We know your time is valuable, and that’s why GreenStone is now offering real-time updates and information through text messaging! Whether you’re in the field, on the road, or at home, you can now connect with GreenStone in the palm of your hand.

To sign up, text “GreenStone” to 87303 – it’s that simple!

When you sign up for texting through GreenStone, you will receive:

• Real-time updates and information from GreenStone whether you’re in the field or at home
• Two-way instant communication
• Reminders about important deadlines
• Straight-to-the-point messages to save you time

This is just one more way GreenStone is meeting you where you’re at!

House hunting can be a very daunting task for some, while others may enjoy every minute of the search. Besides finding a realtor to help fulfill your wants and needs, it is also important to know what to expect from a lender. As a consumer, it is important to know what goes in to applying for a loan, what documentation your lender requires, and what to expect during the process. 

What to Expect 

There are three important things to know when applying for a loan:

1. What you can afford for a down payment
2. Your credit score and credit history
3. What you can afford for a monthly payment

Down payment requirements differ from lender to lender depending on what type of loan you are applying for. GreenStone finances conventional loans with down payments starting as low as 5 percent, depending on the property that is being purchased. 

Credit score/history is a vital factor lenders look at when determining your potential loan approval. GreenStone looks for credit scores of 680 and above; credit reports showing foreclosure or bankruptcy within 48 months, a short sale within 24 months, or a judgement, garnishment, or lien with a balance of over $250 may result in a denied application. 

Debt to income ratio is also an integral part in determining your chances of being approved for a loan. GreenStone looks for a total debt load of no more than 40 percent of your gross monthly income. This calculation includes car loans, student loans, revolving credit cards, real estate loans (including taxes and insurance), and the new mortgage debt payment. Lenders generally can approve you for a loan much higher than what you need, but as a consumer it is very important to know what monthly payment is comfortable for you. 

Documents Needed

When applying for a loan, whether it be with GreenStone Farm Credit Services or another lender, you need to be prepared to provide your lender with financial information. The financial information requested, by the lender, is to show proof of income and proof of assets. The following is the most common types of documentation requested by GreenStone:

• Paystubs or salary voucher for the last 30 day period
• Most recent two year’s W-2 statements or tax returns
• Most recent two months of checking and savings statements
• Most recent investment statements

If you are self-employed, additional documentation will also need to be provided:

• 2 to 3 most recent business and personal tax returns
• Profit and loss statement
• Balance sheet

Expectations

After a loan is approved, an appraisal and title work is ordered. In today’s market it is taking two to three weeks to get these items back from the external vendors that render the services. Once the title and appraisal are returned they will be cleared by our credit and legal department. The appraisal should come back with a value of at least the purchase price or the loan amount may need to be adjusted. The title work should also come back without any issues or exceptions. Once the legal and credit department clear these two items a closing date is set and your dream home is now yours!

Whether you have found your dream home and are ready to buy, hiring a contractor to build your next house, or are putting on the hard hat yourself to make your new home a reality, chances are, you need financing. When applying for a loan, there’s a folder of common documents you will need to help ensure a smooth process.

The Basics: This first section lists documents you will need for most all home and home construction loans.

• A completed loan application
  • Your completed application may not be in your folder of documents, but rather something you complete online. Most lenders, like GreenStone, offer an online application tool. We recommend speaking with a financial services officer before submitting an application to go over approval details and to discuss your exact plans.
• E-Consent form
  • In order for your lender to be able to send disclosure agreements for you to sign via email, you will be provided with an E-Consent form to fill out. If you choose not to sign this document, each disclosure form from your lender will need to be sent via mail, which can slow down the closing process.
• Your two most recent tax returns
  • To help determine what type of a loan you can financially support, a lender will look at your income. At GreenStone, we require your two most recent tax returns and evaluate your two-year historical average.
• Pay stubs from the past 30 days
  • To validate your income and employment status, GreenStone asks for your pay stubs from the past 30 days.
• Two months of bank statements
  • In order to verify your liquid assets which helps determine down payment capabilities and contribute to your overall financial review for a loan, your lender will ask for recent bank statements. At GreenStone, we asked for two months of statements.
• Most recent investment statements
  • Another way for your lender to calculate your liquid assets is to provide investment statements such as your 401K and IRAs. GreenStone requests your most recent statements from each of your investment accounts.
• Purchase agreement
  • Before a lender can move forward with a loan, they need to know there is a legally binding document from the seller that the buyer intends to purchase the land or property.
• Photo Identification
  • For your safety, to be approved for a loan, you must provide an official form of photo identification. This can be your driver’s license, state-issued ID card, or passport.

