with more than 35 years of experience. One of the values we talk about is the importance of relationships and our pride that we are “Building Relationships That Last Generations.”

It’s about the customer

We exist to serve our customers, and to a considerable extent we are a reflection of our customers. Earlier this year I heard U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack say that “the value system of this country is centered in Rural America.” Our customers represent those values. We at Yankee are fortunate indeed to work with such outstanding customers.

A final word

This is our final issue of Financial Partner magazine. Next year we will replace the magazine with quarterly newsletters. One reason for making this change is our desire to be more “local.” Keeping our business in our local economy is a win/win situation for everyone. For our 2009 annual report cover, which featured Monument Farms, we switched to a local designer and printer. We were very pleased with their work and we’ll be using the same designer for our newsletter. Look for our first newsletter in March.

We will also continue to communicate via our web site (http://www.yankeeaca.com/) and our blog (yankeeaca.blogspot.com). Please stop by either of those two Internet sites and let us know what’s on your mind. You can also send e-mail to me directly at george.putnam@yankeeaca.com.

Click here for the complete Fall 2010 issue of Financial Partner magazine (3 MB PDF file).

Ag Career Day

2010-10-29T12:26:00.006-04:00

Rob Guay and Kyle Lussier attended the 2nd Ag Career Day at Miner Agricultural Institute. The idea is to get “youth interested in careers in Ag related careers in Clinton County.” The event brought over 250 area high-school students through a series of stations in which they were engaged in discussions with professionals in agricultural related fields or participated in presentations relating to agriculture. The interactive stations included presentations on careers in forestry, watersheds, soil sampling and pH, vegetable farming, alternative energy and the Ag economy. The event was a great success in which a large number of both students and chaperones/parents interested in agriculture were given the opportunity to explore the various possibilities which are present in the agricultural field. It's a great event which reinforces that you don’t need to shovel manure to work in agriculture… there are other Ag jobs which offer college bound students an opportunity to work in Ag.

The event has grown considerably from the initial session. Plans are to hold it every two years for high-school kids in order to give them two chances to go in their high-school career. Organized by Cornell University Cooperative Extension, 4-H and Miner Institute. Sponsored by a long list of area businesses including YFC.

4-H Foundation of New Hampshire

2010-10-29T10:35:00.001-04:00

Ken Nelson, Senior Loan Officer from the White River Junction office, recently represented Yankee at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the 4-H Foundation of New Hampshire. This year the meeting was held October 19, 2010 at Alan’s Restaurant in Boscawen, NH.

The 4-H Foundation helps support the many 4-H programs in New Hampshire which involve over 20,000 youth and 2,500 adult volunteers in all aspects of 4-H. Over the past year, the Foundation has provided financial support of more than $100,000 to help fund these programs.

During the meeting thanks and recognition was given to the people who have volunteered their time and talents working with 4-Hers over the years. Special recognition was given to four women who have each worked with the 4-H youth for more than 40 years. Quite an honor for these exceptionally dedicated people.

Several 4-Hers made presentations highlighting projects they have worked on or educational trips they have taken over the past year. Two teens spoke enthusiastically about their participation in a program designed to provide various activities, entertainment, life skills training and many other types of support to New Hampshire children who have a parent or parents in the military. 4-H partners with several other organizations in this program titled Operation: Military Kids (OMK). There are more than 4,000 children in New Hampshire’s military families at the present time. This is one of the many projects that the 4-H Foundation supports.

Yankee Farm Credit supports the 4-H Foundation of New Hampshire as an “Achiever” donor.

CoBank's Outlook Newsletter

2010-09-30T11:35:00.007-04:00

CoBank publishes a monthly newsletter called Outlook. Each issue features an interview with an expert on a topic of interest. Following is a list of this year's issues:

Jan - Assessing Inflation Risk, Todd Buchholz
Feb - The Case for Free Markets*, George Melloan
Mar - Double-Digit Growth — No Matter What, Michael Treacy
Apr - Economics and Population Growth, Robert Fogel (Nobel prize 1993)
May - Outlook for the Eurozone, Judy Shelton
June - Tax Policy and the U.S. Economy, Leonard Burman
July - Protectionism vs. Free Trade, Douglas Irwin
Aug - Keynes, Hayek and the Great Stimulus Debate*, Russ Roberts
Sept - Russia's Future in the World Economy, Bruce Parrott

*mentioned in previous blog posts

The September issue includes a special report on the outlook for the U.S. livestock sector including dairy. The livestock sector is being heavily influenced by current events in the crop sector, including Russia's recent embargo on wheat exports.

Interest Rate Changes 10/1

2010-09-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

The following letter is being mailed to members with the next monthly billing statement:

September 16, 2010

Dear Member,

I am writing to let you know that all variable interest rates to members will increase by 0.25% effective October 1, 2010.

There are two primary reasons for this increase. First, market interest rates for short-term debt have increased slightly in recent months. This has increased our cost of funds. Second, the risk profile in our loan portfolio has increased in the past two years as a result of the general economic downturn which has affected nearly every industry we serve. More risk calls for higher interest rates to compensate for the increased possibility of default and loss.

We understand that many of our borrowers are facing difficult times. We lowered our variable interest rates considerably during the financial crisis of 2008, to the lowest rates in our history. We waited as long as possible before increasing rates, but we now find it necessary to increase rates to maintain the Association’s strong financial position. We believe that this modest increase of 0.25% for all borrowers, our first general interest rate increase since July 1, 2006, is appropriate given the increased level of risk in our loan portfolio.

Please feel free to ask your loan officer any questions you may have about your interest rate.

Thank you for your continued patronage and best wishes for your financial success.

Sincerely,

George S. Putnam
President and CEO

Health Benefits of Maple Syrup

2010-09-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

You always knew that maple syrup was good for you, right? Recent research indicates that this might indeed be true. A researcher at the University of Rhode Island's College of Pharmacy has found numerous anti-oxidant compounds in maple syrup:

URI pharmacy researcher finds beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup

Click here for the scientific abstract. The research used Canadian maple syrup, but I'm sure that maple syrup from Vermont, New Hampshire and New York has the same benefits!

