LISTEN TO Andrea's EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

Jenny:

Welcome back everyone to the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast. I'm your host Jenny Kreisher, Director of Communications at Horizon Farm Credit. Our guest today is Andrea Haines, owner of ALH wordandimage. Andrea is a professional photographer and writer based here in Frederick County, Maryland. Though she'll capture everything from weddings to newborns, Andrea's real passion resides in agriculture, and you can often find her covering events from local fairs or ag dinners or out in the field snapping awesome photos of Holsteins or Jerseys. We have the pleasure of working with Andrea on several projects throughout the year for which we are very grateful. So welcome to the podcast, Andrea.

COULD YOU TAKE US BACK TO THE BEGINNING AND JUST TELL EVERYONE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND IN AGRICULTURE?

Andrea:

I'm a dairy farmer's daughter and being the oldest of four kids in that family, I'm very similar to a lot of ag kids in that I grew up with 4-H and FFA careers. 4-H for me, I really liked doing the dairy projects, but I also had market hogs and beef cattle.

Jenny:

That's awesome. I know you went to DelVal and you got a degree in dairy science.

WHAT WERE YOUR CAREER PLANS AT THAT TIME? WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD END UP DOING IN AG?

Andrea Haines:

Initially I thought I would come back and be a dairy farmer, but the home farm was actually going into retirement at that time. And my father and a few 4-H leaders that I'd been working with had really good insight. We all know the struggles of dairy farmers these days, but he didn't want me to have the same struggles that he had growing up. He challenged me to try to think of a different career and look at all of my options while I was at college and really just be an advocate for the industry. So I later on added a minor in communications to my degree. That's how I started.

Jenny:

As one fellow communicator to another, I know the power words have. That's something that never ceases to amaze me about what we do.

WHAT IS IT THAT MADE YOU PURSUE WRITING AS A CAREER? WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO GET THAT MINOR IN COMMUNICATIONS?

Andrea:

It's two things actually. I really got the same inherited bug of riding that my father has. My parents and my grandparents were definite ones for that. Just riding around with them in the countryside and listening to their stories or even stopping in and visiting your neighbor or another farm and seeing how they did certain things - I really enjoyed that.

As far as the writing goes, and when I made my decision to be a writer or journalist, was through an internship that I obtained in college. The internship was one that actually wasn't really available. It's a funny story. It was with Farmshine newspaper in Pennsylvania, and I was on the college show team. I went down to the trade show part and I asked the editor there, I said, "Do you have any internships available?" And he said, "Well, no, we don't typically do that, but why don't you come on a summer and we can find some work for you to do." He was very kind.

Jenny:

Oh, wow. That's pretty great. Good internships are hard to come by. So that's pretty awesome.

Andrea:

It definitely is. Initially that really prepared me for future jobs. I really had a great experience that summer. It actually ended up into two summers. I went back another summer and we learned, or he taught, a lot of different things about editing. And I might be dating myself, but wax layouts on pages and just really the older way to do it. It’s really transpired into something pretty amazing now.

Jenny:

THROUGHOUT YOUR WRITING CAREER, WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE ASSIGNMENTS?

Andrea:

There’s so many to be honest with you. I really enjoy the farm visits. Those are my most favorite, but one that stands out to me, I did a couple years ago was a day in the life of an AI technician. It was pretty fun. I got to ride around Lancaster County with a technician and he showed me a little bit of what he does and then got to also see a lot of different types of farms in that way, too.

Jenny:

Actually that's another question I had for you, was how far has your career taken you? Because I know you do a lot in the Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia area.

HOW FAR HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO TRAVEL IN YOUR CAREER?

Andrea:

I usually have gone to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. That is mostly where my reach is, but I have had inquiries with people in farms in Florida, producers on a wider scale as far as interviewing goes out West. I am very excited. I get the opportunity to go out West in Utah and do some ranch photography, which is a bucket list thing for me.

Jenny:

That’s fantastic. That’s a perfect segue into my next question about you being a photographer. Not only do you do an amazing job telling stories with words, but you do have a knack for capturing those stories in photography, Andrea.

WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO PICK UP A CAMERA?

Andrea:

We all know writing goes a little better with the photos, so I've always done these, what you would consider stock photos for my articles, but it wasn't until I started my job at Hoard's Dairyman in Wisconsin and the art director and the managing editor there really, I felt, saw potential in the way that my eye took to certain photos. In a way, being an artistic person, I feel like most of those people are really introverted type personality people, and I am one of them. I actually really enjoy taking the camera. It's like a button clicks in my head and it's a comfort zone that you go into. It's your job, but you really have to love it. It has really opened up some doors for me in that avenue.

Jenny:

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY PIECE?

I know you get to do a lot of ag events and you get to meet a lot of different people. What do you think has been your favorite part of that aspect of your job?

Andrea:

For me, the agriculture. We get to go to a Maryland ag dinner each year and I get to be behind the scenes a little bit with being able to take photos of the products, but also the people that are involved. That actually creates more links in a way that I get to go to more farms or work with people like Farm Credit or fairs. So for me, that's been really the enjoyable part.

Jenny:

HOW WOULD YOU SAY YOUR CAREER HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS PANDEMIC TOOK OVER BACK IN MARCH? WHAT SORT OF CHANGES HAPPENED AT THAT TIME?

Andrea:

A lot of my work generated into writing because we weren't able, as photographers, to go onsite or work with those families or communities that I often work with, or even weddings. The more ag based or essential work popped up in the forefront for me. I was able to really supplement essentially what I love to do. So the pandemic, I think, brought more of what I really enjoy to light. It actually in a weird way has been a positive thing for me and my family.

Jenny:

That's good to hear.

HOW, THROUGH YOUR LENS OR IN YOUR EXPERIENCES TALKING TO OTHERS THROUGHOUT THIS TIME, HAVE YOU SEEN THE AG INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE PULL TOGETHER AND SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER?

Andrea:

The ag community has a sense of purpose I think within itself when we don't even have a pandemic happening. I think with this time, we're seeing a lot more of that ag industry help come to feed our communities and really help serve those individuals or families that are in need of food or product. That's been a really nice thing to see within that.

Jenny:

That is. It's been very uplifting, actually. For those who might not be directly involved in the industry, or maybe they're involved in some capacity, not as a producer,

WHAT CAN WE DO TO SUPPORT THE INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW AS WE GO THROUGH THIS WHOLE PANDEMIC?

Andrea:

From a consumer standpoint, buy locally. I'm not just saying locally down the street, either. There is that sense too, but within the US. I think buying products within our own country is a positive thing. It's going to help us boost our economy. Also remembering to use patience and grace when interacting with people and when things change is a good plan.

Jenny:

Yeah. That's a great reminder for everyone. I did another interview not long ago with Debbie Wing, the communications director for the Farm Credit Council. One thing we talked about is how it's crucial right now for producers to be sharing their stories and stories about their operations and maybe even how they've pivoted their operation during this time to continue to serve their communities as you mentioned before.

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT FOR PRODUCERS TO BE SHARING THEIR STORIES AND HOW DO YOU RECOMMEND THAT THEY DO THIS?

Andrea:

We all know social media is a big one for getting your story out there. Even just going to your local grocery store, a church group, school, being a mom just in my own home setting, the friends that you're around is a good way to really transpire your story. For me, as far as sharing your story, it really puts a realistic twist to things. It personalizes it a little bit more, and it really voids those stereotypes that I think the agriculture industry has going against them.

Some of my biggest influencers were people who didn't go to college or have an extended education past high school. I think that stereotype is really damaging. There are just as many educated individuals using my grandfather, my own father, for example, that are really good at their craft and I think that trust needs to be mended within our consumer producer relationships.

Jenny:

We were talking before I hit record on this one - your most important role is as a mom to your son.

HOW HAS YOUR FAMILY BEEN COPING DURING THIS TIME OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

Andrea:

We certainly have been very blessed to have health. I know many people are struggling out there. Being a mom within a pandemic, I think more people are beginning to relate to the teleworking issues that might come with having a child or that you had mentioned your pet. So within that, that's been hard, but we've been very blessed in that we have a supportive family life here. My siblings and my parents and my son's grandparents, have really been supportive of how we've lived and had to do work remotely.

I think with being a mom, it makes me a little bit more relatable with clients because I know with kids not everything goes smoothly all the time. You have to be a little bit more forgiving or patient. I think as far as just having the mom link in there with a business, it makes you also a little bit more relatable. Setting realistic expectations, I think is what I'm getting at.

Jenny:

I feel like that would make you a fantastic newborn photographer, too. I know being located here in central Maryland, there's a lot of talk about schools being up in the air for this coming fall.

DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS OR TRICKS FOR PARENTS OUT THERE THAT YOU'VE FOUND TO BE HELPFUL WITH YOUR SON IN KINDERGARTEN?

Andrea:

I think being realistic in setting expectations for yourself. Not everyone's perfect. Not everything is perfect. We're all trying to adapt to a situation that is different. Taking that family time to recharge and giving yourself a break is definitely important. I think it helps whatever job you have, strengthen your ability to do that job better when you're coming back refreshed or recharged.