Refinancing: If you are refinancing a piece of land or a home, you need all of the documents from the above “The Basics” section, along with the following documents.

• Most recent winter and summer tax bills
  • As part of the evaluation of your ability to repay your loan, lenders take into account your taxes. At GreenStone, when refinancing, we ask for your most recent winter and summer tax bills.
• Insurance declaration page indicating annual premium
  • Similarly to your tax bills, we take into account your homeowner’s insurance premium to ensure all expenses are factored into the evaluation of feasibility of loan repayment.

Construction Loans (for a self-build): If you plan on building your dream home by yourself, you will need all of the documents from “The Basics” section, along with the following documents.

• Building plans
  • A lender will typically ask for your building plans. Some may require stamped blueprints. GreenStone requires an outline of your building plans and goals. This includes the dimensions of each room and a floor plan.
• Dwelling specifications form
  • Your lender will ask for a specifications form that outlines the design of your home. The form will also specify what type of material you will use, such as wood, metal, and concrete.
• Bids from contractors for the entire build
  • Although your plan is to build the entire home yourself, it’s important to plan ahead in case of a bump in the road. GreenStone requires bids from contractors to fulfill the work of your home in case you are injured or can no longer finish the build yourself during the designated timeline.
• Dwelling under construction insurance
  • Most lenders, including GreenStone, require you to secure construction insurance to protect against things during construction, like theft of building materials or structure damage during the build because of things like weather.

Construction Loans (for a contractor build): If you are hiring a builder or multiple builders to create your dream home, you need all of the documents from “The Basics” section, along with the following documents for your loan application.

• Building plans
  • A lender will typically ask for your building plans. Some may require stamped blueprints. GreenStone requires an outline of your building plans and goals. This includes the dimensions of each room and a floor plan.
• Dwelling specifications form
  • Your lender will ask for a specifications form that outlines the design of your home. The form will also specify what type of material you will use, such as wood, metal, and concrete.
• Construction agreements
  • Your lender needs to make sure the build will happen within the specified timeline. In order to ensure that, you will need to provide a construction agreement signed by both yourself and the builder(s). If you are working with more than one building company, you will need to provide an agreement for each one.
• Sworn statement signed and notarized
  • You will need to provide a sworn statement outlining that you and your builder agree to complete the construction project in the outlined timeline. A sworn statement is a construction document that lists the contractors and supplies that provide material or labor for a project. It includes information about who is owed money and how much they are owed.
• Dwelling under construction insurance
  • Most lenders, including GreenStone, require you to secure construction insurance to protect against things during construction, like theft of building materials or structure damage during the build because of things like weather.

Knowing what documents to provide when applying for a home or construction loan can get confusing and overwhelming. Our GreenStone team of local experts is ready to assist you! Before submitting an application, visit your local GreenStone branch or give them a call to have one of our friendly staff walk you through the approval process. Get started today at www.GreenStoneFCS.com/apply.

Mental health is often an overlooked fight that many people, especially farmers, face nationwide. However, each May, we strive to raise awareness and help in the fight against this challenge through shining a light on the many available resources.

Mental health and physical health go hand in hand. To ensure a productive farm, both aspects need to function properly together. Similarly to heavy equipment on the farm, ignoring an issue leads to more expense, equipment loss, and unwanted downtime. If you wouldn’t ignore an issue with your equipment, don’t ignore your mental health warning signs either. Without you, the farm cannot run successfully – you’re the most important tool.

For farmers, mental health can be affected by a number of factors including farmland loss, land access issues, rising inflation and production costs, falling farm incomes, weather disasters, and farm injuries. Local support services are available in many locations, though the rural nature of some farms may make it harder to locate. To help as many individuals as possible, there are now multiple virtual avenues available to provide help for everyone no matter their location. For example, you can connect virtually with a telehealth professional, explore farm financial resource options, or contact a farm stress specialist. To learn more about mental health resources available for farmers visit Managing Farm Stress (msu.edu).

 

 

Many of the factors mentioned above that affect agriculture production are beyond the control of the farmer. Instead of focusing on the uncontrollable, turn your focus to what you can control – your healthcare.