Liberty Hyde Bailey

2010-09-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

Liberty Hyde Bailey was an influential leader of the Country Life Movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He founded Cornell University's College of Agriculture and was its first dean. In 1908 President Teddy Roosevelt selected Prof. Bailey to chair a National Commission on Country Life.

The 1909 Report of the Commission on Country Life was influential in the development of many institutions that we know today. It led to the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 which created the Cooperative Extension Service. It profoundly affected the evolution of 4-H. And it led to the creation of the Farm Credit System in 1916.

Much of Prof. Bailey's work built on the foundation of the land grant university system—see the earlier post about Justin Smith Morrill. Cornell University is New York's land grant university. It has both a Morrill Hall and a Bailey Hall.

Cornell further honors Prof. Bailey with the Liberty Hyde Bailey Leadership Society. Several northeast Farm Credit employees are members of this society, including Geoff Yates of Yankee Farm Credit. Many employees of northeast Farm Credit are graduates of Cornell University, including Yankee's Geoff Yates, Loren Petzoldt, Kelly Langmaid and Clara Hall.

The influence of Cornell University on Farm Credit is strong and it began with Liberty Hyde Bailey.

Justin Smith Morrill

2010-09-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

Justin Smith Morrill was born 200 years ago in Strafford, Vermont. He represented Vermont in the U.S. Congress for 44 years, first as a representative (1855-1867) and then as a senator (1867-1898).

Senator Morrill is known as the father of the land grant university system. He authored the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act which provided federal funding for land grant colleges and universities. But he never attended college himself. Many land grant universities today have a Morrill Hall in honor of Senator Morrill, such as this one at UVM.

Senator Morrill is in the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame.

In 1848-1851, before he became a Member of Congress, Mr. Morrill constructed the Morrill Homestead in Strafford. This has been a National Historic Landmark since 1960, and is well worth a visit. There is a modest fee for the house tour, but the self-guided grounds tour is free and there is an interesting interpretive display about Senator Morrill's life and accomplishments in the carriage barn. The site is open only part of the time, so be sure to check the official web site for hours of operation.

The grounds of the Morrill Homestead are beautiful, and one of the many interesting things they contain is this:

The map of the grounds identifies it only as a "kettle." The photo above is from the Friends of the Morrill Homestead web site and the caption there says only: "This cistern is a favorite hangout for frogs in the summer." I think it is a potash kettle.

Back on the subject of land grant universities, many employees of northeast Farm Credit are graduates of one of the land grant universities in New England, New York and New Jersey. It is no surprise that Yankee Farm Credit has many UVM graduates, as well as graduates from the University of New Hampshire, the University of Maine and Cornell University. Elsewhere in northeast Farm Credit, there are also graduates of Rutgers University.

Most land grant colleges and universities are public institutions, but there two exceptions. Cornell University is part public and part private. The other exception may surprise you—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yankee Farm Credit is pleased to also have a graduate of MIT on its staff, Farm Tax Assistant Randy Smith in our Newport office.

Progressive Dairyman Poll on Dairy Policy

2010-09-10T10:54:00.005-04:00

Vermont's three Members of Congress have sponsored two bills on dairy policy (see Dairy Policy Bills). There are also other dairy policy proposals under active consideration. Some have been introduced as bills in Congress and some have not.

Progressive Dairyman magazine recently provided a roundup of the various proposals and conducted a poll. The following link is a good place to start, then follow the links from there for more detail:

PD POLL: Dairy Reform [Updated July 2]

The proposals included in the Progressive Dairyman poll were:

Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009 (S.1645) aka the Specter-Casey Bill
Farmers Union proposal
Holstein USA Plan (Dairy Price Stabilization Plan)
NMPF Plan (Foundation for the Future)
Dairy Growth Management Initiative
Dairy Price Stabilization Act of 2010 (H.R.5288) aka the Costa Bill
Ration-all
Strategic Dairy Reserve

(Progressive Dairyman did not include the DPI Plan or S.3531.)

The "Holstein USA Plan" aka the Dairy Price Stabilization Plan is the plan favored by Dairy Farmers Working Together (see Growth Management Plan).

Progressive Dairyman has a concise side-by-side summary of three of the above plans (Specter-Casey, the Dairy Price Stabilization Plan and the NMPF Plan): Part 1 from the 7/21/10 issue and Part 2 from the 8/11/10 issue.

The results of the PD poll were: Specter-Casey 67%, NMPF 15%, Dairy Price Stabilization Plan 12%, all others 6%. However, the magazine editors felt that the results were skewed by a Pennsylvania consumer write-in campaign as they explain here.

This raises an interesting question. How should we decide dairy policy? Should we be influenced by a consumer write-in campaign? Or...Should we trust the experts?

Should we trust the experts?

2010-09-07T08:00:00.006-04:00

No one can know everything, and when we are confronted with a problem outside of our comfort zone we often defer to the judgment of experts in that area. Are the experts necessarily better?

The latest CoBank Outlook newsletter features an interview with Prof. Russell Roberts about the economist Friedrich Hayek. (Related posts: Keynes vs. Hayek - The Non-Rap Version and Keynes vs. Hayek - The Rap Version.)

The Outlook newsletter quotes Prof. Roberts as follows:

"The underlying insight of Hayek is to be skeptical of the ability of experts and individuals to steer complex systems."

Long-time readers of this blog may recall a post two years ago that discussed similar thoughts by the physicist Richard Feynman: What is science?

"Learn from science that you must doubt the experts."
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."
"The experts who are leading you may be wrong."

Hayek and Feynman were both PhD's. Hayek won the Nobel prize for economics in 1974. Feynman won the Nobel prize for physics in 1965. So, there you have it. Two experts advising us to be skeptical of experts. Surely there's a little ironic humor in that.

There was not much humor, however, in the financial crisis of 2008. That crisis provided a clear example of the dangers that Hayek and Feynman were talking about. A year ago I wrote about the dangers of relying too much on experts, in this case "experts" armed with mathematical models: What went wrong?

Keynes vs. Hayek - The Non-Rap Version

2010-09-06T08:00:00.006-04:00

CoBank's latest Outlook newsletter features an interview with Prof. Russell Roberts of George Mason University and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University:

Keynes, Hayek and the Great Stimulus Debate

The "Great Stimulus Debate" is about whether or not the recent $862 billion federal stimulus package was a good thing. The discussion draws on the views of two famous economists from the last century—John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. The Outlook interview with Prof. Roberts is a good discussion and I recommend it.