Jenny Kreisher:

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE WHO MAYBE LOVES PHOTOGRAPHY OR WRITING AND IS THINKING OF MAKING A CAREER OUT OF IT?

Or what's something that you wish you knew when you decided to go out on your own? What advice would you have to yourself now or someone like you?

Andrea:

I think two things stand out for me. One is definitely being able to take critique well. Not taking it personal if your work gets changed a little bit, or if you need a little bit more guidance in a certain area, because you really are there to help your client achieve what they need. So that definitely early on was a lesson for me, a wake-up call. But, I think it helped me to be a little bit better at my job now.

The second would be to surround yourself with people smarter than you. I know that sounds weird, but always have that ability to learn. You can never learn everything. Knowing it all is not a possibility. I think challenging yourself to be better and do better and learn more, whether it's continuing education classes or being in the room and feeling like you don't have all the answers is really humbling, but also a good tool within what I do.

Jenny:

That's great advice, Andrea. I have one more for you as we wrap it up here today. I appreciate your time, but the last one is the question we ask everyone before we sign off for each podcast. And that would be:

WHAT DO YOU ADVOCATE FOR IN AG?

Andrea:

That’s a loaded question. I like it though. I think for me, everyone has a story to tell. I advocate because I want there to be a story for future generations to tell. We're all on the same playing field within the ag community and we should be working together for the industry. So really trying to tell the story and really trying to provide that future so others can enjoy it. It's really important to me.

LINKS:

Website: https://www.alhwordandimage.com/

Instagram: @alhwordandimage

Jenny Kreisher, marketing specialist with Horizon Farm Credit, successfully completed the Leadership Carroll program on June 13. Kreisher was one of 40 selected to complete the nine-month professional development program, created to educate those who work in Carroll County about the many resources and organizations that are located within the county.

“Leadership Carroll provided me a wonderful opportunity to learn more about what Carroll County has to offer, and meet others who serve the people living and working here,” says Kreisher. “Every month offered a new experience I wouldn’t have been able to have otherwise. I recommend it to anyone who works in Carroll, or who calls this great county home.”

Leadership Carroll is offered through the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Carroll County Community College. Since its beginning in 1990, it has been providing existing and emerging leaders within the community a combination of leadership training and education of the community, including an overview of the opportunities and issues facing the county.

For more information about Leadership Carroll, and how to apply for the next class, visit the Leadership Carroll website.

LISTEN TO Kenny'S EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

On this episode of the Farm Credit AgVocates Podcast, we interview Kenny Bounds, Delaware Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Farm Credit retiree. Kenny tell us how his lifelong career of advocating for agriculture started and has evolved through many different positions all centered around supporting our local farmers.

In this episode prepare to be inspired by Kenny's passion for supporting local rural communities, learn about organizations to get involved with, and determine whether or not you'd like to have breakfast with Mr. Bounds during his lightning round.

Kurt Fuchs:

Welcome to the Farm Credit advocates podcast, I'm your host Kurt Fuchs, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for Horizon Farm Credit. You may recognize my voice by such familiar programs as episode two of the AgVocates podcast, where I had the pleasure of chatting a little bit about my role here at Horizon with your regular host Jenny Kreisher. I enjoyed the experience so much that after months of begging and pleading, signing waivers, and a little bit of bribery, I've been given the microphone and the awesome opportunity to interview a mentor of mine, Farm Credit retiree, and current Delaware Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Kenny Bounds.  Kenny has served farmers and advocated for agriculture in the region, his entire career. First, throughout his nearly four decades with Horizon Farm Credit, and now in his current role with the Delaware Department of Agriculture. He has been a consistent voice in support of the regions poultry industry, instrumental in developing multiple Ag leadership development programs and helped innumerable farms and agro businesses achieve success through his efforts at Farm Credit. Although I've had the distinct pleasure of knowing Kenny for nearly 20 years now, I learned something new every single time we chat. So I'm particularly excited about the conversation ahead and being able to share it with our audience. Kenny, thanks for taking the time from what I know is an extremely busy schedule to visit with us this afternoon. It's good to have you on the program

Kenny Bounds:

Kurt, it’s great to be here. I always look forward to my time with my Farm Credit friends and I certainly valued my time with Farm Credit and, and still consider them a major partner in the success of agriculture in the region.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well, Kenny, one of the things that as I was preparing for this interview is I was trying to remember the first time we met and stop me if I'm remembering this incorrectly, but I believe it was probably 2002. I was interning with the State Executive Director of Farm Service Agency, with Steve Conley in Maryland and you, and he were meeting up for a lunch. Does that sound right?

Kenny Bounds:

That does sound right. Kurt, that goes back a long way. And I spent a lot of water over the dam since then, and we certainly have done many things together and with other partners like Steve and the Maryland Department of Ag, Delaware Department of Ag to work on agriculture issues. But yeah, I have that same memory.

Kurt Fuchs:

Its’s hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago. Now it's a pretty wild. Kenny, can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in a career in agriculture?

Did you come from a farm family or pursue a production ag degree in school? Or how did that come about?

Kenny Bounds:

I didn't come from a farm family. Although my father grew up on a farm, but there were a seven siblings and no one continued on with that small farm operation. But I did work for many different farmer in the area near Hurlock, Maryland, where I grew up. My first jobs that I remember, and I was really young with this. I back in the days when you had to hoe weeds and I remember being out pulling weeds and hoeing weeds, picking tomatoes and cucumbers. As I got a little bit older, I went on to work for a grain and hay farmer, driving, combined driving trucks, and then worked for a hog farmer who also had grain. I spent one summer working at a pickle plant and Hurlock. And then, probably toward the end of my college career when I was still doing summer jobs, I worked for the State of Maryland at a migrant seasonal farm worker advocacy program, sort of liaison between the farmer and crews looking for work. So I had a lot of agriculture experience going into college then ended up as an agronomy soils major at the University of Maryland College Park.

Kurt Fuchs:

What steered you towards Farm Credit?

Did you start right out of school with Farm Credit or how did you begin your, your time there?

Kenny Bounds:

Well Kurt,  I've got to be honest as I was approaching graduation, my wife was a year younger than me and she was still in college and I wanted to go back to grad school with soil chemistry. My department chair, Dr. Jim Miller, who I will always remember and admire fondly for steering me to Farm Credit, sent me over to Baltimore, Maryland, where at the time one of the regional banks was there and he said, you need to go see those Farm Credit folks. And I thought, I am not a finance guy, but I'm going to follow Dr. Miller's advice, he's never steered me wrong. And every time I saw Dr. Miller, the rest of his life, when we saw one another, I would thank him for sending me to Farm Credit. It was a great fit for me. He read me like a book and I never did end up back in school for post-graduate work toward a soils degree.  I did get to use my soil experience multiple times in my career, just not into fashion that I envisioned at the time. As you mentioned earlier, I spent almost four decades at Farm Credit and loved almost every day there. So it ended up being a pretty phenomenal career for me from, from a personal standpoint, I couldn't have asked for a better place to be.

Kurt Fuchs:

My comparatively short stint here at Farm Credit. I would agree wholeheartedly with those sentiments. Although I am disappointed that I can't refer to you as Dr. Kenny Bounds, I’m glad that you've been able to serve Ag in a different way.

Kenny Bounds:

Still call me Doctor Kurt, that’s fine.

Kurt Fuchs:

Okay. Very well Doctor. So you mentioned your long tenure there at Farm Credit. I know you didn't spend all those years in one position.

Can you tell us a little bit about the variety of positions you held throughout your time there and maybe walk us through that journey?

Kenny Bounds:

Sure, back in those days, the district banks that were sort of the regulatory banks overseeing the local offices, had a trainee program where they would bring college graduates in and put them in this what they call it, field representative position, and then send them out into field to different associations, to gain experience in the role as a loan office. And then went into association had a job opening, they would send that trainee there to apply for the role and see if it was a fit for the loan office and for the association. My first assignment was really in Denton, Maryland, where I ended up spending a lot of time later. And I was there for about six months as the first trainee and right out of college. And, you know, I had had some econ classes of course, but not Ag finance that was not my strength at the time.

So the major thing I did at that time was moved the buckets around to catch water coming in from the roof. We were putting in an addition on in the office. So I think you know I was well-qualified for doing that at the time. But I went on to Georgetown, Delaware was my first assignment where I was hired as a loan officer. I had great mentors there and those folks are friends to this day and they really helped me learn that job. I spent about six years there in the Georgetown office. The one thing that really impacted my career and to this day, I spend a lot of time working on chicken issues. So the poultry industry is a huge part of the Delaware economy, and the Delmarva economy. And poultry certainly seems to be something that I'll be working on almost every day. But when I started at the Georgetown office, I really didn't know much about chicken, other than my mother made really great fried chicken that I loved. And other than that, I had mentors in some of the poultry companies that really helped me learn this industry and learn it well. I just fell in love with the job and working with the local farmers and people would come in and they wanted to figure out how to get started in farming. And the poultry industry was great way to enable them to do that.  I learned how to get young farmers started in business as an early thing that really kept me interested in the job and one reason why I stayed so long at Farm Credit.

