Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank Donate $10,000 to Vermont FFA

(FFA's Suzanne Buck, Exec. Dir, Bill Scott, Foundation Pres. YFC George Putnam Pres. and CEO, Paul Franklin Board Chairperson are joined by FFA delegates)

Williston, Vermont (January 27, 2016) – Vermont FFA (Future Farmers of America) recently received $10,000 from Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank, two cooperative lending institutions in the Farm Credit System. Bill Scott, VT FFA Foundation President, and Suzanne Buck, Executive Director VT FFA received the donations from Paul Franklin, Yankee Farm Credit’s Board Chairperson and George Putnam, President and CEO of Yankee Farm Credit. CoBank and Yankee Farm Credit each contributed $5,000.

CoBank’s contribution is part of their “Sharing Success” program, a $3 million matching grant program designed to benefit cooperatives and charitable groups they support throughout rural America. CoBank launched this program in 2012 to coincide with the United Nations’ “International Year of Cooperatives.”

(YFC Board Chairperson, Paul Franklin presenting FFA Foundation President, Bill Scott with Sharing Success donation)

Yankee Farm Credit’s Paul Franklin said: “On behalf of Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank, we are pleased to present to VT FFA two checks of $5,000 that we understand will go towards educating high school teachers of the benefits of FFA and to help you as individuals learn how to effectively advocate for yourselves and agriculture.   As Commissioner Ross noted, it is important that you get a good education, be engaged in your communities, and be able to speak out on behalf of yourselves.  We look forward to seeing the benefits of these funds".

Executive Director VT FFA Suzanne Buck described how they will use the funds: “Vermont FFA Association along with our Foundation Board wrote a grant requesting funds to train our teachers about FFA and its many opportunities as we are finding ourselves in the position of new teachers without any background or knowledge of FFA.  The other part of our grant request was to teach the students how to advocate for themselves for agriculture and to be able to do it in a manner that is respectful and thoughtful.  FFA allows students the opportunities to explore their potential as leaders and as responsible young adults.  They can be exposed to so many opportunities should they wish to open the door and accept the challenge.”

The FFA has a membership of 629,327 students in grades seven through 12 and 7,757 chapters in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank’s Sharing Success donation will be distributed to Vermont FFA chapters to aid in the development of new and current teachers as well as student advocacy programs.  For more information on FFA, its history, mission or how you can participate see below.

https://www.ffa.org/home

https://www.facebook.com/Vermont-FFA-Association-236183829754977/


Suzanne S. Buck, M.Ed CAGS
Executive Director VT FFA
4351 Crown Point Rd.
Bridport, VT 05734
suzannesbuck@gmail.com

2015 New England Green Pastures Award Banquet

On September ​18th, Tullando Farm from Orford, NH and Keewaydin Farm from Stowe, VT were honored at the New England Green Pastures Program’s annual banquet. The farms were chosen as the 2015 Dairy Farm of the Year in their respective states. The objective of the New England Green Pastures Program is: "To encourage a more prosperous dairy industry in New England, especially through the growing, harvesting, storage, and feeding of quality forage to attain excellence in herd production using economic management of all farm resources." Kelly Richardson, Loan Officer from the Derby branch, Liz Bayne, Business Consultant in the White River Junction office, and Jesse Taft, a Credit Analyst also from the White River office, represented Yankee at the award ceremony. 

The New England Green Pastures Committee chooses an “Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year” from each of the New England states, and celebrates the winners at its annual awards banquet held at the Storrowton Tavern on the grounds of the “Big E” (the Eastern States Exposition) in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Though originally started in 1947 as a challenge to find New England’s best pastureland, the aim of the Green Pastures Program has shifted over the years. Today, the goal of the program is to promote dairy farming in New England by highlighting and honoring outstanding farms. Every year the program’s review committee awards the “Dairy Farm of the Year” to an exceptional dairy farm from each of New England’s six states. Farms considered for the award are judged on a “total management” basis which includes a performance analysis of a farm’s production and financial performance, as well as the farm family’s personal contribution to the agricultural community.

The banquet began with an invocation by Carol Hodgdon, a Green Pastures Committee Vice Chair. Victoria Maloch, a Future Farmers of America (FFA) National Officer and student at the University of Arkansas, served as the banquet’s guest speaker. She challenged the six Green Pastures award winners to stay engaged with the next generation, and to pass along knowledge and give guidance to the younger people who are interested in agriculture.

