Board of Directors - March 2012

The Board of Directors celebrated the service of two retiring directors at its meeting on March 29, 2012.

Dr. Charlie Sniffen is stepping down after 20 years of service. Charlie was first elected as an outside director on the board of Champlain Valley Farm Credit in 1992. At the time he was president of the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Chazy, NY. In 1995 Champlain Valley Farm Credit and Farm Credit of the Connecticut Valley merged to form Yankee Farm Credit, and Charlie continued as an outside director on the Yankee board. Charlie served as chairperson of the Audit Committee 2002-2007.

Paul Gingue is stepping down after 12 years of service. He was first elected to the board in 2000. Paul was elected board chairperson in April 2009, only a few months after the financial crisis in September 2008. During his three years as chairperson, Paul dealt with many issues that were shaped by the financial crisis. There were national meetings to discuss fallout from the crisis. Association mergers in the northeast were discussed, and one was completed. There was a bank merger. There was an overall recession, and an outright depression in the dairy industry. Paul led Yankee successfully through it all.

Paul and Charlie continue to serve as directors through the April 17th annual meeting. Paul's successor will be elected at annual meeting. Charlie's successor has been appointed by the board - see this post.

Below are the board and CEO at the March board meeting:

Left to right, seated: Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Charlie Sniffen, Chairperson Paul Gingue, Paul Saenger, Celeste Kane-Stebbins. Standing: President and CEO George Putnam, Steve Taylor, Bryan Davis, Walt Gladstone, Paul Franklin, Alan Bourbeau, Vice Chairperson Rocky Giroux. This board includes three PhD's. That probably won't happen again for a while!

(The board table in the above photo is new. The March board meeting was the first time the full board had a meeting using this table.)

Paul and Charlie: Thank you for your leadership, wisdom and counsel over the years. Best wishes to both of you and Rosemary and Judy. Don't be strangers.

2011 Financial Results

Yankee posted strong financial results for the year ended December 31, 2011. The Association saw net income of $7.036 million for the year. This compares to $6.982 million in 2010. Loan volume increased slightly in 2011 to $340.0 million from $336.4 million in 2010. Overall credit quality improved and the Association’s capital position continues to be strong.

The Board of Directors approved a patronage distribution to members in the amount of $3.664 million, to be paid 100% in cash. This compares to $3.659 million in 2010. Patronage payments for 2011 will be made on or about March 23, 2012. Patronage will be distributed either in the form of a check or direct deposit to member bank accounts.

The full annual report is available on Yankee’s website, or contact your local branch for a free copy.

VT Vegetable and Berry Growers

Jean Conklin, Senior Loan Officer and Clara Hall, Credit Analyst, attended the VT Vegetable and Berry Growers Association Annual Meeting on January 30th. A crowd of over 100 attendees were welcomed with an upbeat report from their president, Andy Jones of Intervale Community Farm in Burlington. Despite a lousy weather year in 2011 it was a great time to be a Vermont produce grower. He highlighted the outpouring of community support throughout the year after each of its challenges and the way growers helped each other. There were also presentations by growers, suppliers, UVM Extension and VT Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross as well as an industry trade show.

VT Grazing and Livestock Conference

The 16th Annual VT Grazing and Livestock Conference held January 21st drew over 700 attendees this year, including Senior Loan Officer Jean Conklin and directors Paul Saenger and Walt Gladstone. Many came to hear one of the three keynote speeches by Dr. Temple Grandin from Colorado State University. Four hundred attendees heard her two presentations during the day focusing on animal behavior and humane handling. She has done extensive work on the design of handling facilities. Half the cattle in the U.S. and Canada are handled in equipment she has designed for meat plants. There were also numerous workshops related to grazing and pasture management as well as the trade show. That evening another crowd gathered to hear Dr. Grandin address seeing the world through the lens of autism.

Click here for a Burlington Free Press article about the conference.