I transferred over to the Salisbury Maryland office as a Branch Manager and then back to the Denton office, as a Branch Manager, where I really spent most of my career there in Denton. While, I was in Denton as the Branch Manager, of we had a lot of lending going on, a lot of grain, a lot of growth in the chicken industry, vegetables, but also we experienced the Farm Crisis of the middle 1980s. And it impacted the entire country. We had had several years of drought, very low commodity prices. And I learned what it was really like to sit down at the kitchen table and spend whatever time it took to help farm families figure out how to weather a storm.

People forget that we had prime rate at around 20% at the time. So any losses you took were magnified by that interest. It took a lot of cooperation between the farm families and the loan officers to figure out a way out of that mess. So while I was that the Denton office and had that experience of the farm crisis and helping people get through that, I was asked to serve on the Delmarva Poultry Industry, Board of Directors, and eventually moved into the role of President of DPI. And that was a perfect fit for the mission of Farm Credit, standing up for our members in time of need. So I was able to come in, get on the Board of Directors at DPI, the trade association for the chicken industry here on Delmarva, and really helped represent growers and companies and allied businesses like Farm Credit and others.

And it was during that time, Kurt that I did an interview with 60 minutes with Mike Wallace on a piece entitled, “Big Chicken.”  And that sort of gave my career a boost, needless to say for the advocacy side and the government affairs side of the world. It was a situation where I could step in there and do the interview as President of DPI. And of course, really what 60 minutes would like to have had, would have been Jim Perdue or Don Tyson or somebody on TV. But I told those guys, Hey, I'll do this interview only my mother will be upset if I mess it up. You know, I don't have a fake label to at risk here. So I did the interview. Just about the same time we were facing some water quality issues in Maryland which remained a challenge in the Chesapeake Bay. But the thing that was different at the beginning of this, Maryland had a governor wasn't particularly friendly to agriculture and really liked to blame agriculture for everything. And my science background, I knew that some of those accusations he was making were just plain false. So I started showing up to give testimony at different Maryland General Assembly committee hearings, and participated in a lot of the negotiations with Ag commodity groups and environmental groups, and eventually expanded my scope of interest to show up and support really anything related to agriculture, not just chicken. So what happened with that was I was successful in doing that and Farm Credit recognized the value of me being there for our customers, and they created a Government Affairs role. And I've got to say, it’s probably a good time to say, I think working for a co-op like Farm Credit is, and a company that's owned and controlled by its borrowers or members, it's very different. It's not just a profit driven motive that you have, you're there to advocate and stand up for your customers because they are your bosses. They are the owners. And, it really is a great thing. So I moved into this government affairs role, which by the way, you have succeeded me in that role quite nicely.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well, I appreciate you blazing the way,

Kenny Bounds:

But it’s funny to think about now. I hung on to my loan customers, as long as I could, even though I really wasn't supposed to be doing loans anymore. I think it took them almost 10 years to get the last loans away from me. I just love that piece of it so much that I was trying to do both, you know it was great. And the Farm Credit board eventually asked me to expand my scope into Virginia West, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and a little bit in DC. So I did that, and then I was probably in that role around 15 years, I guess. And then at the end of my career, when I was looking ahead to retirement in the not too distant future, I wanted to get back a little closer to the lending side with farmers again before I retired. So I took a Regional Manager Job that was in charge of lending on Delmarva, and that was the last formal position I had at Farm Credit. I stayed in that position until I retired.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well, Kenny, I don't know how you managed to do it, but you just condensed over a 30, some odd years of advocacy and working on behalf of your customers into a couple of minutes. So that's quite impressive. And you've mentioned a couple of things that that peaked my interest when folks my age and certainly younger, when you talk about a prime rate at 20%, I mean, I don't think many millennials can even fathom that. Just given where interest rates have been in recent years, just fascinating. And then you mentioned the farm crisis of the eighties, the interview with Mike Wallace and then nutrient management issues in Maryland.

Would it be fair to kind of consider some of those things like a catalysts for your path?

You were clearly on a trajectory of focusing on your customers and advocating on behalf of Ag, but it seems like those things sort of put up a magnifying glass on the need for that type of role being institutionalized at Farm Credit.

Kenny Bounds:

That's right. Kurt and farm families are just hardworking, noble, gracious people. It’s probably a little different now, but at that time, they weren't as used to having to maybe advocate for themselves or pay attention to some of the risks that might come from overregulation and that sort of thing. So Farm Credit saw the risk and chose to let me spend some time trying to address some of those things. And still to this day, as you are quite aware, being in that role, you're there to advocate and tell agriculture story, not make excuses for agriculture because farmers never want that. They always feel like they're going to step up to the plate when they're asked to do so. You give them the right opportunity, the right science to do it right. If they think they're being treated fairly, we're going to step up and do what's necessary.

But oftentimes, you know, they’re busy in the field, in a poultry house, in the dairy, in the hog barn, whatever it might be doing their daily chores. And they're not watching the general assemblies or Congress or other things quite like others of us that are agribusiness professionals might have the time to do so. I think seeing those families come through those challenges of the farm crisis of high interest rates.  Kurt, it took years for some people to work through the debt that accumulated in the farm crisis. And it's a very special thing to see somebody come through that. And then when you saw them come under attack, again, particularly with things that really weren't supported scientifically than absolutely, it was a catalyst to step up and say, “Hey, wait a minute, I'm throwing a red flag here.” This isn't right. You guys need to understand them. Let me tell you agriculture story. Let's talk about some solutions that will work both environmentally and economically for farmers. As the then governor of said, Tom Carper in a meeting with environmental groups and Ag groups where he was pondering in Delaware, what to do with nutrient issues and looking how Maryland had chosen to do what they did. I'll never forget it. I was sitting right beside him. And on the other side was the EPA Region Three Administrator, Tom Carper said to the group, we are not going to make a choice between the environment and a viable agriculture. We are shutting this door and we are working hard until we come up with a solution where we can have both of those things. And I got to tell you, that's the attitude to this day that we keep at the department in our nutrient management program and in all of our programs. We really look for win-win situations where we don't have to make a choice, where there is a loser. People are smart, we can figure it out. Farmers are great people that want to do the right thing. They just need somebody there in the middle to help connect those two things, sometimes.

Kurt Fuchs

I would say that that's a legacy that you brought to Farm Credit that I know in my everyday activities on behalf of the Farm Credit that I still adhere to, because I think it's important that stakeholders from both sides of the issue, understand that a successful profitable agricultural economy in this region is not mutually exclusive from a healthy, thriving environment. You know, both of those can occur at the exact same time and there's a way to do it. And it starts with being able to come together at the table and, work through the issues, just like you said.

Kenny Bounds:

I agree Kurt, it's really satisfying when you can sit down with people and it starts with building trust. You've got to be able to trust the people that you're sitting down with. And sometimes that takes a little while. If it's somebody who's got a differing opinion from yourself and when they don't, learn to be good listeners and also good speakers and strong advocates when a strong voices needed. So it's having the judgment to figure out when to use that strong voice and when the listen.  It gets tricky sometimes.

Kurt Fuchs:

Very good point.

Farm Credit Commerical:

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Kurt Fuchs:

One of your passions, as you previously mentioned, is helping the young farmers get started and helping provide them the tools to be successful. I know one of the ways throughout your career that you've been instrumental in that regard, is heavy involvement with Ag leadership development programs. And I know when you were a sitting president of the LEAD Maryland Foundation, I had the opportunity to go through the program. I'm a Class Four grad, and I know you were heavily involved in the class to the point where we were able to make you an honorary graduate of Class Four, which I’m still tickled about.  

Kenny Bounds:

Me too Kurt.  I hold that as quite an honor to be an honorary member of Class Four. And as you remember, we traveled to China together for an international study tour and all the classes of LEAD Maryland and Delaware and Pennsylvania Rule Program and it’s so great because all the people are great. But you know, don't tell anybody, but class four is still special to me.

Kurt Fuchs:

Your secret's safe with me and all of our listeners to the podcast.

You mentioned that you’re still involved with Pennsylvania's Ag Leadership Development program. You're a co-founder and continue to co-direct the LEAD Delaware program.

In your opinion, why are they so critical to advocacy efforts and to making sure that Ag has a voice years to come?

Kenny Bounds:

That's a really good question. And the obvious thing is to say that we're teaching those up and coming leaders the skills and giving them the confidence and the practice to do a media interview, to do testimony at a public hearing, things like that. Those are the outward things that you see. A couple of things that perhaps people don't think about when they get in the program, they really learn a lot about themselves and what style of leader they are and then how they can interact with others to get their message across. There's no one leadership style or personality style, that this personality type you are a leader and this personality type, you are not a leader. Everybody can be a leader. They just need to find that inner leadership in themselves and learn what their style is and learn how to use that for advocacy.

And then the other thing is building a network relationships really matter. And these state leadership programs and sometimes county leadership programs, but state leadership programs, you have a lot of interaction between the States. And of course we've done that purposefully so that when we have a Horizon type of issue, then farmers in the region might know one another and know who to reach out to. And then across the country, as you know, there are several times when those groups can come together, particularly in Washington DC and meet one another. So all of a sudden your network includes local farmers that you know, your friends and neighbors, other farmers in the state, other farmers around the country, and then with Nuffield Farming Scholarships coming into the United States it now extends internationally. So you can very quickly find someone to help you understand an issue or advocate for an issue, or come up with fresh ideas, literally around the world. So it’s a wonderful thing. I would encourage any up and coming farmer, farm leader to participate in these leadership programs. It's the opportunity of a lifetime.