The winners were presented with an award (an engraved silver milk pitcher) and were asked to give a short presentation about their farming operating, their history, and what they consider to be the “secrets of their success.”

The Tullar Family of Tullando Farm, Orford, NH

 

Tullando Farm was heavily represented at the banquet. Three generations of the Tullar family were in attendance, including Rendell Tullar, who led the farm’s presentation. The Tullar’s showed the audience a promotional video that was made by Granite State Dairy Promotion. The video showed the ins-and-outs of the operation at Tullando, with particular focus on the farm’s robotic milking setup and the family’s collective effort to stay current with the dairy industry and to adapt accordingly. Tullando Farm was founded in 1956 by Rendell Tullar’s parents, George and Barbara, who combined their respective surnames, Tullar and Anderson, to create the farm’s distinctive name. Tullando milks 500 Holsteins and crops around 500 acres of corn, 100 acres of alfafa, and 100 acres of grass.

L to R: Tony Kitsos, UVM Extension; Claire and Les Pike of Keewaydin Farm, Stowe, VT

 

Keewaydin Farm was represented by Les and Claire Pike, who operate the farm with their children, Suzi and Dan Pike. Les’ grandparents bought the farm in 1921, and the farm has been operated by the Pike family ever since. They gave an in depth presentation about their farm complete with a slideshow of photographs. The Pikes emphasized the need for a farm to “find its identity,” describing how they worked backward from an operation that was heavily diversified in the 1970’s with a sugarbush and farm stand to the more streamlined and straightforward present day farm, which focuses solely on finding better and more efficient ways to milk their herd of 141 registered Jerseys. Keewaydin has a rolling herd average of 15,485 pounds of milk, 5.1% butterfat, and 3.9% protein. Since 2010, the Pikes have operated an anaerobic methane digester, which supplements electricity on the farm. The also reuse the solids for bedding, which is uncommon on a farm of their size. Keewaydin is the first Lamoille County farm to receive the Green Pastures Dairy of the Year award.

Other winners included Sidehill Farm (Hawley, MA), an organic dairy farm and yogurt producer; Twinbrook Farm (Minot, ME), a 150 cow dairy that recently navigated a generational transfer; Cottrell Homestead (N.W. Kingston, RI), a “Rhody Fresh” producer; and Beriah Lewis Farm (N. Stonington, CT), an 8^th generation dairy farm that was founded in 1791 and has been in continuous operation ever since.

Yankee would like to congratulate Tullando Farm and Keewaydin Farm on their Dairy of the Year recognition and for their continued excellence in the field of dairy farming!

Vermont FFA

On May 21 John Peters and I attended a donor reception by Vermont FFA and the Vermont FFA Foundation. The Vermont FFA Foundation was celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the reception was to recognize long time donors. Yankee Farm Credit or its predecessors have supported the Vermont FFA Foundation for 42 years, according to their records. I don't know what happened to the other 8 years!

We are certainly proud to support the many worthwhile activities of FFA, which teach leadership, confidence, cooperation, career development and personal growth. Many FFA members go on to become leaders in agriculture, both on and off the farm.

The national FFA organization was founded in 1928, and state organizations soon followed. FFA Foundations, which came later, are the fund raising arm of FFA. Click here for an earlier post about NH FFA.

UPDATE 6/22/08: John Bradley of the Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury was kind enough to forward the photograph below. From left to right: Hannah Clark, 2007-2008 State Vice President; Everett Harris, President of the Vermont FFA Foundation; me; John; Katie Sartwell, 2008-2009 Executive Committee Chair; Governor Jim Douglas; Kate Reising, 2007-2008 Secretary; and Eryn McQuinn, 2007-2008 Reporter.

UPDATE 3/06/09: I was saddened to see Everett Harris's obituary in today's Burlington Free Press.

FFA Granite State Convention

April Smith, office assistant and credit analyst in the White River Junction office, attended the sponsor recognition portion of the 78th Granite State FFA Convention held at the Mount Washington Hotel on April 3 - 5.

Yankee Farm Credit believes in supporting Young, Beginning and Small farmers. They represent the future of farming. The entry of Young, Beginning and Small farmers into the industry is critical to the long-term success of agriculture. Contributions are made regularly to agricultural organizations, such as Extension Service, 4-H and FFA, which provide education and experience to our future farmers.

UPDATE: Here is the certificate that was presented to April: