Promotion - Ryan Scelza

I am pleased to announce that Ryan Scelza has been promoted to Loan Officer in our White River Junction Office.  Ryan has worked for Yankee since September 2012 as a Credit Analyst and Credit Analyst/Participation Specialist.

Ryan grew up in White River Junction, Vermont and graduated from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina in 2006 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a minor in Financial Management. In 2013 he earned his MBA from the University of Connecticut with a concentration in Finance.

Ryan brings a strong knowledge of our credit analysis procedures to his new position. He is looking forward to having more direct interaction with his borrowers and is eager to continue to work towards building lending relationships that last for generations.

Please join me in welcoming Ryan to his new position.

We will shortly post a position for a Credit Analyst in White River Junction.

2014 Loggers Expo

The 2014 Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo was held at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex, VT on May 9th and 10th. For those who are unfamiliar with the Loggers Expo - it is quite the event. Hundreds of spectators wander into the Expo to view the latest in technology and equipment - and their eyes light up like a kid on Christmas morning!


The Loggers Expo alternates every other year between Vermont and Bangor, Maine and every year, Yankee is in attendance.





We share a booth with our "neighbor" Association, Farm Credit East. Lots of people stop by to talk with our staff but a big draw to the booth is our chainsaw giveaway.




Anyone can sign up to win and this years big winner was Gerard Dobbs of Essex County New York. Congratulations!










Part of the Loggers Expo also includes The Northeaster Loggers' Association (NELA) Awards Banquet on May 8th. Farm Credit continues to be a major sponsor of this event.

FarmStart - Tanner and Heleena Abbott

Tanner and Heleena Abbott are Yankee’s most recent FarmStart investment. They used the investment monies to start up a goat cheese manufacturing facility. While Tanner is new to this operation, Heleena is not. Heleena’s grandmother, Jean Hurlburt, owned and operated her own operation for over 15 years in New Hampshire. Heleena spent many summers with her grandmother helping her milk the goats and package the cheese. Last year when her grandmother decided to get out of the business, Heleena and Tanner decided they wanted to take it over.

The Abbott's operation is located in the small town of Franklin, Vermont. They currently have 32 milkers with each goat producing approximately 6 pounds (young herd) of milk per day. Their goats range in age from just 1 week to 3 years. The milk is used to make two types of cheese: Feta and Chevre. Feta cheese can be purchased plain, Greek, or marinated in a tomato basil olive oil mixture. The Chevre cheese (more of a cream style cheese) comes in many flavors such as dill & garlic, Boursin (thyme, pepper & garlic) and sweet dessert cheese with flavors like Cranberry-Orange or Pineapple-Apricot. These are just a few of the flavors currently available. They plan to add additional flavors in the future.

The Abbotts plan to sell their cheeses at local farmer’s markets, Co-ops and eventually via their website: www.hilandfarm.com. They already have customers (previous customers of Heleena’s grandmother) anxiously waiting to place their orders.

Tanner and Heleena are excited as they begin their new venture and while Heleena’s grandmother is no longer the owner and operator of the business she is there providing them guidance and in a small way will always be a part of their business as she painted the goat found on the HI-LAND FARM label.

The goal of FarmStart is to provide working capital to help start-up farmers establish a positive business and credit history during the early phases of their business careers. Within five years recipients should be positioned to graduate to a conventional line of credit from Yankee or another lender.

Q1 Financial Results

With good spring weather finally arriving, the first quarter financial results are now available. Yankee can announce that we had another good quarter. While there were increases in the provision for credit losses and operating expenses, these were more than offset by increased net interest income and other income. The balance sheet shows that loans were down from year-end, but a seasonal decrease is normal for this time of year. The quality of the loan portfolio remains strong and is expected to remain that way in the foreseeable future. All of these good results have one factor in common – good members.

Quarterly net income for Yankee was $2.4 million, an increase of $135 thousand over 2013. The most significant factors driving the increase were increases of $348 thousand in net interest income and $118 thousand in other income. These increases were partially offset by an increase in the provision for credit losses of $147 thousand and an increase of $184 thousand in other expenses.

Quarter-end loans held by the Association at March 31, 2014 were $407.4 million, down 1.4 percent from year-end. The loan portfolio continues to be concentrated in the dairy industry, with 51 percent of the loans invested in dairy businesses. The second largest concentration is timber, with 15 percent of the loan volume at quarter-end.

Credit quality across Yankee’s loan portfolio remained strong during the quarter and well within the risk-bearing capacity of the Association. At quarter-end 0.8 percent of the Association loans were classified as nonperforming, unchanged from the end of 2013. There were no loan charge-offs, but recoveries of $6 thousand in the quarter. The Association’s capital position remains strong.

The 2013 patronage refund to members in the amount of $4.9 million was paid 100% in cash on March 25, 2014.

Click here for the full quarterly report to shareholders.

New Employee - Amy Couch

I am pleased to announce that Amy Couch has joined Yankee as our Northeast Crop Insurance Marketing Agent for Crop Growers LLP. Amy will be replacing Shantel Thomas. The crop insurance program at Yankee began with Shantel eight years ago, she is looking forward to spending more time with her busy family.