Kurt Fuchs:

I couldn't agree more, Kenny. I think you hit the nail on the head too, when you talk about the importance of the network and building through these programs. I know for me, when I went through Maryland's program, it put my career path on a whole different trajectory. And to this day, I recognize the importance that the program played both in my professional development, but just as important as you say, my personal development. And so I continued to be active in Maryland and our neighboring states Ag Leadership programs too. So I completely agree. And without sounding like a broken record, that's probably another legacy of, your time at Farm Credit and institutionalizing that as a major focus for our efforts.

Kenny Bounds:

Well, and kudos to Farm Credit to allow that Kurt. They know very well and we just had this conversation within the last couple of days about financial support for our leadership programs and, Farm Credit stepped up for each of our programs when there was a need when those programs were young and fledgling, and just getting off the ground, Farm Credit was there to support those programs and also give of your time and energy. I know how much time you spend with those leadership programs and it's a lot. And it's a good thing though. I really feel like the agriculture community gets a good return for the investment made both by the participants when they enter as fellows, and also the agribusinesses that support the leadership programs. It scares me to think where we might be if we didn't have farmer advocates there to tell our story and now more than ever, I think it's just really important farming, being a very small percentage of the overall population. We've got a great story to tell, but we need those people trained and willing to step up and tell that story

Kurt Fuchs:

Well said, we've got to build that bench and keep those new, so to speak, recruits coming through the pipeline.

Kenny Bounds:

It's a vicious rumor, Kurt, that some of us are getting a little bit long in the tooth and might be adding a few years on. So I think you're exactly right. We need to pass that Baton on to this next generation.

Kurt Fuchs:

And you certainly, you certainly couldn't have been speaking about yourself by any means. Kenny. You retired from Farm Credit in 2015, again, close to four decades of service to Farm Credit in various roles, but you didn't kick back and relax for very long before jumping right back into the fray.

What drags you off the hiking trails and back into the working world?

Kenny Bounds:

Well, Kurt jokingly, I tell people that I was kidnapped by the Secretary and by the Governor in Delaware and put back to work and that my wife might have had a hand in getting me out of the house. But, honestly, I wasn't looking to go back to work, but the opportunity came when Secretary Scuse, who was just coming off his eight years at USDA in Washington and spent his last almost year as Acting US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. He was coming back into Delaware as the Secretary for his second stint. He was secretary prior to going to Washington DC. And just the opportunity when asked by the governor to join that team, to represent farmers again, and to be able to interact with the Secretary and learn from him and his experience in Washington. It was really something I couldn't resist Kurt. It just hit me right in my wheelhouse and it's really been good. It's been almost four years now.

And on a daily basis, I get to work on agriculture issues and you don't know what they're going to be when you walk into the office in the morning, but you can, well believe you've got a good team behind you at our Departments of Ag in our States. You can find an answer for constituents when they need it or help advocate for agriculture in a way that maybe surprised me a little bit. I don't know why I say that, but because I certainly worked with all the State Departments of Agriculture and they were always advocates, but I always thought, there's this regulatory piece that our Departments of Ag and after all, they are a regulator in the end. But really, my experience was an ah-ha moment for me working there is it's educate, educate, and educate. And then in the end, if there are no other options, so there are times when you might have to regulate, but that's the last tool in the toolbox. And that's really refreshing to see that up close and personal really understand. I had that feeling, but, but now I know for sure that our folks, that our State departments of Ag and the national organizations that represent Ag, they're really looking out for agriculture and they have farmers' best interests at heart.

Kurt Fuchs:

You know, that's an interesting observation because if anyone can provide the perspective of both interacting from the outside and interacting from the inside, with our Departments of agriculture, it's you. And so to provide that perspective is pretty darn interesting. I know we're pretty lucky here in the Horizon region that by and large, the relationships that the Ag communities have with their departments of agriculture is strong. And as you say is at times as much an advocacy effort as it is a regulatory effort. So it's interesting to hear that, that perspective.

So you mentioned every day can be different, presented different challenges. And one of the challenges that we faced here in 2020 unfortunately, has been the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately.

So how has that impacted your role and your duties at the Department of Agriculture, any silver linings or positive takeaways per agriculture, as a result of, of navigating through, through COVID?

I know it's tough to put up a silver lining on something as terrible and as damaging as COVID-19, but I think sometimes it's the Farm Credit way to try to look at something from a positive angle.

Kenny Bounds:

Thankfully now having the perspective of what over six months, seven months of experience of coming through COVID, there are definitely some silver linings. We had our challenges.  I was just talking to somebody the other day about the fact that it seems like a lifetime ago that we were first coming into COVID and our poultry plants here on Delmarva, particularly were experiencing higher than normal absenteeism and having trouble getting birds processed and supply consumers with their expected walk to the meat case and have every single cut of every kind of meat that you want. For the first time that I can remember, we didn't have that. And there were some challenges, not necessarily in the supply side, although when there were worker shortages in the plants, we had some supply issues, but just around logistics, transportation, perhaps a company was used to dealing with restaurants and schools or commercial type of customers. And they're selling chicken in a case of four, 10 pound bags or whatever it be, and that doesn't fit on the grocery store shelf very well. So that became a real challenge in the plants. And it's actually one of the things that I consider a silver lining. This summer, the Secretary’s Award for Agriculture was awarded to one of our partners in the state agency; it's the Department of Health. This is another really great thing, the government really can function when it needs to. The Department of Health really work closely with the poultry companies and the poultry companies really wanted to do the right thing to protect their workers and keep consumers in supply with good food. And with that partnership with the Department of Ag, Department of Health, Labor, even federal partners coming in CDC, OSHA, APHIS, I mean, all kinds of partners.

Everybody had the same goal in mind, and it didn't take too long, if you think about it, even though we were all sort of frightened there for a little bit, it didn't take us too long to get that supply chain restored into grocery stores. So to me, I think in spite of that little bit of a hiccup, and it was maybe a good tabletop exercise. We can all learn from, hopefully the last, but it really is a success story. In the end, when you think about it and, and there were others, it was, it was more than just poultry. You know, farmer's markets at the beginning of this, we've got some wonderful farmer's markets, and I'm not talking about the individual farmer having a market on their farm property, but the community farmer's markets where a lot of vendors come together to sell their products, those things have been so successful and they're so wonderful.

They've become a social gathering place for folks. So they go out there for the experience of being there, as well as buying all the nice products. But early on that presented a problem for social distancing and all of those things that we were worried about. So we had to keep our markets closed for a while, until we could get a best practices standard in place of how many people can we let in the market and how can we protect the food and how can we distance the clerks from the customers and different things like that. We had to close farm and equipment operations. And of course that also was painful to a lot of people, farmers that wanted to buy equipment at an auction, couldn’t get access to it. Auctioneers were losing business, but you know, those are widely attended. And initially until we figured out how to do that right, we had to close those. Guest workers coming into the state of Delaware to harvest vegetables were a challenge. Many of them were coming out of Florida, right when Florida was having a big uptake in cases. And we had to make sure that we had workers coming in that were checked for COVID when they arrived and also have provisioned for a way to isolate them, if they did become sick and no infect all of their other workers.

So we certainly had our challenges and I guess, laughingly now, because we're doing this on a zoom platform this interview for the readers, our listeners to know how we're doing this. But we've all learned how to communicate via zoom and WebEx and Skype and every other thing. So we've become quite proficient at having meetings remote and virtually.  So I'm not sure if that's a silver lining or a curse.  I’m not sure which of those, but I learned how to do that.

Kurt Fuchs:

Early on it was a blessing. And now when you look at your calendar some days there's three zooms in one day, and you are hearkening back to the days when you can get away from your desk and go to an in-person meeting and shoot the breeze in the hallway and get the real work of the meeting done

Kenny Bounds:

Know if I, I don't know if I will ever complain about having to go to a meeting again, if it's a face-to-face meeting.

Kurt Fuchs:

I agree you bring up excellent points about COVID. And I think the takeaway there is so many moving parts, so many things that were firsts, right? So many things that people had never experienced before, or if they had, they'd been blips on the radar screen. And I think it's a testament to how quickly agriculture responded pivoted, however you want to term it, but the fact that they did so quickly is incredible. And I think when we hear criticisms of responses to COVID and this wasn't done quick enough, or Monday morning quarterbacking on different things, I think it's good to stand back and think about how challenging it was, and yet people really stepped up. And in particular, the ag community stepped up to make sure yes, the meat department didn't look like it did prior to COVID. There were a couple of weeks where, like you say, the cuts that you were used to seeing, and then some weren't there, but maybe there was a new cut that traditionally had gone to a restaurant that was now available because that's what was going through the processing facility.

So a lot of different aspects to it. And I try to be pretty cautious about being critical of the responses to, to this pandemic. And I mean, I think the scholastics and academics are going to have decades worth of materials to study and, and write books about and everything else. And it's interesting times we live in that's for sure.