Earlier this year Prof. Roberts co-produced a rap video on this subject:

Keynes vs. Hayek - The Rap Version

The video is both entertaining and educational and I recommend it, too!

The Importance of Financial Records

2010-09-05T08:00:00.002-04:00

The current issue of Progressive Dairyman has an article by Scott Plew, CPA about the importance of good financial records for dairy farmers:

Are you being progressive enough with your finances to survive a tough market?

Mr. Plew works with Idaho dairy farmers, but his comments apply to Northeast dairy farmers, too. He writes that "critical changes in business practices" are needed, and he draws on lessons from other industries. He recommends preparing a monthly budget, comparing actual results to budgeted results, analyzing variances, and making changes "mid-stream if appropriate for the business to meet its desired result – profitability."

Mr. Plew's comments are consistent with, and build on, the letter that I sent to Yankee members about financial records last December.

Vermont Ag Hall of Fame

2010-09-04T08:00:00.004-04:00

Four individuals were inducted into the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame on September 1st at the Champlain Valley Exposition:

Senator George Aiken (deceased)
Catherine Beattie of Danville
Wilson "Bill" Clark of Pawlet (see J.R.H. 33)
Ryle Dow of Georgia (deceased)

Congratulations to the 2010 inductees to the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame!

This was the 8th induction ceremony. Here is the program from the ceremony, which lists all of the past winners:

Merrimack Farmers' Exchange

2010-08-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

The Merrimack Farmers' Exchange was a fixture in the agricultural economy of New Hampshire from 1920 to 1982. The Exchange sold feed and other supplies to farmers, and it also provided advisory and consulting services. It was more than a business, it was part of the rural culture, almost like family. The Exchange operated as a cooperative. Click here for a brief history.

A Window in Time: Merrimack Farmers' Exchange in Crisis and Transition is a recently published book about the last years of this unique organization. The cover of the book shows a newspaper column about the dramatic events in the final years of the Exchange. That column was written by Yankee Director Steve Taylor, then a newspaper reporter for the New Hampshire Times. A Window in Time was written by Charles F. Sheridan, the outside counsel for the Exchange. Click here to order the book from the New Hampshire Historical Society.

In 1982 the assets of the Merrimack Farmers' Exchange were sold to Blue Seal. You may have noticed the Blue Seal feed mill at the intersection of I-89 and I-93 in Concord. That used to belong to the Exchange.

The story of the Merrimack Farmers' Exchange reminds me of the 1991 movie Other People's Money, starring Danny DeVito, Gregory Peck and Penelope Ann Miller. Both stories involve a corporate raid. The movie explores the issues on all sides with humor and insight.

Dairy on the Moove

2010-08-23T16:41:00.018-04:00

Last week at the Orleans County Fair the public got a new look and taste of dairy. Dairy on the Moove is a trailer equipped with a pasteurizing and cheese making vat. Fair goers were able to watch the milk from the dairy cows exhibited at the fair be made into cheddar cheese curds while munching away at the “fruits” of the cheese maker’s labor.

This unique solution came about from a common problem. Last year just prior to the fair season fairs and dairy producers were notified by the milk co-op that they would not be picking up milk at the fairs any longer. The directors at the Orleans County Fair and others scrambled to find a solution, but were only able to sell the milk at a reduced price for pigs and calves or dumped it.

This winter a few of the Orleans County directors, including Kelly Langmaid from the Newport Farm Credit office, got together and started brainstorming ideas, thus the birth of Dairy on the Moove. This committee was able to raise $75,000 from industry support, including a donation from Yankee Farm Credit, to put this mobile unit together. The idea is the unit will go from fair to fair equipped with a cheese maker and helper(s). Other county fairs in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and even Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, MA have expressed interest as a way to utilize at least a portion of the milk produced to educate the public about the dairy industry. Future plans may utilize further milk with additional products such as ice cream.

The cheese curds were a big hit and sold out every day of the fair. Included are a few pictures of the unit as well as the process and the final product. The unit was run by the committee after a crash course in cheese making, as well as Marisa Mauro, owner of Ploughgate Creamery in South Albany, VT and Tucker Purchase of Fairmont Dairy in Craftsbury, VT. A special thanks to the sponsors for believing in the idea when there were many that did not. Also, to Marisa and Tucker for being crazy enough to love the idea and willing to fight to make it happen! The unit will make an appearance this week at the Caledonia County Fair in Lyndonville, VT. Come on out and try some squeaky cheese!

The vat:

The system:

Cutting the cheese:

Curds and whey:

Kelly and Tucker flipping slabs:

The final product!

Click here for the WCAX article on 8/19/10.

Click here for the article on the front page of the Burlington Free Press on 8/21/10.

Pictures and write-up submitted by Kelly Langmaid. Thanks, Kelly!

Farm Tour

2010-08-11T15:15:00.030-04:00

Yankee Farm Credit directors and employees, as well as guests from CoBank, Financial Partners Inc. and the Farm Credit Administration, toured several farms and agricultural businesses in northwestern Vermont on Wednesday, July 21st.

A big thank you to our hosts for taking time out of their busy day to show us around! Also, a big thanks to the staff in our St. Albans office for arranging an interesting tour.

Our first stop was Lamell Lumber in Essex, VT. The company was formed in 1965 by Richard Lamell, and is now operated by son Ronald and his sons Ron Jr. and Keith. It is a pine and hemlock mill with dry kilns. They also sell bagged shavings, processed bark mulch and storage sheds. They were selected as Outstanding Sawmill Operator of the year in 2008 by the Northeast Lumberman's Association.

Next we travelled to Sam Mazza's Farmstand and Greenhouse in Colchester, VT. Sam operates the wholesale business and several members of the next generation operate the retail business. We toured some of the 155,000 sq. ft. of greenhouses and 400+ acres of vegetables. It is the largest vegetable business in Vermont. There is also a retail stand open year around which includes a bakery and gift shop. They host several festivals each year and have a corn maze. Our group enjoyed eating lunch beside the petting zoo under cover of the pavilion building.