Break the stigma by knowing you are not alone! 1 in 4 people experience mental health related illnesses, this is more than a million people worldwide. Out of the millions, less than half seek help leading to generation cycles of untreated illness and preventable tragedies.

Along with seeking help, you can also work on stress management techniques. Farm Credit has developed a stress management course to help farmers understand the sources of stress, manage their own stress, learn the warning signs of stress and suicide, and identify effective communication strategies. The course is free and available to everyone! Visit Farm Credit to take the course today.

 

 

When starting and maintaining an operation, it’s important to know your business’s financial position. A helpful tool to monitor your financial position is a balance sheet. The balance sheet can show your progress year-over-year and is something your lender may ask for on an annual basis.

A balance sheet, also known as a financial statement, contains assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time.

Assets are anything that is owned by an operation or an individual and have a cash value. Liabilities are anything that is owed by an operation or an individual to a debtor. The equity of an operation is determined by taking total assets minus total liabilities.

Understanding assets and liabilities

When completing a balance sheet; you’ll want to break down assets and liabilities into “current” and “noncurrent” sections.

Current Assets are assets typically liquidated over the next 12 months. Some examples of current assets are cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, inventory (crop and/or market livestock), and supplies on hand.

Noncurrent Assets are typically thought of as long-term investments and will most likely not be liquidated in the next 12 months. Some examples of noncurrent assets are machinery and equipment, vehicles, buildings, real estate, long-term investments/retirement accounts, goodwill, and intangibles.

Current Liabilities are liabilities an operation will typically incur over the next 12 months. Some examples of current liabilities are property taxes, income taxes, payroll expenses, rent payments, accounts payable, current portion of principal payments, and accrued interest.

Noncurrent Liabilities are typically thought of as long-term obligations and not due within the next 12 months. Some examples of noncurrent liabilities are loans for machinery and equipment, vehicles, buildings, real estate, leases, and any deferred liabilities.

Keeping your balance sheet accurate

While the value for some assets will be straight forward; valuing other assets can be more challenging as market values are constantly changing. When valuing assets at market value, it is best to be realistic and not overstate values.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when updating your balance sheet when the market value is ever changing:

• Crop inventory – Do you have any contracts in place? Do you anticipate the current market price to remain steady? Is the market at a high or a low?
• Machinery and equipment or vehicles – What is the condition of your equipment compared to recent sales? What is equipment selling for in your area?
• Real estate – What kind of soil type is your ground? Is it tiled? What are recent sales in your area for similar ground?

Additionally, it’s important to have a detailed balance sheet. When referring to a detailed balance sheet; every category should list all specific items and a current market value for each item.

Some examples:

• Crop inventory – Itemize out each commodity (corn, wheat, oats, etc.) by appropriate measurement and market value.
• Livestock inventory – Itemize livestock by milking, heifers, calves, or by age, group/size and value each group by market value.
• Machinery and equipment or vehicles – A complete list of all machinery and equipment owned will ease the process of updating the balance sheet on an annual basis with items sold, traded and purchased.

To monitor the progress of an operation, it is best to update the balance sheet at the same time every year, which matches the business’s tax year end, typically Dec. 31. Updating the balance sheet every year will allow one to monitor how assets, liabilities, and equity changed from the previous year.

Eventually, trends can be seen when comparing year over year balance sheets, which may assist in making management decisions.

How to use it

Once you have your balance sheet completed; how do you know if your operation is healthy? For starters, these two basic items, focused on equity, are critical in understanding your operation’s financial status:

• Assets – Liabilities = Owners’ Equity
• Owners’ Equity / Assets = Owners Equity %

The amount of equity an operation has may vary based on the size and type of operation. If your equity is increasing, then you are most likely trending in the right direction. If your equity is not trending upwards or not where you’d like to see it; then debt paydown may be a focus before any other major purchases.

When your equity is lower than you’d like or not trending in a direction you’d want to see; then you can work with your business team and financial experts for assistance. Every operation is different, and the level of equity will vary, but most lender’s standard for Owners’ Equity is 50% or higher.

Getting started

There are plenty of online resources to get your balance sheet started. GreenStone’s team of experts are here to help you every step of the way with knowledge, resources, and experience. We are committed to supporting our young, beginning and small farmers as well as our established farmers. If you have any questions, contact your local branch today!