Kenny Bounds:

Well and I hope Kurt in the end, there will be a better appreciation for our food supply and better knowledge of how food reaches our table and understanding that it doesn't just happen. There's a lot of science, there's a lot of hard work. There's a lot of planning and transportation and infrastructure to give us really the most abundant, affordable, healthy food supply in the world. And we enjoy and as you well know, we are roughly 10 cents on a dollar, roughly out of our budget for our food in this country, it's extraordinary. And that enables us to really have a standard of living and enjoy other things so that we don't have to take all of our dollars and spend on food. But it presents a challenge too. So I think many people in the agriculture industry have been great at telling agriculture story for years now, but I think this single act of COVID appearing, I'm hopeful that it will cause everybody to take pause and say, okay, let me understand this system a little better or how this food chain works. And how does suit leave a farm and arrive at the grocery store? You know, what are the risks to me as a consumer? And then when I walked back in again and I see the meat case fall, and I know for myself, I watched the meat case and, and all of our fresh veggies and everything else like a hawk now.  I'm looking for what cuts are there. And I just marvel that we've been able to recover like we have and restore that supply. And I look at the price. The prices right at this minute in the meat case; meat is very affordable again in this country. So I hope consumers will learn a new appreciation for that in the end.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well I'm going to switch things up a little bit on you here Kenny. I've got one more new segment that you'll be my Guinea pig on before we get to our closing question. This is our lighting round. So I'll give you five pairs of related items and you have to pick your preference between the pair.

Are you ready, Dr. Bounds?

Kenny Bounds:

Well, Kurt, first I wonder what the prize is. There must be a significant award for winning this this lightning round.

Kurt Fuchs:

You hit the nail on the head, Kenny. Winners of the lightening round win a chance at being invited on the podcast again.

Kenny Bounds:

Well, that's a wonderful opportunity. That’s fair enough.

Kurt Fuchs:

Okay, so scrapple or bacon?

Kenny Bounds:

Scrapple

Kurt Fuchs:

Royal farms or Wawa?

Kenny Bounds:

Royal Farms

Kurt Fuchs:

Louis L’Amour or Charles Dickens?

Kenny Bounds:

L’Amour

Kurt Fuchs:

Chicken and waffles, or chicken and dumplings?

Kenny Bounds:

Kurt, chicken and waffles can’t even be on the same sheet of music as chicken and dumplings.

What are you thinking? I am going for the dumplings.

Kurt Fuchs:

That’s a smart choice.

Now your final question, possibly the most important IPA or stout?

Kenny Bounds:

Oh boy, there is a lot of IPA drinkers out there, and I love them too, but I'm a stout guy. I got to go with that style.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well, congratulations, Kenny, you got three out of five.

When I first asked to do a guest host, I said, I got to have some kind of special segment, so I appreciate you indulging me there, Kenny.

Kenny Bounds:

Well, you know me well with the questions you asked Kurt.

Kurt Fuchs:

They were well curated. Okay. So we've got the lightheartedness out of the way. And we'll finish up with a serious question. The reason why we're on the podcast and our sign-off question.  

Kenny is what do you advocate for in agriculture?

Kenny Bounds:

Oh, well, Kurt that's an interesting way to ask that question, indeed, because there are so many specific things that you advocate for and, and opportunities you  try to push forward and challenges that you see and maybe things you even fight that you think are harmful. But overall, I guess if you wrap that all up into a general answer, it's just the opportunity for our farm families to be able to continue to provide us with that safe and abundant food supply that we talked about, in a way that's fair and equitable for them. For government to regulate only when necessary and to promote agriculture as a great way of life, a great business. And, by the way, a very central thing to us in this country to enjoy the food supply we have. So I think I think that probably answers that for me. I probably something else I'm forgetting there. But really, just to give our farm families the opportunity to do the right things and to feed us all with a great abundant food supply.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well said, Kenny well said. And if you, if you wake up in the middle of the night, pondering that question further we can always to-be-continued at the next time we have you on the podcast.

Kenny Bounds:

That's fair enough, Kurt.

Kurt Fuchs:

Well, Kenny, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time this afternoon. I can't tell you much I appreciate the insight and sharing your advocacy efforts and journey with us. Thank you for your long career and support to Ag and the region and hope to have you on again sometime in the near future. I hope even more that we can get together in person sometime soon and in a safe way and enjoy some value added agricultural beverages in support of the industry and look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Kenny Bounds:

Thanks Kurt, I really enjoyed it. It was great talking to you.

Kurt Fuchs:

Thanks Kenny.

And remember folks, please rate, review, subscribe, and share with a friend. You can get podcasts notes and subscribe to email alerts at mafc.com/podcast. And if you have any topic or guest suggestions for us, send them to podcast@mafc.com.

Thanks for your time and attention, and please stay well.

The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement will be giving away five $2,500 academic scholarships to high school agriculture teachers to use toward an advanced degree or continuing education credits.

Teachers must live and work in Horizon Farm Credit's footprint. The application deadline is September 28, 2018.

"We are thrilled to be able to assist those who are educating the next generation," says Dale Hershey, Chairman of the Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement. "Currently, jobs in agriculture make up eleven percent of our country's employment, providing many opportunities for students to learn about the unique paths in the industry. We are excited to see these teachers impact the future of agriculture."

The non-profit Foundation was established in 2015 and is funded by participating association Horizon Farm Credit.

The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement's scholarship program awards ten scholarships, each valued at $10,000, to high school seniors or students currently enrolled in an advanced educational program. The applicants must be planning to pursue a career in agriculture and reside in a county within Horizon Farm Credit's five-state territory.

"As a farmer myself, I am very confident that the future of agriculture is in good hands," adds Hershey. "I would encourage any agriculture teacher considering continuing their education to apply for this unique scholarship program."

The application and more information about the Foundation is available online at fcfoundationforag.org.

LISTEN TO Stuart'S EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

On this week’s episode of the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast, we talk with Stuart Cooper, Horizon Farm Credit’s Chief Lending Officer. Stuart has a long history with Farm Credit (25 years!), but his passion for customer experience didn’t start there. In this episode, we talk about how Stuart’s career as a hotel manager prepped him for a life in sales, and how his team did a complete 180 as COVID-19 swept across our communities. Not only that, but we discuss what Horizon is doing to prepare for whatever 2021 may bring, and what the future of our industry will look like, beyond the pandemic we’re facing today.

Stay tuned after this interview to learn more about our Member Assistance Program – a valuable resource to help you cope with a variety of curveballs life throws us.

Jenny Kreisher:

Welcome back to the Farm Credit Agvocates podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Kreisher, Director of Communications at Horizon Farm Credit. My guest today is Stuart Cooper, our Association’s Chief Lending Officer. Stuart’s been with Farm Credit for 25 years and today oversees our Association’s sales and customer service teams. I have the pleasure of working with Stuart on many projects because, well, you can't have marketing without sales and vice versa. Stuart’s got a heart of gold and a real passion for helping others, which has never been more evident than over the past several months, as many of our members have struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm excited to speak with him today in more detail about not only this, but what we anticipate 2021 bringing. I think we can all agree, we're ready to say goodbye to 2020. So without further ado, welcome to the pod Stuart. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Stuart Cooper:

You’re welcome Jenny. Glad to be here today.

Jenny:

DO YOU MIND TELLING US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR HISTORY? I KNOW YOU GROW UP ON THE SHORE, BUT MAYBE GIVE OUR LISTENERS A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON YOUR LIFE AND AGRICULTURE.

Stuart:

I grew up on a poultry and grain farm on Maryland’s Eastern shore. My, grandmother farmed and my father farmed. And today, my brother and I still have a farm in practice and we grow grain, corn and soybeans. I'm fortunate enough to live on the farm as does my brother who lives right next door. And we have the great benefit of being only about 10 minutes from the Ocean City, Maryland. So great place to live.

Jenny:

Well, something that I learned about you not too long ago, but I always find fascinating is how you actually once managed a hotel in Ocean City.

HOW LONG AGO DID YOU DO THAT AND WHAT DID THAT EXPERIENCE TEACH YOU?

Stuart:

Yes, I did. I actually spent 17 years at that hotel with little stint in between. I worked at a commercial bank, but, for the last six years I was there, I did manage it. It was, a great experience. And I had a great boss who taught me a lot about customer experience marketing and just how to run a business. The hotel businesses is a service business and it's much like our industry. We want to provide a great customer experience and having this background certainly helped me with my career at Farm Credit.

Jenny:

I can only imagine.

AFTER THOSE 17 YEARS, WHAT WAS IT THAT MADE YOU REALIZE YOU WERE READY TO MAKE A CAREER CHANGE AND WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO FARM CREDIT?

Stuart:

As I stated, my brother and I were farming and, I hadn't really planned on leaving the hotel business, but I walked into a Farm Credit office, the local office, to get an operating note. And the lady there that, who was the CSR at the time, mentioned there was an opening for a loan officer position, and she thought I would be someone that may be interested in it. And, I did have a background. I have my college degree is in economics and I thought, you know, farming, finance, they kind of go hand in hand. So I went ahead and applied. Unfortunately, I didn't get chosen for the position, but about six months later, they called back and made me an offer. And that was 25 years ago.