Our third stop on the tour was Green Mountain Dairy in Sheldon. This 1,000 cow dairy farm is operated by Brian and Tammy Rowell with assistance from their children Matthew and Megan and Brian's brother Bill Rowell. They were the 2008 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year - Green Pastures Award. The farm includes a methane digester which powers a 300 kW electric generator. They are a CVPS Cow Power producer of renewable energy.

Our last stop was the Bourbeau and Sons farm in Swanton, VT. Alan and Kim Bourbeau own and operate the 225 cow dairy and 12,000 tap maple operation with the help of their two sons Justin and Eric. The maple operation has grown from selling sap to a modern sugarhouse built in 2006. Our group had the luxury of sampling some of the syrup — delicious!

The farm tour was a great opportunity to see some of the variety of farms and businesses that keeps agriculture in Yankee's territory thriving.

Dairy Policy Bills

2010-07-07T15:00:00.003-04:00

I mentioned last month that Rep. Peter Welch is a co-sponsor of a House bill on dairy policy and that Sen. Sanders was circulating a draft Senate bill. Sen. Sanders has since introduced his bill with Sen. Leahy as a co-sponsor.

The House bill is H.R.5288 and is titled the "Dairy Price Stabilization Program Act of 2010." Info on Thomas and GovTrack. (Thomas is the official web site, but GovTrack is easier to use. It should be the same information, as GovTrack gets its information from Thomas.)

The Senate bill is S.3531 and is titled the "Dairy Market Stabilization Act of 2010." Info on Thomas and GovTrack.

Senators Sanders and Leahy will hold a press conference about S.3531 at the Lucky J. Holsteins Farm in South Burlington (John, Joyce and Todd Belter) at 10 AM on Monday, July 12.

More Thoughts on Interest Rates

2010-07-06T14:48:00.007-04:00

The Wall Street Journal article referenced in the preceding post (Thoughts on Interest Rates) was published on April 10, 2010: Two Treasury Forecasts: a Grand Canyon-Size Gap (subscription may be required to access). The WSJ asked 18 forecasting teams on Wall Street for their predictions of the 10-year U.S. Treasury rate at year-end. At the time of the article the rate was 3.93%.

The article was primarily about the widely differing forecasts of two of the most respected names on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley predicted an increase to 5.5% while Goldman Sachs predicted a decrease to 3.25%. Goldman Sachs was one of only four teams to predict a decrease. The median prediction was an increase to 4.2%. So far Goldman Sachs is looking pretty good. Today's rate for the 10-year Treasury is 2.98%.

A good source of historical interest rate data is FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) at the St. Louis Fed. FRED has lots of other economic data, too—over 20,000 time series, all of which can be graphed and downloaded for further analysis. Here's a graph from FRED of the 10-year Treasury rate since 1962:

Thoughts on Interest Rates

2010-07-06T11:14:00.007-04:00

The following column appears in the Summer 2010 issue of Financial Partner magazine:

Thoughts on Interest Rates

The feature article in this issue of Financial Partner magazine is about interest rates. Will interest rates go up? Should borrowers consider switching from variable to fixed interest rates? Members asked similar questions at our recent annual meetings.

Yankee’s variable interest rate depends on what happens in the short-term interest rate markets. Short-term interest rates are at historical lows. They have no place to go but up—the question is when and how much.

Yankee’s fixed interest rates depend on what happens in the long-term interest rate markets. Long-term interest rates are also low, but they are not at historical lows. Recently they have been declining. (But this could change by the time you read this.)

As I write this, our Tier 1 variable interest rate is 4.00%. The 10-year fixed rate for a Tier 1 borrower is 6.20% today (this rate can change daily). Should this borrower choose the variable or the fixed rate?

Let’s first consider short-term rates. As noted in the feature article, the consensus opinion is that short-term rates will likely increase, perhaps significantly, sometime in the near future. This is what I think, too, but it is worth noting that this is not certain. Short-term rates in Japan have remained low for the past 15 years! Here in the U.S. we are less than two years into our present period of low short-term interest rates.

Now let’s consider long-term rates. There is no consensus opinion on whether long-term rates will increase or decrease over the next few months. The Wall Street Journal recently published the results of a survey on this question. Of the 18 forecasting teams surveyed, 14 predicted an increase and four predicted a decrease. As noted above, the minority has been right so far—the long term rate in question has been declining.

If you think short-term rates will increase significantly in the near future, and you think that long-term rates are also going to increase, you might be inclined to switch to a fixed rate now. But if you think long-term rates are going to decrease, you would probably stay with a variable rate for now. Why fix now if you think you can fix later for less? And, of course, if you think that short-term rates won’t increase all that much, at least for a while (e.g., the Japan scenario), then you would probably stay with the variable rate.

Well, this is all getting complicated! It reminds me of a quote attributed to the famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr: “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”

My advice is to make your own prediction. Your prediction is likely to be as good as mine or anyone else’s, even the experts. Keep in mind that even the experts don’t agree on predictions for long-term interest rates. And when the experts do all agree, as in their prediction that short-term interest rates will increase in the near future, they could still be wrong.

The important thing is to make decisions that you can live with, even if your prediction is wrong. As noted in the feature article, this depends on your personal tolerance for volatility and your financial condition.

And keep in mind that the most important decision a borrower makes about credit is not whether to choose a fixed or variable interest rate. It is deciding how much to borrow.

Click here for the complete Summer 2010 issue of Financial Partner magazine (3 MB PDF file).

See also the next post (More Thoughts on Interest Rates) for additional information and links.

Congressional Visits

2010-06-22T08:30:00.008-04:00

On June 17th Yankee visited Congressional offices in Washington, DC. Participating were: Chairperson Paul Gingue, Vice Chairperson Rocky Giroux, Bob Smith and me. Bob Smith is a senior vice president of Farm Credit East who assists several associations with government relations.