 

This article was originally published in Michigan Farm News.

When it comes to planning ahead and saving money, knowing all the hidden costs of owning a home is key in being fully prepared. Now that you are officially a homeowner or in the home buying process, you may be wondering what costs to expect.

When you are in the home buying process, there a few costs many people forget to include in the budget. Depending on your loan type, there will be a down payment necessary at closing. This cost can vary, often between 3.5 percent to 20 percent of the home cost. This can become a significant cost, making it important to calculate it into your costs when looking at homes. For example, if you are looking to buy a $100,000 property and put 20% down, that’s a $20,000 down payment. If you have only $20,000 saved, you’ll want to keep reading to learn about the other home cost considerations.

Many lenders also factor in something called reserves, commonly referred to as rainy day funds. It’s important for you to you have enough funds in case of an emergency. These reserves are usually considered two months’ worth of funds with all your monthly bills factored in, along with taxes and insurance, and any other debt such as a car payment, student loans, or credit cards.

During the loan closing process, there will also be closing costs. Closing costs are the fees accumulated during the loan process and transferring the property from seller to buyer. Fees may include appraisal, title, closing, flood, credit report, recording, survey, and inspection costs. Check with your mortgage lender and realtor to better understand the estimated costs.

Insurance is also necessary during the homebuying process. Before you can take out your mortgage, you must be insured. You’ll need to purchase homeowners’ insurance and provide proof to your mortgage lender. Don’t forget this is also a monthly cost! Property tax is another ongoing expense that can be overlooked. Varying from town to town, you’ll have a property tax payment that can be folded into the monthly mortgage payment.

The title of homeowner comes with a few more costs you must budget for. You are now in charge of your landscaping, trash service, all utilities, and necessary maintenance. Utilities such as water, gas, and electricity are monthly bills that can vary each month based on usage. Trash service and internet/cable are often set monthly bills that shouldn’t vary. Your mortgage payment along with taxes and insurance should also be included in your budget.

Landscaping is another forgotten cost that can quickly surprise you in the spring. Spring is also a good time to give your house a thorough check for any necessary maintenance; for instance, roof damage, HVAC repairs, and filter replacements.

Buying a home is no easy task, but our Financial Service Officers are determined to help you with every step along the way. While the loan process can feel overwhelming and vague initially, GreenStone has a no surprise policy. Our financial services officers will be as explicit as possible on the process and the costs. Our goal is to make this process as smooth and easy as possible for all buyers. Your team is ready to help answer your questions, reach out to them today!

In this behind the scenes, two GreenStone employees share how their role allows them to support rural communities and agriculture.

Collin Nurenberg

Financial Services Officer
Ionia, MI
5 Years of service

Describe how your role carries out the GreenStone mission of supporting rural communities and agriculture.

As a financial service officer, my role allows me to help provide products and services that allow our customers to succeed in both their operational and family goals.

What do you enjoy about your role?

The thing I enjoy the most about my role is the people I get to work with every day, both customers and coworkers.

What changes have been incorporated in your role to meet evolving customer needs?

A lot has changed over the past few years, but the biggest changes are probably the technology and increased flexibility. Both have allowed GreenStone to serve our customers better and in a more timely fashion.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Spending time with family and friends, as well as working on our family farm.

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Joel Norkus

Vice President of Lending
Grand Rapids, MI
5 Years of service

Describe how your role carries out the GreenStone mission of supporting rural communities and agriculture:

Most clients that I help fall into one of 2 categories. The first category is clients who are looking to purchase a specialized property (such as agricultural or recreational land), and they have been told that financing is unavailable by their residential lender. A big part of this group are clients who’s dream it is to build their own house in the country for their families and future generations to enjoy. The second category is current GreenStone customers who know and trust us for all of their financing needs. We are usually their first call if they ever need anything. Both types of clients are focused on preserving the agricultural and outdoor recreational culture in Michigan.

What do you enjoy about your role?

I really don’t know where to start! I’ve never been a part of an organization with such a loyal customer base. However, given GreenStone’s company culture, I am certainly not surprised. Our company research and surveys consistently show the highest levels of employee satisfaction, and this absolutely filters through to our clients. GreenStone has the best team that I’ve ever worked with. My time here has given me a real appreciation for Michigan agriculture and the outdoors.