Maple Sugaring Panel

Tom St. Pierre, loan officer from our St. Albans office, was on a Maple Sugaring Panel at Cold Hollow Career Center (CHCC) in Enosburg Falls on 2/1/2012. CHCC has a maple operation as part of their program and they wanted a panel of industry experts to educate the students on what it would take to establish their own operation after graduation. The conference room at CHCC was packed with 75 plus students, panelists, parents, and teachers, totaling almost 90 people.

Joining Tom on the panel were Karen Fortin of Carman Brook Farm who talked about marketing; Nancy Patch, Franklin County Forester who talked about how to keep the sugarbush healthy; David Butler from Leader Evaporator talked about the maple equipment needed and costs. Tom discussed business planning; financial planning; funding for loans; and overall commitment of a sugaring operation.

CenterPoint Training

Red Wing Software is offering training on their CenterPoint farm accounting software May 1-3 in Enfield, CT. If you are a Yankee Farm Credit customer using this software, you may be interested in one or more days of this training. Details here. Tuition cost is $200 per day. We will reimburse half the tuition cost for Yankee customers. For qualifying young, beginning or small farmer customers (including FarmStart), we will reimburse the full tuition cost. Please contact Ruchel St. Hilaire for tuition reimbursement. Participants will be responsible for their own hotel, travel and meals expense.

If you would like to purchase CenterPoint farm accounting software, please contact one of our branch offices.

Marie Guay Recognized with Phelps-Martin Award

Last summer Senior Loan Officer Marie Guay in our Chazy, NY office passed away after a short battle with cancer. Her memory was honored with the Phelps-Martin Award for Community Service last month at the Farm Credit Council annual meeting in Washington, DC. Several family members traveled to Washington for the occasion. Donald Guay, Marie's husband, received the award from FCC Board Chairman Mike Garnett:

Marie truly deserved this award. (Click here for more information about the Phelps-Martin Award for Community Service.) Marie lived her life in service to others. She was devoted to her family. She gave freely of her time and energy to her friends and neighbors. She was a leader in her church and also in Boy Scouts when her two sons were young. She was dedicated to her customers and co-workers at Farm Credit, and to the greater agricultural community in which she lived.

In 2005 Marie's boss and friend Gordon Hurlburt, a long-time employee of Yankee Farm Credit, was diagnosed with cancer. Marie became involved with the Plattsburgh Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research. Later in 2005 Marie's mother was also diagnosed with cancer. Gordon died in 2006 and Marie's mother died in 2007. Marie became increasingly involved in Relay for Life (see this blog post for example) serving first as Team Captain Chair and then as Survivor Committee Chair. Her last Relay was in June 2011. How ironic that Marie herself, who never smoked, should be diagnosed with lung cancer in July. She died on August 1, 2011 (obituary).

Marie's connections with Farm Credit ran deep. She started working for Farm Credit in the Chazy, NY office in 1983 as an office assistant, eventually advancing to senior loan officer. Marie and Donald also operated a family dairy farm and were Farm Credit customers. Their son Rob continues the tradition of Farm Credit employment, working as an appraiser trainee in the Chazy office.

Present for last month's presentation of the Phelps-Martin Award, in addition to family members, were several Yankee Farm Credit directors and employees and Congressman Bill Owens of Plattsburgh, NY. Before being elected to Congress, Mr. Owens was an association attorney for Yankee Farm Credit. Marie worked closely with him, and in fact left Farm Credit for six months in 1995 to work briefly for Mr. Owens.

Left to right in the photo below – Doris Trombley, Lisa Wener, Alan Bourbeau, Congressman Bill Owens, Walt Gladstone, Donald Guay, Rocky Giroux, Rob Guay, George Putnam, Kevin Guay, Steve Taylor, Rachel Dutil:

The Phelps-Martin Award for Community Service that Donald Guay is holding in the above photos:



We all wish that Marie herself was here to receive this award. She is greatly missed by everyone who knew her.

NH Risk Management Workshop

The 2012 New Hampshire Risk Management Workshop for Agricultural Professionals was held on January 13^th. Around 50 people gathered at the Holiday Inn in Concord. Jeff Temple, Vice President, and Clara Hall, Credit Analyst, represented Yankee Farm Credit at the meeting. There was also representation from the Bedford Office of Farm Credit East.