We visited people in eight Congressional offices:

Sen. Patrick Leahy and Adrienne Wojciechowski
Rep. Bill Owens and Nell Maceda
Kathryn Tanner in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office
Thomas Maloney in Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's office
Lauren Tribble in Sen. Bernie Sanders' office
Andrew Lattanner in Rep. Scott Murphy's office
Sarah Levin in Rep. Paul Hodes' office
Jake Oster in Rep. Peter Welch's office

Our main message again this year was that we are meeting the needs of our customers and doing business as usual, notwithstanding the continuing downturn affecting many of our customers, especially in the dairy and timber industries. We are lending money; our financial results are good; we continue to pay patronage refunds; and the Farm Credit System has not needed any government assistance. This message was well received.

Both the House and Senate have passed legislation for financial services regulatory reform, and a conference committee is currently negotiating the differences between the two bills. For the most part the Farm Credit System is not affected by this reform. However, we voiced our concern that one provision in the Senate version, the so-called Volcker Rule, could potentially have an adverse effect on the cost of Farm Credit System debt as compared to other GSEs.

Other issues that we mentioned were estate taxes, farm labor and issues relating to how we can work better with the Farm Service Agency. We provided each office with a copy of the Northeast Dairy Farm Summary published last month.

We happened to be in Washington for the 28th Annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party, sponsored by the International Dairy Foods Association. It was very popular!

UPDATE 6/25/10: Added the photo with Senator Leahy. Senator Leahy was one of the 12 senators on the conference committee mentioned above regarding financial services regulatory reform. That conference committee has been meeting over the past several days, and it concluded its work with a marathon 20-hour session ending around 5:30 AM today. New York Times article here. We are pleased that the bill approved by the conference committee satisfactorily addressed our concerns with the Volcker Rule. This morning's agreement by the conference committee means that the final bill will go back to the House and Senate next week for an up-or-down vote. President Obama is expected to sign the bill if it passes the House and Senate.

National Tree Farmer Convention

2010-06-21T08:30:00.002-04:00

The 2010 National Tree Farmer Convention will be held in Vermont on July 13-15, 2010. The conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Burlington. Shelburne Farms will host field day events including interactive displays, demonstrations, exhibits, activities, workshops, tours and more. There will also be tours to other places in northern Vermont. Youth events will be held at the ECHO Center.

Vermont speakers at this national convention will include Thetford's John Morton of Morton Trails and biathlon fame and Prof. Thomas McEvoy of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.

The local host organization for the 17th National Tree Farmer Convention is the Vermont Woodlands Association. Yankee Farm Credit is a sponsor.

Slow Money National Gathering

2010-06-20T20:00:00.008-04:00

The second annual Slow Money National Gathering was held in Vermont on June 9-11, 2010. Most events were held at Shelburne Farms. Over 600 people attended from all over the country, and a few from other countries:

Slow Money is a concept inspired by Slow Food, an international movement started in 1986 in reaction to fast food. Slow Food encourages people to enjoy local and traditional foods, and has much in common with what I call SLO agriculture (sustainable, local or organic agriculture). The purpose of Slow Money is to finance Slow Food.

Woody Tasch launched the idea of Slow Money in 2008 with the publication of his book Inquiries Into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered.

The first annual Slow Money National Gathering was held last year in Santa Fe, NM, near where Woody Tasch lives. The second annual Slow Money National Gathering was held in Vermont in recognition of the significant amount of "SLO agriculture" in Vermont, such as the Hardwick Agricultural Revolution. The entrance to the Coach Barn at Shelburne Farms was flanked by large posters of Jack Lazor of Butterworks Farm in Westfield, VT and Tom Stearns of High Mowing Organic Seeds in Wolcott, VT:

From the web site: "[Slow Money] is a new way of connecting investors to local food systems, catalyzing new forms of social investing and philanthropy for the 21st century." The conference was attended by a "network of investors, donors, entrepreneurs, farmers, and activists who are giving birth to the nurture capital industry." (Nurture capital is intended to be contrasted with venture capital.)

Conference speakers included: Woody Tasch; Bill McKibben of Middlebury College; and Robert Zevin, one of the founders of socially responsible investing.

Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo

2010-06-18T15:21:00.008-04:00

On May 7-8, 2010 the Champlain Valley Exposition Center in Essex Junction, VT hosted 5,500 attendees for the 2010 Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo.

Highlights of the Expo included:
Seminars on BCAP

Banquet sponsored by Farm Credit for 6th consecutive year, held at Doubletree Hotel South Burlington, VT.

After dinner entertainment: Slide show from wildlife photographer Gary Lee

NELA Award Winners from Vermont:
“Outstanding Service to the Forest Industry” George Buzzell
“Outstanding Contributions to Forest Industry Education” Norman Hudson

This event is a joint collaboration between Farm Credit of Maine, Farm Credit East, and Yankee.

The winner of the Stihl MS 362 chainsaw door prize this year was Jerzey Heald of Lewis, NY (shown here with her parents Tom and Opal Heald, and Heather Curler from the Middlebury office).

Introducing Clara Hall

2010-06-18T15:16:00.003-04:00

I am pleased to announce that Clara Hall joined the Yankee team on June 14th following her graduation from Cornell University with a degree in animal science, and a concentration in agricultural farm management and finance. She is a credit analyst in the White River Jct. office. Clara grew up on Fairmont Farm in East Montpelier.

Introducing Kyle Lussier

2010-06-18T15:11:00.005-04:00

Kyle began working for Yankee on June 7th as a Credit Analyst in the Middlebury office. Kyle is a recent graduate of Southern NH University with a BS in Accounting and has spent the past year gaining experience working for Chittenden Bank. Kyle spent many years on Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport performing many farm related responsibilities.

Please join us in welcoming Kyle!

Dairy Policy Issues

2010-06-08T08:02:00.012-04:00

Many proposals are presently circulating to fix the problems in the dairy industry. Representative Peter Welch is a co-sponsor of the Dairy Price Stabilization Program Act of 2010 (HR 5288). Senator Bernie Sanders is circulating a draft bill on this issue to introduce in the Senate. The USDA Dairy Industry Advisory Committee recently started holding meetings and is expected to issue a report by the end of the year. The National Milk Producers Federation has a proposal (click here). Dairy Farmers Working Together has a proposal (click here). I recently linked to a proposal by Steve Mandl, a former investment banker turned dairy farmer (click here).

Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has started holding hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill. In a recent interview with the Watertown Daily Times, published on 5/22/10, he said that the 2012 Farm Bill will likely include significant changes in federal dairy policy: Changes in dairy safety net expected. Some aspects of the various proposals listed in the paragraph above are likely to be included in the 2012 Farm Bill.

The problems in the dairy industry are not new, as I have noted before. Many solutions have been tried in the past. What have we learned from those experiences?

The Dairy Policy Analysis Alliance has recently published an excellent discussion of that question. The Alliance is a collaboration between the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri and the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The full document is Dairy Policy Issues for the 2012 Farm Bill (1 MB PDF file, 54 pages). An executive summary is available as a set of shorter briefing papers: Dairy Policy Briefs (1 MB PDF file, 16 pages). If you want an even briefer discussion, see this news release.

For a good understanding of the issues, it is well worth while to read the full document. But the first sentence of the news release summarizes the gist of the report: "Like a lot of strong medicine, past federal dairy programs have cured some industry ills but caused some unpleasant side effects."

Solutions to the problems of the dairy industry that have been tried in the past include: price supports, the MILC program, voluntary supply management, mandatory supply control, revenue insurance, milk marketing orders, and trade policy. Each approach has had unpleasant side effects, which are discussed in the report. And clearly none of those approaches was a successful long term solution, or there wouldn't be the current plethora of proposals to fix "the problem."

Most of the current proposals involve supply management. Voluntary supply management programs that have been tried include the 1984-85 Milk Diversion Program, the 1986-87 Dairy Termination Program (Whole Herd Buyout), and the current CWT program. These haven't proved sufficient, and so most current proposals involve mandatory supply control.

What does the Dairy Policy Issues report say about mandatory supply control? It has never been implemented in the U.S.: "In the past, dairy farmer interest in supply management has dwindled if milk prices improve..." Based on experiences in other countries, the report notes that "the tendency of mandatory supply management programs is to freeze the structure of dairy farms and regional milk production." Also "the first dairy producers to receive quota 'rights to produce' stand to receive a significant windfall gain" and "it may be difficult for new producers to enter dairying." These are all side effects that policy makers and the industry will need to consider.

As anyone involved in the dairy industry knows, the marketing of milk is complicated because of the many policy issues. The Dairy Policy Briefs and Dairy Policy Issues reports described in this post are an excellent resource to help understand these policy issues.

UPDATE: The NMPF board of directors approved their "Foundations for the Future" plan (news release). The IDFA likes the plan except for the supply management part (news release).

International Dairy Prices

2010-06-08T08:01:00.002-04:00

In recent years dairy markets have become increasingly globalized. It is no longer sufficient to consider only domestic markets when thinking about factors that affect prices paid to U.S. dairy farmers. One must also consider international markets.

With that in mind, one resource for tracking international dairy prices is globalDairyTrade. This Internet-based electronic trading system for commodity dairy products was launched by Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy cooperative, in July 2008. I mentioned globalDairyTrade last year, but it's worth mentioning again. And it is encouraging to note that global dairy prices have improved in the past year:

The big increase in prices in 2007 and early 2008 is obvious, as is the collapse in prices in late 2008 and 2009. But prices have recovered significantly since last summer.

The quantity that is graphed above is an index calculated by Fonterra that they call gDT-TWI (globalDairyTrade-Trade Weighted Index). This index was 641 a year ago (6/02/09). The latest value (6/01/10) is 1179, an increase of 84%. However, this index has declined slightly in the last two months. The current value of 1179 is down 4% from 1232 on 4/06/10.

The original of the above graph (which may be easier to read) can be found on the Latest Results page of the globalDairyTrade web site. The Latest Results page contains links to more information on specific products, including anhydrous milk fat (AMF), skim milk powder (SMP) and whole milk powder (WMP). For even more detailed information, see the Historical Data section of the Latest Results page. This contains a link to an Excel spreadsheet with detailed data that you can view or download.

Farm Credit Fellow - Henry Pearl

2010-06-07T06:32:00.005-04:00

Henry Pearl of Danville, VT was in the Middlebury office the week of May 24-27 for his one week internship for the Farm Credit Fellows program. Henry is a FARMS 2+2 student and will graduate from UVM next year with a bachelors degree in Animal Science. After graduation Henry would like to return home to start up an organic dairy to add to the maple sugaring and sawmill businesses.

Farm Credit Fellow - Jinny Purrier

2010-06-07T06:29:00.006-04:00

Virginia (Jinny) Purrier visited the Newport office the week of May 24-27 as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program. Jinny has an associates degree in Dairy Farm Management from Vermont Tech and is currently a student at UVM in the FARMS 2+2 Program. She just finished her semester at the Miner Institute in Chazy, NY. She will be returning to UVM this fall as a senior. After graduation Jinny plans to pursue an internship/employment for a year before she returns home to Montgomery, VT where she hopes to restart the family dairy farm and incorporate some aspects of Ag tourism, such as a maple sugaring operation, farmstand, and a Bed & Breakfast.

Farm Credit Fellow - Mike Fitzgerald

2010-06-02T11:33:00.010-04:00

Mike Fitzgerald spent the week of May 24-27 working in our White River Junction office as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program. Mike comes from a 45 cow dairy farm consisting of Holsteins and Brown Swiss in Colchester, VT. He has just entered his senior year at the University of Vermont in Ag Business, through the FARMS 2+2 Program, a state funded scholarship including two years at Vermont Technical College in dairy management and two years at UVM in Ag business. After school, Mike plans to start his own milk bottling facility on the home farm and enter the value added market, with an expansion to milking 80 cows while hosting annual farm visits open to the public for education and demonstration.

AgEnhancement Grants

2010-05-21T13:21:00.004-04:00

The Northeast Farm Credit AgEnhancement program recently awarded $30,000 in grants to 12 programs

Grants funded in April 2010:

American Farmland Trust (AFT) will use its $3,500 grant to analyze a regional supply chain of dairy consumption and dairy marketing opportunities and to identify barriers to success in the dairy industry. Staff from AFT and Tufts University’s Agriculture, Food and Environmental Program will work together on this two-year project.