In our current environment of consistently being surrounded by technology, it is extremely satisfying to assist clients with achieving their goals to be able to acquire an asset that allows them to ‘disconnect’, and enjoy time with their families in the beautiful outdoors. Almost every client expresses their wish to keep these properties in their family to be used for future generations, and this makes me truly appreciate the services I provide for them.

As I mentioned, many of my new clients are referred to me by other real estate professionals (realtors and lenders), and I’ve been fortunate enough to have created a local network that refers these clients directly to me when the situation arises. Instead of competing for business with other lenders, I find that they will refer clients to me when they know a GreenStone loan is a better fit.

What changes have been incorporated in your role to meet evolving customer needs?

A good number of my clients who are purchasing land now express a desire to build a home in the future. In these cases, I do my best to describe how construction loans work and what a construction loan might look like for them, even if the build won’t happen for years. Clients appreciate the education and helps them set personal financial goals in order to get to that point.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Mainly, I love spending time with my family (Wife Amy, daughter Lilli, and son Jonah). As far as hobbies go, I have to admit that my main outdoor hobby consists of spending time on many of Michigan’s golf courses. In my spare time, I play guitar and have put together a pretty decent collection of guitars and amps. This year, I’ve even connected with an old high school friend to start a band. However, I don’t think I’ll be quitting my day job anytime soon!

 

To view the article in the online 2023 Spring Partners Magazine, click here.

Matt Ostapowicz has spent nearly three decades fighting crime as a member of the Grand Rapids Police Department.

Now, he’s turning in his badge to enjoy a much-deserved retirement filled with his family and the great outdoors. Retiring as a captain, Matt has served in a number of roles with the department including overseeing the Special Operations Division and SWAT team along with serving as a lieutenant.

Serving in law enforcement was always his dream after growing up and watching his father and brother also serve on the Grand Rapids Police Department.

After his years of dedicated service, Matt is ready for some relaxation, and he has the perfect place to do it – his new outdoor getaway just outside of Lake City, Michigan.

Matt has known for years that, when he retired, he wanted a cabin up north to escape to. He looked for years to find the perfect paradise where he could both hunt and lay back, but nothing felt quite right until he found this renovated cabin on more than forty acres of land in August 2022.

“My sons Tyler and Braden have been hunting their whole life, it’s something we love to do together, so we wanted to have a place where we had our own piece of property to hunt on,” said Matt. “It was also important for it to be a place for my wife Amy to just hang out, not just a place for us to spend deer season. We found this place and it checked all of the boxes.”

The place has everything he was looking for including a pole barn and a garage.

A Familiar Face

When Matt made the decision to buy it, he worked with GreenStone to secure the funding he needed to make it his own. Little did he know that the help he would get from GreenStone was from a neighbor and former high school acquaintance living half a mile down the road – Financial Services Office Joel Norkus.

“I reached out to GreenStone and soon realized I was going to be working with someone I already knew from high school,” said Matt. “I thought that was pretty cool.”

That professional partnership soon turned into a friendship.

“It was kind of a funny initial call because I remembered the name from high school,” said Joel. “We didn’t know each other well back then, but we have certainly become friends over this process.”

Joel was thorough and used his resources to help Matt get this dream property.

“The cool thing was that he was very creative as far as figuring out the easiest way to secure the loan,” said Matt. “He was very responsive. I could text him a quick question and he always emailed over the options we have. He made it comfortable, as scary as it is buying another property.”

A Cabin Filled with Family Love

By October, Matt closed on the property and has spent several weekends there already.

“Since we bought it, I think we have been up there almost weekly. I spent a lot of time there during hunting season,” said Matt. “My sons have been up there this winter riding snowmobiles with their friends.”

In January, Matt’s family surprised him with a celebration at the cabin with all three of his children, including his daughter Calli who lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

“That was the first time we were all there together,” said Matt. “That was awesome to have my whole family up there.”

An Outdoor Paradise for Years to Come

And Matt is glad that his family enjoys this outdoor getaway because that was always the goal – to keep this property in the family.

“His big plan was to have a getaway place with lots of land where his family could hang for generations, and I was happy to help him do that,” said Joel.

That’s why Joel loves being a part of the GreenStone team – because many of his customers aren’t looking for a temporary place to hang their hat, but rather a long-term family heirloom.