Jenny:

Talk about being at the right place at the right time.

Stuart:

You know, I often think the hotel business and working with Farm Credit, it's about building relationships and earning the trust of members, and giving a great customer experience.

Jenny:

Well that passion that you have for our membership and for helping others is something that I'm very fortunate to be able to see every day.

HOW DO YOU INSTILL THAT PASSION AND THAT MINDSET WITHIN YOUR TEAM MEMBERS?

Stuart:

I believe is it's basically two-fold. As a leader, I need to share that passion to my team and encourage them, and that builds on. It's just that building block that continues. And then, they have to have that same passion as well. And most of our employees come from a farming background and they just have a passion to serve farmers.

Jenny:

Yeah. I definitely see that. I know a lot of our employees are farmers themselves and come from that background. And that definitely helps when they have to work with their same community members every day.

Well, it definitely goes without saying that this past year has tested all of us in brand new ways. You and your team have had to completely shift gears once this pandemic took a hold of our communities and our industry.

WHAT DID WE DO TO REACH OUT TO OUR CUSTOMERS AT THE ONSET OF COVID BACK IN MARCH, WHICH NOW FEELS LIKE, A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AT THIS POINT? WHAT DID WE DO TO REACH OUT TO OUR MEMBERS AND HOW DID YOU GUYS SEE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN US AND OUR MEMBERSHIP CHANGE?

Stuart:

COVID has certainly changed the way we do business, but fortunately our staff was proactive and it all really came down to communications. It first started with management to staff and communicating to them reassuring staff that we're going to work with our customers, work with our members, and to just kind of go over the tools that we had to work with as members. The next step was for our staff to reach out to our members. They made phone calls, they sent emails, they sent texts, and they just really reached out to our customers. Then additionally, our marketing department, you included, had a post on our website, we created a pandemic site for our members. And to be clear, and this was not a one and done. We had regular staff meetings, virtual of course, just to get feedback and find out what our membership was experiencing. Then we tailored messages based upon that feedback. At the time it was certainly all hands on deck and a lot of time was spent by staff just to make sure our members were informed of what we can do for them.

Jenny:

We definitely ramped up the email communications, but I also remember talking to a lot of sales team members throughout this time about how texting was pivotal. I mean, it was definitely something used beforehand, but I think the use of cell phone messaging and text messaging and FaceTime was also on the rise as we kind of navigated the whole closing of the offices and limiting customer visits.

Stuart:

It was really amazing to me, not only did our staff encompass these new avenues as far as contact, but our membership did too. I mean the cell phone, Zoom meetings, the virtual meetings, and it continues to be embraced, I still miss the face-to-face contact, but at this point we're providing that safety measure that we need to put in place at this time.

Jenny:

You mentioned before about some of the different tools we have to help our members.

COULD YOU MAYBE ELABORATE A LITTLE BIT MORE ON WHAT SPECIFICALLY WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO OFFER THOSE MEMBERS WHO WERE IMPACTED?

Stuart:

We have the opportunity to do a lot of note modifications for our members. We did offer the option of deferring payments on loans. That was something we had never done before and we put that in place. We extended payments and we also put in place PPP loans. We got that up and running. We did miss the first round of that, but we were able to get up for the second round. In addition to that, we've provided information to our membership on government programs, such as CFAP and SBA loans. And then because we work in five states, there are numerous local COVID assistance programs which we've provided members information on. I am truly proud of our staff and how they came together. When we face this adversity, it is a total team effort. Sales is just the front end piece, but our operations department, our underwriting, the processing - they all had to find new ways of working together, most of them from home. If anything, we actually have processed more loans in 2020 than we have in the last 10 years on an annual basis. There’s something really to say for our team and how they came together to serve our members.

Jenny:

For our listeners, something that we talk a lot about at Farm Credit is our culture. We like to say that all 250 plus of us are on one team. I have to agree with you, Stuart - that one team culture definitely has shown through this year. And it's made me super proud to work with all of, all of them too. There's not one department I think that has gone un-impacted, that's for sure.

Stuart:

No. And it is really a great team effort. It's a one team. We often use that term around here, one team. We need each other to get the work done in order to serve our membership.

Jenny:

We like to recognize how resilient farmers and the ag industry as a whole really are. I think anyone who we work with and who we work for would agree with that.

AS MUCH AS WE'RE ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO TURNING THE PAGE ON 2020 AND STARTING FRESH IN 2021, WHAT DO YOU THINK OUR INDUSTRY CAN EXPECT AS WE HEAD INTO THIS NEW YEAR?

Stuart:

In the ag business right now, we see opportunities where people are making changes in the way they provide products and services from the farm. We still have concerns with the recent uptick in COVID cases, and the states moving back to more restrictive guidelines, we felt, like most of our membership, that this pandemic would be over soon, but it continues. And we're just not sure what issues are going to continue and what issues we may face here in the next six, 12 months.

As you said, our farmers are resilient. And as I mentioned, they've already shifted delivery channels for their products to meet these new demands. I think that's what I've seen and it’s actually a good thing. It's made many of our members and our farmers look to be more efficient and be more innovative, which to me is exciting. And it bodes well for the membership in the industry. You know, we expect to see more of this innovation to take place in the coming years, and they're going to do things to keep their operations viable. And that's what really excites me. And that’s what we as an organization are here to help them with - making those changes that they need to make.

Jenny:

That actually brings up another question I wanted to ask: what are we as an association doing to prepare to help our members into next year? As you mentioned, seeing them change kind of how they're shifting their businesses and we definitely are expecting to see more of that into next year.

WHAT ARE WE DOING AS AN ASSOCIATION TO PREPARE FOR 2021?

Stuart:

It goes back to communications. We're constantly in communication with our members. We're asking them, what do they need? What do they need in their operation; what kind of tools can we provide them; what kind of loan structures can we provide? Our Association is built to help our membership during this time of crisis, and as our mission statement states, we're here in good times and bad, and that's what we want to be. We built the organization to provide this support during this time period. I do encourage our members if they have an issue to reach out to a loan officer or to discuss changes in their operation. Let them know and let us see what we can do to help. Everyone’s business and financial situation is unique. And that's what we specialize in, working with each member to find a specialized solution that’s just right for them. Then on top of that, if there are concerns, we do have a membership assistance program. We offer it 24/7 and it's helpful content for just about any situation. Just go to our website, mafc.com/map. Again, I just remind folks that it's free and it's available to them. And then on top of that we do have other services that we can provide. We can provide referrals to COIs, attorneys, appraisers - different people in the industry that they may need to reach out to during this time.

Jenny:

You mentioned earlier how you found kind of a passion for customer experience back when you were the hotel manager that you've taken into your new role. So kind of switching gears, but also to the same theme of preparing for the future. Something that we talk a lot about at Horizon is member experience. That's a project that you are very immersed in and one of those conversations is about the Farmer of the Future and what they look like. Not only in 2021, but beyond. We’re talking 10, 20 years into the future.

AT A LEADERSHIP LEVEL, WHAT ARE WE DOING TO PREPARE FOR WHAT THAT FARMER OF THE FUTURE WILL LOOK LIKE? AND WHAT ARE WE DOING FOR WHAT WE'RE ANTICIPATING IN THAT REGARD?

Stuart:

As you mentioned, we have what we call an MX committee and it's really a customer experience committee. We're always looking at that customer experience. And as we look to the future, you know, as we know today our farmers are getting older. I think the average age of them is somewhere around 58 or 60 years old. We need to look at that and see what is changing in our industry. I believe COVID has sped up this change, but just as I said earlier, farmers are resilient. I do see changing in many of our farmers today. Especially your younger farmers, they're more tech savvy, they're more educated, they're more sophisticated, they're more connected. You know, the internet has definitely changed the world and made it a smaller place.

Just like any industry, ag is no different. When we think about it, you could be a small-scale vegetable grower on the Eastern Shore and sell the products to someone in California. You could ship it overnight. Our farmers are no longer geographically bound and they can sell anywhere in time. I think that holds true for lending. I think that farmers are presented with a lot of options. They can go online, they can look for these opportunities. So as a company, we need to be more sophisticated. We need to be more tech savvy and our loan officers need to do the same thing. We’re doing a lot of training with our loan officers. We're doing a lot of things with improving and implementing our services here at Horizon.

As you know, we're using the internet and all the options that we have with that to reach out to a customers and garner new business, or to provide information to our current business. So, you know, all those things that we see our customers doing, and we're going to do the same and get ahead of the curve and be available for them. The key is that relationship. And no matter what avenue you reach us through, we want to create that customer experience, customer relationship that we've always provided historically. I still think that the key to moving forward is just perhaps how do we do that in the future and what products and services that we can provide.

Jenny:

You mentioned earlier about the number of opportunities that you see and how exciting that is. And it's true, it's exciting times, and I'm very happy to be a part of that here at Horizon and make sure that we're communicating and keeping in touch with our members the way that they want to be. It’s exciting stuff.