Lorraine Merrill, NH Commissioner of Agriculture, started the day off stressing the importance of collaboration and cooperation of knowledge and resources across the different agriculture agencies. She also reminded us to encourage participation in the 2012 Census. She touched on one of NH's biggest challenges, the growth of Boston and developments in New Hampshire. In the 2007 Census NH was 5^th in the nation for largest percentage of agriculture land getting developed at 10-20% (for comparison, VT is at 2-5%).

Marge Kilkelly, Deputy Director of Eastern Regional Conference/Council of State Government, followed Commissioner Merrill and discussed the 2012 Farm Bill. She brought to our attention that if the Farm Bill doesn’t go through this year there will be 37 programs lost, but she remained optimistic because there are 8 Members in the House and 3 Members in the Senate from North East Agriculture. Ms. Kilkelly expressed that her number one priority is to make a plan within the NE region.

Dave Bishop, Bedford Branch Manager, Farm Credit East, spoke next about the plan for Agriculture Credit over the next few years. He addressed the most significant influences in planning for credit as being the health and future of our customers, skilled staff, cost and availability of capital and the ability to manage risk. His take-aways for our customers were the importance of Working Capital and the need for Self Evaluation. He also noted the significance an FSA guarantee can carry for different situations.

Gene Gantz, USDA Risk Management Agency, presented on Risk Management Plans. He handed out a Risk Management Checklist (which is available at each office) that is a great planning tool for farmers, and he talked about how vital it is to know what your insurance covers so that you know what to expect when you need to cash in.

James Phinizy, the NH State Director for the Farm Service Agency, followed lunch and talked about different programs that FSA offers. Mr. Phinizy explained the Emergency response process which starts with the 5 county offices who contact farmers, extension offices and NRCS in order to compile notes. If a natural disaster is declared it is considered at a committee level first then goes to the state and then on to the national level; once it is approved applications begin to be processed. Mr. Phinizy also touched on NAP which is a non-insured assistance program available for products without current crop insurance accessible.

Greg Thompson, of Freedom Energy Logistics, educated us on ‘Deregulation’ which is not energy conservation or an increase in energy efficiency but a way to ‘pay less for what you use’. In 1999 federal government enacted a law forcing local electric utilities to allow other electricity suppliers to carry power over their lines, creating a competitive environment. There are currently 17 deregulated states, NH being one of them (VT is still regulated). Freedom Energy Logistics ‘aggregates’ individuals giving them the same advantage and buying power that big companies have and thus creating a lower cost.

Rick Ellsmore, State Conservationist with NRCS, talked briefly about programs they are working on including: the 90/10 solution (Conservation Delivery Streamline Initiative), EQUIP, WHIP, AMAP, CSP, Easement programs, and their Local Work Groups which meet and discuss needs for each county.

Lisa Townson, Assistant Director of UNH Cooperative Extension, ended the day letting us know updates with the extension office. The budget decreased by $1.7 million and because of that they have lost 23 positions since the first of the year. That being said, they are working on regionalizing and specializing their staff and will rely on grants to cover 35% of their budget. They are excited about 4 new program teams: 1) Food and Agriculture 2) Natural Resources 3) Youth and Families and 4) Community Economic Development.

2012 Director Nominees

The Nominating Committee has nominated the following individuals for director:

Region 1:
Rocklyn A. Giroux, Beekmantown, NY

Region 2:
William F. Johnson, Canaan, VT
Bradley Maxwell, Coventry, VT

Region 3:
Scott C. Mitchell, Brandon, VT
Stephen H. Taylor, Plainfield, NH

One director from each region will be elected at the 2012 Annual Meeting which will be held in four sectional meetings April 9-17, 2012. Nominations from the floor are allowed, but may be made only at the first sectional meeting on April 9 at the Lake Morey Inn. Voting members as of February 29, 2012 will be eligible to vote at Annual Meeting.

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

FarmStart - Jon and Kristie Lucas

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 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!"