“I’ve been in the business for 25 years, and before I got to GreenStone, it was always about buying a house that people would be in for a few years. GreenStone clientele is noticeably different where they are trying to buy an asset that hopefully stays in the family for a long time, if not forever. Knowing I can help someone do that is extremely rewarding,” Joel reflected.

And there’s not many people more rewarding than someone like Matt and his family. As far as the future, he hopes to spend even more time up north, now that he’s officially retired, and he has some other ideas in mind that could help his bottom line.

“I’m just happy it’s a place we can spend a long weekend. My wife can even work remotely there, so we like to go up on a Thursday and come home on Sunday or Monday,” said Matt. “I’m considering taking some timber from the land, and hopefully improving the habitat a little for hunting, too.”

Matt knows that if he ever decides to expand his retirement getaway, his friend Joel at GreenStone will be there to help him every step of the way.

“There are a lot of benefits of my job, but helping the members will always be my favorite part of this gig,” said Joel.

 

To view the article in the online 2023 Spring Partners Magazine, click here.

If you’re traveling down the backroads of southern Westphalia, Michigan, you’ll come across K&K Dairy Farms. There are barns of cows and equipment, rows upon rows of crops including corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa, and the farmhouse where Kristi and Matt Keilen are raising their three small children. They have been at the head of this operation for almost ten years.

After working with GreenStone to purchase the farm from Matt’s father in 2014, Kristi and Matt became the fourth generation to own and operate the farm. Although it’s the farm Matt grew up on, Kristi’s involvement in agriculture started a lot later in life. She doesn’t come from a strong agriculture background, but raising rabbits and chickens for 4-H as a child sparked her interest. That interest turned into a career when she decided to study animal science at Michigan State University. Now, she’s farming full-time with her husband taking care of cows and crops – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Taking Over

Before Kristi and Matt were handed the keys to K&K Dairy Farms, they had to secure the funding they needed to take over the land. They met with GreenStone Financial Services Officer Collin Nurenberg. Because they are young and beginning farmers, Collin was able to use some of GreenStone’s CultivateGrowth resources like Farm Service Agency guarantees to offer them approval for the financing they needed.

“It is great working with Kristi,” said Collin. “She’s very organized and has her numbers in line. She knows her goals and it makes our job a lot easier. She knows what she wants and asks our opinion and it truly is a good partnership.”

Starting the farm came with some learning curves, though. Kristi studied agriculture and Matt grew up on a farm, so it wasn’t the dairy and beef operation or planting the seeds that proved tough – it was things like crunching the numbers and taking care of taxes.

“One of the things I didn’t realize is the business end of it,” said Kristi. “We’re really good farmers and know farming, but the business side of things has been difficult. I’m not an accountant, but now I do accounting. That’s something we had to learn.”

Along the way, Kristi said they started doing things a little differently than the people around them, and it helped their farm become stronger. “We’re not afraid to think outside the box which is super important,” said Kristi. “It seems a lot of people like to be cookie cutter, but we’re not afraid to kind of do our own thing even if it’s not what our neighbor is doing.”

Making a Change

And thinking outside of the box is exactly what they did. When Kristi and Matt bought the farm, it was a large dairy operation. The barns were filled with 450 cows, being milked conventional-parlor style three times a day, and the farm employed fifteen people to keep up with that demand. After taking a look at what direction they wanted to go in, they decided to make a change and scale back the dairy operation.

Now, they house 250 dairy cattle and have two employees. They also worked with GreenStone to finance robotic milkers so they are able to focus on other areas of their farm like their beef cattle and cash crops.

Even when this vision seemed like a reach, GreenStone was there to help it become a reality.

“Collin was great about getting all of the resources together and helping us through the tough decisions and conversations and making sure we had everything thought through before we went forward with everything,” said Kristi. “He helped every little step of the way, helping with the FSA side of things. He was really looking out for us and our operation. He knew our goal, too, which was really important.”

Supporting Neighbors in Agriculture

Now that the two have made these big changes on their farm, they don’t foresee any other big changes in the near future, but she is starting to look forward to what’s next for the farm. “It is time to start thinking about what the next generation is going to look like and how to get my kids involved,” said Kristi.

In the meantime, she hopes to help and encourage other young people in agriculture by sharing her story.

In March, Kristi shared her expertise at GreenStone’s inaugural CultivateGrowth conference. She sat on a panel outlining some of the successes and obstacles she faced as a beginning farmer.