Amy is a graduate of Cornell University (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) with a Bachelor’s degree in Development Sociology and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

She has experience working with students of various ages helping to develop writing skills and has also worked with the Community and Regional Development Institute (Ithaca, NY) and Cornell Cooperative Extension on community development issues in rural New York State.

Amy grew up in the San Francisco Bay area of California but spent a few years at Cornell and is excited to be in New England and begin her career with Yankee.

Please join me in welcoming Amy to the Yankee team.

Promotion - Dave Lane

I am pleased to announce that Dave Lane has been promoted from Senior Loan Officer to Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager in the St. Albans office.

Prior to joining Yankee in 2011, Dave held a variety of positions related to agriculture including: agricultural loan officer at the Vermont Agricultural Credit Corporation, a subsidiary of the Vermont Economic Development Authority; deputy secretary of agriculture at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture under both Steve Kerr and Roger Allbee; executive director of the Intervale Foundation in Burlington; director of lending at the Vermont Community Loan Fund.

Dave has served on many boards over the years, including serving as chair of the South Hero Select Board and the South Hero School Board. He is currently on the board of the Champlain Valley Exposition and is board chair of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.

Dave is also a farmer. After graduating from UVM with a degree in animal science, he operated the family dairy farm in South Hero in partnership with his father for 11 years. Dave continued to operate a diversified farming operation after the cows were sold, and last year bought a controlling interest in Snow Farm Vineyard and Winery which is located on land that was originally part of the farm (news article). Dave and his wife Julie operate Crescent Bay Farm Bed and Breakfast at the farm.

Please join me in congratulating Dave on his new responsibilities!

We have posted a job opening for loan officer in our St. Albans office.

Board Officers and Committees

At the April 28, 2014, board meeting, Yankee's Board of Directors elected the following officers:

Chairperson - Rocklyn A. Giroux
Vice Chairperson - Alan J. Bourbeau

Committee assignments were also approved at the meeting:

Executive Committee
Rocklyn A. Giroux, Chairperson
Alan J. Bourbeau
Bryan E. Davis
Paul B. Franklin
Paul F. Saenger

Audit Committee
Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Chairperson
Thomas J. Colgan
Walter M. Gladstone
Celeste Kane-Stebbins
Stephen H. Taylor

Compensation Committee
Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Chairperson
Thomas J. Colgan
Rocki-Lee DeWitt
Walter M. Gladstone
Bradley N. Maxwell

Membership/Governance Committee
Alan J. Bourbeau, Chairperson
Bryan E. Davis
Paul B. Franklin
Bradley N. Maxwell
Paul F. Saenger

Flavors of the Valley

On Sunday, April 13^th, 2014 many of the Upper Valley’s farmers, restaurants, and food producers converged at Hartford High School for the “2014 Flavors of the Valley”.  More than 1,100 consumers meandered through the packed HHS gymnasium grazing on a wide variety of foods.  Product samples ranged from quick bites (cheese, veggies, chocolates, caramels, jams/jellies, etc.) to mini meals (gourmet grilled cheese, grilled chicken/bacon sandwiches, pulled pork, sausage gravy with biscuits).  In addition to the free samples (included with $6 entry fee), many farmers/vendors had their products for sale as well as CSA shares, frozen meats, and other crafted goods.  While the main lure of the show is obviously the food, the true value of Flavors of the Valley is for consumers to “get to know their farmers.” 

Yankee was represented by Chris Bessette who handed out lots of Yankee "goodies", including our green buckets which are quite the hit every year at this show.

Director Election Results

Our annual meeting week wrapped up with the 4th meeting 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 Dr. Heather Darby, Dr. Marco Turco and Clifford Allard for participating in the elections as candidates.

We welcome any feedback about annual meetings, if you have questions or comments please let us know!  You can e-mail your thoughts or give Ruchel a call at 800-639-3053.

Personnel Changes

Yankee Farm Credit is making management changes to help the Association meet current and future needs.

Mike Farmer will join the administrative team as Senior Vice President/Chief Systems Officer. His new job is to help the Association improve business systems and practices with the goal of providing even better customer service, more efficient operations, and improved internal administration. In this newly created position, Mike will be looking at our policies and procedures, staff training and guidance, software systems, and reporting.

Since 2011 Mike has been Senior Vice President/Regional Manager and branch manager of the St. Albans office. His new position will be based in the Williston office. We have posted a job opening for St. Albans branch manager.

For several years we’ve had a north/south regional structure which served us well, but is no longer necessary. John Peters will continue to lead the credit staff as Senior Vice President/Chief Credit Officer. The branch managers will report directly to John. The four credit branches and their managers are:

St. Albans - open
Middlebury - Ken Button
Newport - Loren Petzoldt
White River Jct. - Ken Nelson

In addition to these management changes, two individuals on the credit staff are being promoted in recognition of their contributions to the Association:

Loren Petzoldt has been Assistant Vice President/Branch Manager since 2011. He is being promoted to Vice President. Loren is doing a great job serving customers, and expanding and diversifying our customer base, out of the Newport office.

Tom St. Pierre is being promoted to Senior Loan Officer. He has been a Loan Officer in the St. Albans office since 2004. Tom is one of our "go to" people for the maple industry. He is a former dairy farmer and an active sugarmaker.

I hope you’ll join me in congratulating Mike, Loren and Tom.