Thursday, August 28, 2008

Farm Credit Fellow - Dan Lyons

The last student to serve a week in Yankee as a Farm Credit Fellow this year was Daniel Lyons.

Dan is a senior at the University of Maine in Orono and will be graduating in the spring of 2009. He grew up on the coast of Maine in a fishing and tourism based community. Dan took an interest in agriculture 3 years ago after a family member's acquisition of a 280 acre organic farm in Orwell, VT. He worked on the farm full time last summer and part time this summer. As of now he plans to explore the country upon graduation and make use of his construction background but wants to settle down on the family owned farm where he hopes to grow grains and experiment with biofuels and other alternate energy sources.

Dan's week in the St. Albans office of Yankee Farm Credit started with a tour of a wide variety of farms including a 2500 cow dairy, a 100 cow dairy, and some new facilities expansions. He not only learned how Yankee evaluates and rates its borrowers but also how they build a working relationship that goes beyond lending money.