“She’s very active in the agriculture community which is cool to see,” said Collin. “She’s always networking and is very active in that aspect.”

Kristi wants others starting out to know that although it’s not always easy, it’s more than worth it when you see your farm succeed.

“One of the biggest things we have learned is to not give up. Keep pushing forward. There are always going to be good times and bad times but keep pushing forward,” she advised. And Collin is sure glad that Kristi and Matt continue to do just that.

“The best part of my job is working with the people and helping them. I love seeing what their goal is and where they want to be five years down the road and helping them achieve those goals, especially the younger people. They’re the future. They are whom we are going to grow with,” Collin concluded.

 

To view the spring 2023 issue of Partners magazine in its entirety, click here.

Like many of our farm members experience, winter is simultaneous with meeting season – taking advantage of some down time on the farm to connect with others, learn, and gain inspiration for the next cycle of feeding and fueling America.

During this time, the GreenStone Board of Directors are not only attending their commodity and industry specific meetings, but they are also representing GreenStone’s 28,000 members at the annual Farm Credit meetings. Two of those are the Farm Credit Annual Meeting with all 60+ Farm Credit associations from across the nation, and the AgriBank Annual Meeting with the 12 associations that are members of AgriBank’s district within the Farm Credit System. Three of your GreenStone Directors’ share their perspective on these two gatherings, and provide insight into the purpose and the value the gatherings provide to GreenStone.

Terri Hawbaker, Clinton County, MI

Farm Credit System meetings are key in cultivating collaboration among the entire cooperative system and encourages exploration of issues facing our industry. The Farm Credit Annual Meeting allows the pooling of resources to provide educational opportunities and updates on the farm economy, legislative issues, and future challenges through experts that each individual association may not be able to secure on their own. It also creates a space to share ideas and thoughts from across the nation in one room, enlightening and challenging every participant’s viewpoint.

The AgriBank Annual Meeting is where the voice of each association who uses AgriBank as their funding bank can be heard through the election of the AgriBank board members, and where director-to-director discussions are prominent. The AgriBank meeting allows for issues to be discussed that are region specific, whereas the national meetings allow us to join together and create one voice to present to leadership in Washington D.C. on policy that benefits all members, including the Farm Credit System itself.

Dale Wagner, Manitowoc County, WI

Each year board members have the opportunity to attend several meetings besides our regular board meetings. This year, several of us attended the Farm Credit Annual Meeting. This meeting includes directors and management from the associations across the country and the four District Banks. Presenters shared insight from topics such as geopolitical issues, international demographics, the Federal debt, regulation, commodity prices, and rising interest rates. Why does this matter? Because these all can have some impact on each and every one of our farms, and the businesses we depend on for supplies, feed, fuel, fertilizer, parts and the cost and availability of the capital. Although we have limited control on many of these, I feel it is important to try to minimize the negative threats and maximize any potential opportunities.

Most of our GreenStone Board of Directors were also able to attend the AgriBank Annual Meeting. Again, there were several excellent speakers with the highlight being keynote speaker, former President George W. Bush. He shared with us some of his thoughts on his time in the Oval Office as well as the current political environment. He even gave us a little advice for life in general!

We had the chance to network with others. There were many conversations about our own operations but a lot of time was spent sharing thoughts about potential risks, discussing the need for collaboration between associations and the funding banks, and the concern over the current interest rate increases. One common denominator that I feel came through is that whether talking to a staff member, a CEO, an association director, or a bank director we are all driven by a common goal: To do what will create the best outcome for our farm and rural consumer members.

The most important part of the AgriBank meeting however was to elect the directors to represent GreenStone and the other associations on the AgriBank Board. This is similar to the elections coming up for the GreenStone board. I believe one of the greatest assets of Farm Credit is our self-governance.

Jed Welder, Montcalm County, MI

The recent AgriBank Annual Meeting was an incredible time to network with directors from other Farm Credit institutions across the county.  We were able to see firsthand how GreenStone performed in comparison to co-ops that are both much bigger and smaller than ours. It was great to see it confirmed that GreenStone consistently ranks in the very top of farm lending by every measure.

One take away from this meeting was the time spent with our keynote speaker, former President George W. Bush. He shared with us that you never know what you can do until you try. At age 70 he took up painting and took his creativity in an entirely new direction. His story is inspiration for all of us at any age!

 

To view the article in the online 2023 Spring Partners Magazine, click here.