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| UVM Farm Credit Fellows Oliver Bevan, Kristen Caron, Melissa Cronin, Alexander Doolittle, Jana Gailiunas, Mathew Jacobson, Dan Truso and UVM contact Charlie Ferreira |
Farm Credit East hosted the 2016 Farm Credit Fellows program
on April 14th and 15th at their headquarters in Enfield,
CT. There were thirty-four students
participating from Cornell University, University of Maine, University of
Vermont, and University of Connecticut.
It was a group of interactive and enthusiastic students along with passionate
presenters educating and preparing them for their future roles in agriculture
and the Farm Credit System.
Presentations by representatives from the Funding Corporation, CoBank,
Financial Partners, Farm Credit East, and the Farm Credit East board of
directors explored all of the opportunities offered by the Farm Credit System.
Thursday started off with a tour of the Farm Credit museum
in the Enfield office. This gave the
participants a good introduction to the history of Farm Credit. They were then given a more in depth
explanation of how the entire Farm Credit System works starting with the
Funding Corporation. Susan Bilotta, Vice
President-Finance of the Funding Corp, explained how the funding process works
and the relationships they have with the banks, investors, and associations. This presentation was followed by Mike Fleming,
Senior Relationship Manager at CoBank and Farm Credit Leasing, and Christina
Zick, Credit Analyst at CoBank, for a presentation about CoBank and its role in
the Farm Credit System. Chief
Administrative and Risk Officer from Financial Partners, Inc., Dan Carey, and
Chief Risk Officer at Farm Credit East, Bill Bathel, came together to discuss
the role of technology providers in the Farm Credit System and the constant
need to be upgrading and changing technology.
The presentations for Thursday wrapped up with Bill Lipinski, CEO of
Farm Credit East, talking about the opportunities and benefits of the associations
and their role in agricultural success.
The day ended with the introduction of a case study and a mock interview
with a “borrower.”
Friday, the group jumped right back into the case study,
exploring the arguments on approving and denying the loan. They were split into two groups; a “yes”
group and a “no” group, and worked with a group of employees to prepare their
analysis arguments for a mock Loan Committee.
After a brief presentation from Jim Putnam, Chief Business Officer of
Farm Credit East, on achieving balance in the system and the credit process,
the two groups presented to the mock Loan Committee where the loan was
eventually approved with conditions. The
program ended with Farm Credit East Director, Matthew Beaton, a cranberry
farmer from South Massachusetts, sharing with the fellows his seven keys to
success.
The students will each spend a week in a Farm Credit branch
this coming summer. Yankee will be
hosting six fellows in three different branches, five from UVM and one from
Cornell.
Charlie Messenger joined the Yankee/Crop Growers team as a crop insurance Marketing Agent on Monday, May 2. 
Gregory Pugh joined the Yankee team as a Credit Representative on May 16th. Greg graduated from SUNY at Cobleskill last December with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Business Management.