With its $5,000 grant, Cornell Cooperative Extension Saratoga County will develop a leadership and communications skills training program for agricultural producers and professionals from the Capital District and Hudson Valley. The program will include nine workshops for up to 50 participants.

A $500 grant to the Dartmouth YMCA Program will support a summer day camp that features a young farmers’ program with local farmers as camp mentors.

The Eastern States FFA Planning Committee will use its $8,000 AgEnhancement grant for the Eastern States FFA Star program, which will run during The Big E in September 2010. Through this program, FFA representatives from 14 states compete in four categories: Star Farmer, Star Agribusiness, Star Agricultural Placement and Star Agriscience.

Eden Regional Farm Museum will use its $1,500 grant to promote local food production in a five-county area while educating the nonfarm public about the business of agriculture.

The New England Green Pasture’s $4,000 grant supports agricultural programs at The Big E, such as Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year and Salute to Agriculture.

The New Hampshire 4-H Foundation uses its $3,000 grant to sponsor a trip for 25 teens from Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. The day gives the 4-Hers a first-hand look at career opportunities on a number of different farms, ag research facilities and ag businesses.

A $1,000 grant will help NOFA-NJ develop a curriculum and training program to help farmers establish and operate farm markets.

NY Pork Producers Empire Swine Youth Program applies its $1,000 grant to a multi-faceted event that helps young people challenge their knowledge of the swine industry and their management and interviewing skills. The event is held at the New York State Fair.

The New Hampshire Institute of Agriculture and Forestry will use its $1,000 grant to pilot a project on the production of four-season greenhouse vegetables and fruit.

The Last Green Valley will use its $1,000 grant to develop a Web site of resources to help Connecticut and Massachusetts farmers advance agriculture in their 35-town area.

A $500 grant will help Regional Dairy Extension provide in-service training for northeast and mid-Atlantic dairy Extension agents.

Northeast Farm Credit AgEnhancement is a regional grant program funded by Yankee Farm Credit together with CoBank, Farm Credit East and Farm Credit of Maine. Since its 1996 inception, the program has awarded $1,112,656 through 418 grants.

Click here for more information.

Dairy Price Index (DPI) Methodology

2010-05-19T18:10:00.002-04:00

One of our members brought to my attention this article in the May 2010 issue of American Dairymen magazine:

Dairy Price Index (DPI) Methodology for Pricing Wholesale Milk

Click here for the "editor's note" about this milk pricing proposal.

What do you think? Is this proposal a good idea? Would it work? If this interests you, please share your thoughts in the comments.

Methane Digesters

2010-05-19T18:05:00.002-04:00

Methane digesters are becoming more common on Vermont dairy farms. Interest has increased recently as a result of the Vermont SPEED program, which provides incentives to utilities to buy power from renewable resources, such as farm methane, and specifies minimum rates to be paid to producers.

How many farm methane projects are there? The EPA's AgSTAR Program shows 151 farm methane projects operating in the U.S., eight in Vermont. The web site for the CVPS Cow Power program has additional information about several of the Vermont farm methane projects. For a list of pending applications in Vermont, go to the Vermont SPEED web site, click on "Applications being Processed" and look in the farm methane section.

Computer companies such as Google and Microsoft are becoming interested in electricity from farm methane digesters to run computing centers, especially in the west. See this interesting New York Times article from 5/18/10:

One Moos and One Hums, but They Could Help Power Google

Closer to home, Middlebury College is planning to use methane generated from local dairy farm manure not for electricity but for heat. See this news release from 5/12/10:

Middlebury College and Vermont farm energy company partner to explore use of bio-methane gas at the college

For more background and perspective on farm methane digesters, especially in northern Vermont, this 3/19/10 article by Bethany Dunbar is interesting: Confessions of a methane junky. She writes about the methane digesters at Maxwell's Neighborhood Farm, Chaput Family Farms, and the Rowells in Sheldon. (Note: Representative Chris Bray's bill H.566 mentioned in the article did not pass the Vermont Legislature.)

Farm Credit Fellow - Hannah Fay

2010-05-13T15:45:00.006-04:00

Hannah Fay was in the St. Albans office for the Farm Credit Fellows program the week of May 3-7:

While in the St. Albans office Hannah learned some of the day-to-day workings of being a loan officer. Part of that job entails tradeshows and regional events. This picture was taken at the Logger’s Expo held at the Champlain Valley Fair Grounds. Hannah and her husband Chris milk 200 Jerseys on their farm in Maidstone, VT with Chris’ parents. Hannah received her associates degree in 2003 from Vermont Tech in Ag Business and will graduate later this month from UVM with her bachelors degree in Animal Science. After graduation Hannah will return home to the farm and work to complete the generational transition.

Farm Credit Fellows

2010-05-13T15:30:00.011-04:00

It’s Farm Credit Fellow season once again! This year there are 26 students in the program from the University of Vermont, the University of Maine, the University of Connecticut and Cornell University. The program helps students learn about agricultural finance and Farm Credit.

The Farm Credit Fellows program begins in the spring of the junior year with a trip to the offices of Farm Credit East in Enfield, CT. The Fellows hear presentations from representatives of CoBank, Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI), the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation and Farm Credit East. Here are the students and advisors from UVM who attended this year's session on April 15-16:

In the summer between their junior and senior years, each Farm Credit Fellow spends a week-long internship in an office of one of the northeast Farm Credit associations. Four of the Fellows will be visiting Yankee Farm Credit:

Hannah Fay – St. Albans, May 3–7
Henry Pearl – Middlebury, May 24–27
Michael Fitzgerald – White River Junction, May 24–27
Virginia Purrier – Newport, May 24–27

Each participating university has an on-campus class or seminar related to agricultural finance in the fall of the senior year that completes the Farm Credit Fellows program (click here for Cornell University).

Kelly Langmaid, loan officer from the Newport office, is responsible for scheduling and follow-up for all Farm Credit Fellow internships. Kelly matches up the Fellows and their host offices, and she follows up with a survey after the internships. For more information about the Farm Credit Fellows program please e-mail Kelly.

