Friday, October 9, 2015

Career Opportunities

Are you passionate about agriculture and want to be involved with supporting local farm businesses to ensure their success? If yes, please consider joining our Yankee team! We are a leading provider of credit and financial services to the agricultural community in Vermont, western NH and the Champlain Valley of NY.

We currently have two positions open:
  • Office Assistant - Middlebury, VT
  • Credit Analyst - St. Albans, VT
For a more detailed job description, please visit our website at www.yankeeaca.com.

To be considered for this position, please send a cover letter and resume to: Ruchel St. Hilaire, Yankee Farm Credit, P.O. Box 467, Williston, VT 05495 or e-mail.

Yankee Farm Credit offers a full, comprehensive benefits package.
EO/AA Employer- M/F/D/V

Yankee's Consulting Service: Value You Can Use


Farm Credit’s mission is to support rural communities and agriculture with reliable and consistent credit and financial services. Yankee's business consulting services aids in this mission by offering services that include multiple ways to help improve your results or adapt to change within and outside your business. Our consultants have the opportunity to work with other teams within Yankee, such as our financial recordkeeping and tax services, to be as efficient and effective as possible. Our focus is delivering value you can use, whether the fee is is hourly or project based.
Our consulting services cover a wide variety of needs: business planning, business organization, budget tools, financial and operational analysis, investment analysis, feasibility studies, benchmarking programs, dairy business analysis, profit team meetings, appraisal consulting, conservation easement planning, complex entity tax planning, estate planning, farm transfer and succession planning, and much more!
If you have any questions about how our consultants could help you please do not hesitate to contact Liz Bayne, 802-295-3670, Elizabeth.Bayne@YankeeACA.com or Joanna Lidback, 802-334-8050, Joanna.Lidback@YankeeACA.com.
 
Liz Bayne

Joanna Lidback



 



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 8th 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!

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Senator Leahy's Fall Foliage Weekend

The weather and foliage this past weekend were quite accommodating for Senator Patrick Leahy’s Fall Foliage Weekend in Vermont. Several events were scheduled throughout the weekend to allow time for networking while showcasing the beauty of the Senator's home state.

Senator Leahy has long been a strong supporter of Farm Credit. Yankee had the opportunity to send attendees to each event where they were able to thank the Senator for his support of Farm Credit and farmers. Participating from Yankee were:
  • Friday 10/2 – sunset cruise on Lake Champlain – AVP/Branch Manager Dave Lane and his wife Julie
  • Saturday 10/3 – bus tour from Burlington to Waitsfield and Stowe – President and CEO George Putnam and his wife Nancy
  • Saturday 10/3 – dinner in Burlington – AVP/Commercial Lending Division Manager Chris Bessette and his wife Nariah Broadus
  • Sunday 10/4 – reception and brunch in Burlington – Director Alan Bourbeau and his wife Kim
Pictured above is Senator Leahy with George and Nancy Putnam at the top of the gondola on Mt. Mansfield.

Senator Leahy was chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee when the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 was passed. The 1987 Act profoundly affected the Farm Credit System. Some may remember the days of Production Credit Associations (PCAs) for short and intermediate term lending and Federal Land Bank Associations (FLBAs) for long term real estate mortgage lending. The 1987 Act brought many organizational changes to the Farm Credit System, including the introduction of Agricultural Credit Associations (ACAs) which combined the functions of a PCA and FLBA into a single entity. The 1987 Act led to the formation of Yankee Farm Credit, ACA in 1995 from the merger of Champlain Valley Farm Credit and Farm Credit of the Connecticut Valley.