Board Officers and Committees

2010-05-11T08:00:00.002-04:00

At the April 29, 2010 Board meeting, the Board of Directors elected the following officers:

Chairperson - Paul E. Gingue
Vice Chairperson - Rocklyn A. Giroux

Also approved were committee assignments:

Executive Committee
Alan J. Bourbeau
Paul E. Doton
Paul E. Gingue
Rocklyn A. Giroux
Celeste Kane-Stebbins

Audit Committee
Rocki-Lee DeWitt
Walter M. Gladstone
Paul F. Saenger
Charles J. Sniffen
Stephen H. Taylor

Compensation Committee
Rocki-Lee DeWitt
Paul E. Doton
Celeste Kane-Stebbins
Paul F. Saenger
Stephen H. Taylor

Membership/Governance Committee
Alan J. Bourbeau
Bryan E. Davis
Rocklyn A. Giroux
Walter M. Gladstone
Charles J. Sniffen

Small Business and Lender Conference

2010-04-30T13:35:00.007-04:00

Bill Heath, Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, attended the Small Business and Lender Matchmaker Conference in Barre on Monday, April 26th. The conference was organized by Sen. Patrick Leahy, and featured representatives from several lending institutions: banks, credit unions, non-profits, state entities, and the federal government were available to answer questions from small business owners. FSA was kind enough to allow Bill to share some space with them at the conference. For more information about the event please see this article from the Burlington Free Press.

Talk at Middlebury College

2010-04-25T15:00:00.004-04:00

I gave a talk to the Student Investment Committee at Middlebury College on April 14th. Dr. Scott Pardee, the faculty advisor to the SIC, invited me to talk about Yankee Farm Credit and "The 5 C's of Credit." I also talked about GSEs and employment opportunities in the Farm Credit System. And I talked briefly about mathematical risk models, which is something that I blogged about last fall.

The talk was just a few weeks after our 2009 annual report was printed, and I was pleased to use the cover of that annual report to make a point about the first "C" of credit: character. When you are a lender, it is important to know your borrower. At Yankee Farm Credit we are fortunate to know multiple generations of many of our borrowers, as in the case of Monument Farms Dairy—featured on the cover of our 2009 annual report. Perhaps the students will remember not only about character but also about how the Farm Credit System moves money from Wall Street to rural America, because Monument Farms has provided milk to Middlebury College for over 50 years.

In his announcement for my talk, Dr. Pardee wrote: "Yankee Farm Credit is a wonderful example of sound risk management." Congratulations to the board and staff for earning that compliment!

Pettee Medal Ceremony

2010-04-25T14:00:00.004-04:00

Yankee Director Stephen Taylor was awarded the Pettee Medal by the University of New Hampshire Alumni Association on April 6th. (See this earlier post for background information about the Pettee Medal and Steve.) Upwards of 200 people gathered in Huddleston Hall on the UNH campus in Durham to honor Steve. Speeches were given by a number of notable people, including Lorraine Stuart Merrill, Steve's successor as Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food. In his speech Steve talked about farming, journalism and public service. Click here for more information about the ceremony.

UNH students contributed to the ceremony. The a cappella group Alabaster Blue sang two songs: the UNH alma mater and a song written especially for the occasion about cows and the Taylor Farm: "I Am Cow." (It was a hit!) A group of four UNH CREAM students took turns reading "100 Things You Should Do To Know the Real New Hampshire," written by Steve when he was ag commissioner. Below are the four CREAM students with Steve, wearing his Pettee Medal:

Second from the left is Emily Malnati '10, President of CREAM. Emily won a Royal W. Smith, Jr. Scholarship from Yankee Farm Credit in 2008.

Click here for more information and photos about the ceremony, including a list of past winners of the Pettee Medal. It is a distinguished group!

UPDATE 4/27/10: For a video of part of the ceremony, click here. The first two minutes of the video are the "I Am Cow" song by Alabaster Blue. It's good!

Rupert Chamberlin

2010-04-25T13:00:00.007-04:00

The Board of Directors celebrated Rupert Chamberlin's long service to Yankee Farm Credit at its meeting on March 29-30. Rupert has been a director since 1993 when he was elected to the board of Farm Credit of the Connecticut Valley. In 1995 Farm Credit of the Connecticut Valley merged with Champlain Valley Farm Credit to become Yankee Farm Credit.

The board meeting was at the Town & Country Motor Inn in Shelburne, NH, where they do a cake right, with sparklers!

Over the years Rupert served with many directors and several CEOs. The current crew:

Left to right, top: Paul Gingue, chairperson, Steve Taylor, Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Alan Bourbeau. Middle: Walt Gladstone, Rocky Giroux, vice chairperson, Paul Doton. Front: me, Charlie Sniffen, Rupert, Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Paul Saenger.

Rupert, thank you for your wisdom and counsel over the years. Best wishes to you and Muriel!

Farmer Resource Fair

2010-04-22T10:36:00.003-04:00

Sue Kelley, Senior Loan Officer from the Middlebury office, attended the Farmer Resource Fair held March 30, 2010 at Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT.

Besides the many exhibitors from the ag community, the fair provided workshops in the following areas:

Successful Rental Relationships
Farmland Access and Land Purchase Options
Farm Conservation Programs: Available Incentives and Assistance
Energy Efficiency and Renewables on the Farm: Available Rebates and Assistance
Affordable Health Care and Insurance Options for Farmers

2010 Dairy Challenge

2010-04-16T09:54:00.006-04:00

The 9th annual North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge was held in Visalia, CA, April 8-10, 2010. The event was hosted by Cal Poly and California State University Fresno. NAIDC 2010 attracted teams from 30 universities throughout the United States and Canada. Each team of four was challenged to put their textbook and practical knowledge to the ultimate test-analyzing dairies. The contest started with a walkthough at one of the four host dairies, followed by the opportunity to ask questions of the owners and analyze farm-specific data. Teams then used this information and their observations to develop management recommendations and present them to the herd owners and a panel of five dairy industry judges.

The program is fully funded through the generous support of companies and producer associations serving the dairy industry, including Farm Credit and many local associations. Jean Conklin, Loan Officer and Tax Specialist from the White River office, serves on the NAIDC Board of Directors representing Farm Credit, a major sponsor of the event. Teams from UVM and UMaine participated. The national and four regional contests provide this educational opportunity to over 300 students each year.

See website http://www.dairychallenge.org/ for results.