Stuart:

It truly is. And I mean, I can tell you, we have a staff here at Horizon that just embraces the changes. And, and as we said, this MX committee, we have a lot of ideas coming from our younger staff, and I think they can relate to what's happening in the world and in the ag community. And I really do think we're getting ahead of the curve here and we're going to be a formidable company in the future as well. We're going to be here another a hundred years.

Jenny:

Well, that kind of brings me to my next question. And, this is the time of year we always reflect on what we've learned over the past 11 months and how we can apply those lessons to the New Year.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST LESSON HAS BEEN FOR HORIZON THIS YEAR AND WHAT HAVE WE STARTED TO DO DIFFERENTLY AS A RESULT?

Stuart:

I think, and maybe this is even a personal thing not only a Horizon thing, but it is staying connected. And really, again, going back to that term, communication. I personally learned that I had to really make an effort of staying connected with staff and really listening to them as they deal with our membership, and getting that feedback and making adjustments and making sure our members are getting information they need to make decisions.

Jenny:

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL STICK WITH YOU MOST, ONCE WE GET THROUGH ALL OF THIS? DO YOU HAVE A MEMORY OR SOMETHING THAT WILL STICK WITH YOU THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER NOW?

Stuart:

Absolutely. I think for me personally, we had the SBA and PPP programs. It only took a couple of weeks to get that up and running once we made the decision to move forward with it, but the amount of time that we spent doing that and how we had a team here that just really came together to focus on getting that done. That's going to stick with me for a long time. For me personally, I saw that when everyone has their heads down and driving the same direction, just what you can accomplish.

Jenny:

I will never forget that like 10 hour WebEx we were on.

Stuart:

Yeah, that was a heck of a day, wasn't it? I do think again, , just seeing our teams pull together, as we mentioned, it is a one team effort here at Horizon.

Jenny:

Absolutely. So as we're winding down here,

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR PRODUCERS WHO MIGHT BE A LITTLE WORRIED ABOUT NEXT YEAR? OR WHAT ARE SOME STEPS THAT PRODUCERS CAN TAKE TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY'RE PREPARED FOR WHATEVER 2021 BRINGS?

Stuart:

Like I mentioned a few minutes ago, I think they have to stay connected, too. I encourage them again, to reach out to your loan officer, not only with questions about your lines, but if you have industry questions as well. We have a staff that's knowledgeable about certain industries and we continue to look for ways to help our membership and provide services. We're going to be introducing some new services here soon. And I think, again, it's just an opportunity for them to help them with their operations. Also, reach out not only their loan officer, but if they have others within the organization, their CSRs are always available to help. I would encourage them to reach out and also to look at our website. We have a lot of information that could be useful there.

Jenny:

You've also mentioned earlier about making sure that you stay connected with COIs and your industry partners. We work closely with them every day on a variety of different projects.

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER RESOURCES THAT ARE OUT THERE RIGHT NOW FOR PRODUCERS? IN ADDITION TO WORKING WITH THEIR LOAN OFFICER, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE?

Stuart:

We get a lot of referral business, so I always encourage people to reach back out to their neighbor or the person that referred them. Friends, families, their attorneys or CPAs, there's insurance folks. I just encourage anybody that they do business with, if they're having issues or payment situations or anything like that, just reach out. Let those other industry folks know what they're experiencing, but then again, I would say the number one thing, reach out to us and see what we can do to help.

Jenny:

I really appreciate your time, Stuart. You are such a gem to work with, and I really appreciate you taking your time out of your busy schedule to talk with me on the podcast today. I do have one more question before I let you go back to your day. And that question is the one we ask everyone:

WHAT DO YOU ADVOCATE FOR IN AGRICULTURE?

Stuart:

I guess for me personally there is a connection with growing food. You know, it gives me a sense of satisfaction. As I mentioned earlier, my brother and I still farm. And there’s a satisfaction I get from planting that crop and seeing it grow and harvesting it. And knowing that it ends up as food either for an industry growing chickens or some other product, it just gives me a sense of satisfaction. I think this pandemic has certainly highlighted just how important farmers are. We've all seen the long lines at food banks and different things. So I will always be an advocate for ag and to me, it’s all of ag. It's just not the traditional ag or what we've done in the past. It’s the new innovation, it’s the new production methods, and it’s the new delivery methods. It’s the hydroponic greenhouses, it’s the vertical farming. I think that's just exciting to see that and how the ag industry is changing. I truly think these are exciting times for our industry.  I'm excited as a leader in the Farm Credit System that we'll be making decisions today that will help those farmers of the future and for our farmers to stay relevant and successful.

Jenny:

I appreciate your time Stuart again. Thank you very much.

And thank you all for tuning in. Please rate, review, subscribe, and share this podcast with a friend you can head on over to mafc.com/podcast for all of the notes from today's episode and past ones. And there you can subscribe to get email alerts for all future episodes. And if you have any topic or guest suggestions, please email us at podcast@mafc.com. That's all for today. Thank you all so much. Happy holidays, and we'll see you next time.

Horizon Farm Credit recently launched a Virtual Showcase contest, open to 4-H and FFA youth located within their footprint, to submit their animal projects in an essay or video format.

“We know that most kids are missing out on their fair experiences this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Jenny Kreisher, Director of Communications at Horizon Farm Credit. “We wanted to provide them with a way for them to share their animal projects that they’ve worked so hard to raise this year with the community. The opportunity for winning awards for the essay or video adds a little bit of competition, making it feel more like a real fair show.”

The contest is open to 4-H and FFA youth, ages 8-18. They are encouraged to enter the showcase either via essay or video with their livestock, dairy, horse, poultry, or rabbit projects. All essay and video submissions are due by October 16, 2020 and must be submitted electronically. Each participant is limited to one entry. All winners will be announced on November 6, 2020 live, on Horizon Farm Credit’s Facebook page. The entries will be judged by a selection committee using the contest scoring rubrics found on each contest's page.

The Junior Division is for youth 8-13 years of age and the Senior Division is for youth 14-18 years of age. Visit mafc.com/showcase for more information on the contest and to submit an entry.

The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement announced it will be awarding $25,000 in academic scholarships to mid-Atlantic area teachers that are looking to obtain an advanced degree in agriculture or continuing education credits. The online application launched on August 3 and will be open through September 25, 2020.

“Agriculture educators plan a crucial role in preparing the future of our industry,” says Tony Ill, Chairman of the Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement. “There are many sides of agriculture that students can choose, and our ag educators are paving the way for youth to learn about the many options both on and off the farm. It’s important for these educators to continue advancing their knowledge to make an even bigger impact.”

The non-profit Foundation was established in 2015 and is funded by participating association Horizon Farm Credit. The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement also runs a Community Education Program and Student Scholarship Program.

“I am very confident that the future of agriculture is in good hands,” adds Ill. “I would encourage any agriculture educator considering continuing their education to apply for this unique scholarship program.”

The ag educator scholarship application and more information about the Foundation is available online at fcfoundationforag.org or email info@FCFoundationforAg.org. Be sure to follow us on social media with the hashtag #OtherSideOfAg.

As much as we like to be independent and make our own decisions, farming and starting your own business requires you to develop a network of experts if you want to be successful long-term. If you can’t be the best at everything, surrounding yourself with the people who know how to get the job done well will help prepare you to take on any challenge.

Networking for New Farmers

We talked to our loan officers and some of our customers and they determined these are the top ten people should you network with as a farmer:

1. A Mentor

With less than 1.5% of the population working in agriculture, it can be hard to find peers that relate to what you might be going through as a farmer. Luckily, many of the commodities that make our industry so diverse have already found ways to band together and share stories, resources, and even a helping hand. Think about your operation (or your dream operation) and determine what values are important to you. Perhaps you’re passionate about beef production in Delaware, dairy goats in Maryland, Pennsylvania business in a sustainable way, or just a young, beginning or small farmer in the Mid-Atlantic looking to connect – there’s a group for it, you just have to look! Use these new connections to help set realistic goals and navigate challenges.

Not sure where to look? Joining agricultural organizations like Farm Bureau or Young Farmers and Ranchers can help you connect locally and nationally to meet like-minded farmers who can be your mentor.

2. Accountant and/or Financial Advisor

When it comes to taking care of your financial health, you want to make sure you’re keeping tabs on your financial statements regularly so you know if your business is remaining profitable. Often, you’ll see many family operations divvying up these kinds of tasks, with one family member handling office tasks like bookkeeping, payroll, and paying bills. By finding an accountant to help you with your books, you add someone with experience in following bookkeeping best practices to your team, ensuring you’re prepared for tax season..

Pro Tip: Find an accountant that has experience in agriculture to save you time and help you find new ways to cut costs or take advantage of different tax programs.

DIY Farm Bookkeeping: If you’re heck-bent on doing it yourself, you, like many of our customers, may like using QuickBooks. We have a coupon code to make trying it a little cheaper too!

3. Legal Counsel

If you’re planning to register your operation as a business entity like a partnership or LLC, look for a lawyer or legal counsel that has ag experience. They’ll be able to help you determine the best business structure for your operation and provide advice on what kinds of insurance you may need in accordance with liability and local and state laws.

Legal counsel can also help you prepare for property and real estate dealings as you expand your operation, or even guide you through the transition of your family farm passing onto the next generation.

Pro Tip: Find someone who is willing to work jointly with your accountant and who specializes in farm family succession planning.

4. Regulatory Counsel

No matter what commodities you produce, agricultural laws and regulations are constantly being passed and changing over time. Identifying reliable experts who can help you understand what these laws and regulations mean for your business will help keep you on the right side of the law.

Pro Tip: Many member associations will offer subject matter experts to help serve as a resource to you.

5. Insurance Agent

Wait, my farm isn’t covered by homeowners insurance? Farm insurance is a specific type of insurance policy that covers farm liability and risk. It’s important to find the right insurance agency that will take the time to understand your farming operating and the risks that are associated with it so you have adequate coverage.

When production is low or damaging weather like floods, drought or hail come along, the results are devastating to your crop and your bottom line. Crop insurance is a risk management tool that helps you financially meet both your personal and business obligations when your crops cannot. Research and determine if crop insurance makes sense for you here.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to update your policy as you purchase new equipment or make farm improvements- make sure you are fully insured.

6. Your Local Extension Agent

No matter what you grow or raise, your local extension agent can help you navigate many business roadblocks through educational resources and research. Although exact programing varies by each office, their resources will revolve around agriculture and food systems, environmental and natural resources, youth development, and family and consumer sciences. With topics ranging from ag law to financial health, extension gives you the tools to build a strong business for free or for small registration fees.

How to find your local extension office: Google search for “YOUR COUNTY” “YOUR STATE” extension office, or use a local county extension finder tool like this one.

7. Loan Officer

We know what you’re thinking: “Farm Credit would say that I need a loan!” But hear us out. Capital is one of the biggest barriers to entry for our industry. Even if you’re not operating a thousand acres of grain, you still probably don’t have enough cash to purchase equipment, land and starting inventories, or supplies for a small farmstead. And that’s okay.

Taking out a loan to help start your business can be an important step for your operation’s growth. One thing that we look at from the loan officer’s perspective is whether or not your operation will cash flow enough to support this kind of liability. We want to make sure you are set up for success for the long-haul. Don’t get us wrong - we’re not the only one who can make loans for ag operations, but we encourage you to put your lender to each and every one of these tests so you can be sure that you’re getting a partner you trust and not just a banker with a dotted line to sign.

8. Farm Service Agency or FSA

Connecting with your local Farm Service Agency staff is important for any new farmer entering the field. The FSA strives to serve all farmers and agricultural partners through the delivery of effective programs and services. From acreage reporting for crop insurance to Farm Bill programs and conservation programs, FSA provides a number of tools to farmers from the United States Department of Agriculture.

If you’re uncertain about where your local FSA office is located, use this locator tool to find it!

9. Soil Conversation District

As you become a new landowner, learning about protecting your farming operation’s soil health will directly impact your land’s productivity. Learning from your local soil conservation district expert can help you to learn about new conservation practices, innovative technology, and natural resource programs to enhance your farming operation. 

The mission of the Conservation District is to promote responsible management of natural resources and conservation efforts. They provide technical assistance and educational opportunities to preserve the use of land, water, and related natural resources.

One item to keep in mind, many Conservation Districts operate on a local level and under state law to fulfill location specific natural resource initiatives. To connect with your local Conservation District, click here.

10. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

We know the costs behind conservation improvements can be intimidating. NRCS supports America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners by helping them make investments in their operations increase that increase the competitiveness of American agriculture while also improving the quality of our air, water, soil and habitat. They will work with you one-on-one to offer you personalized advice and help you find the best solutions for your business and conservation goals.

Here are the steps you need to take to get assistance from NRCS.

As you begin your journey don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you’d like to speak with a loan officer in your area, just let us know. Outside of financial services, our loan officers can help you create important business connections and refer you to companies with ag experience that will help you succeed. You don’t have to do it alone!

LISTEN TO Justin's EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!

Summary

On this episode of the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast, Katie Ward and Geoff Delamater sit down with Justin Harrison of Farmacy Brewing to learn how he turned his small home brew passion project into a large on-farm brewery and tasting room. We also dive into his background growing up on Willowdale Farm, his involvement in the local ag community, and the ins-and-outs of growing various ingredients for each craft beer. 

Visit Farmacy Brewing:

3100 Black Rock Road, Reisterstown, MD 21136
Friday 4-8pm, Saturday 12-8pm, or Sunday 12-6pm

Katie Ward:

Welcome to the Farm Credit AgVocates Podcast, I’m your host Katie Ward, ­­­­Public Relations and Communications Specialist for Horizon Farm Credit.

Joining me today as my co-host is Geoff Delamater, Farm Credit Loan Officer in the Bel Air, Maryland branch. Geoff currently works with today’s guest and he is one of my LEAD Maryland Class 11 fellows. He is also a lover of craft beverages, which will come in handy during this episode! Thanks for joining us today Geoff.

Geoff Delamater:

Thanks for having me.

Katie Ward:

Earlier this month we celebrated National Beer Day and the ingredients grown by farmers that make up the beverage loved by many. It's only fitting that we follow it up by bringing on a guest to our podcast who not only knows beer, but also runs an on-farm brewery.

Justin Harrison is a fourth generation farmer in Baltimore County, Maryland who owns and operates Farmacy Brewing on Willowdale Farm with his family. A working farm, raising horses, cattle, hay, row crops, fruits and vegetables, Willowdale Farm strives to preserve the best of Maryland agriculture. Farmacy Brewing sits right in the middle of the working farm, surrounded by horses, fields and production. Without further ado, I'm excited to welcome Justin to our podcast today. Thank you for joining us.

Justin Harrison:

Thanks so much for having me.

WILLOWDALE FARM AND FARMACY BREWING

Katie Ward:

All right. Let's start off the conversation today by having you dive into the background of your farm, Willowdale and then the brewery and how it all started.

Justin Harrison:

The farm started out really in the early fifties with my grandparents. My grandfather and grandmother were married and they actually lived in a little house in the Pikesville area, and then they moved out to a place near the Maryland line. They only had the first farm for a few years and it really was just something to have away from the city. They found this spot and it really evolved like a lot of farms. It started out with the core acreage, and then they were able to buy parcels along the way.

As the family grew, different family members, aunts and uncles built a house or had a part of the farming operation here as well. My dad is a Veterinarian and continues practicing [as an] equine veterinarian, so we focused primarily on the thoroughbred industry here. That was something that he and my mother really changed when they moved out here.

Kind of coming full circle up to the brewery element, back in 2010, I finished grad school. I was out at Humboldt State, which is out in Northern California. I moved back and one of the things that we did just as an adjunct was to have a CSA, so we did Farmer's Markets. We sold to a lot of restaurants in the area and our very first year we had about 10 CSA shareholders that came and got their vegetables off the farm.

We grew that for about five years to where we had about 60 members. We were participating in a couple of Farmer's Markets and then we had about seven or ten restaurant accounts that we were delivering to every single week. We had the idea of evolving that component, the CSA Farmer's Market with craft beverages.

I was already a home brewer and I already had interest in it. I didn't really know where that was going to go as it was just a hobby, but I saw how difficult the farm market gardening was for a few people. The places that have done it well have 200 plus shares every year and they usually have very seasonal staff. They may have 20 people working seasonally. We were just family, so it was just four of us running everything.

The idea of the brewery kind of stemmed off of how do we evolve this and what's the progression here where we can still keep the farm the center focal point, but then maybe adapt or translate some of the ingredients that we were growing and put them into beer specifically.

There was a point in time where we looked at maybe a winery. We have a winery literally right over the hill, so that didn't make much sense. We looked at a distillery concept and the return was not really there. It's a very long-term process and more power to the folks that do it, but it didn't seem to blend with what we were trying to do. I was already on a homebrew scale, adding weird things like strawberry rhubarb, cucumber and tomatoes to incorporate it into beer in a way that could work without it tasting like a salad basically. So the brewery evolved from that.

Katie Ward:

So it was your passion that you had personally that you were able to grow and bring it onto the farm?

Justin Harrison:

Yes, and I would be remiss if I didn't say that when my wife and I were married and we went on our honeymoon, my dad actually picked us up at the airport. The whole ride home he was talking about seeing something on TV about Tom Barse and Milkhouse Brewery. He was saying this guy's growing hops and you do a lot of this stuff already, maybe you should look at this concept.

The irony there is that during the whole process of business, the business model and the planning, he was probably my biggest competition. Every turn was go back to the drawing board, rewrite, examine and reflect if it was a good thing. We had that idea and that initial discussion in 2015 and I also learned of a new bill that's coming through that that will actually allow Baltimore County to have Class Eight Farm Brewery licensing, because prior to that, you couldn't do it.

Katie Ward:

Okay, awesome.

Geoff Delamater:

Tell us a little bit about the name Farmacy. How did it come about?

Justin Harrison:

I had a business partner early on who is a Pharmacist at Union Memorial. We have since split and it's just my family and I now. With the concept of incorporating the medicinal elements of plants and incorporating the use of food as medicine, I wanted to have a name that really kept the farm center.

I didn't want to lose sight of the fact that we're still a working farm and I didn't really want to just use the name Willowdale because that's what we do with our horses and our cattle, that's the rest of the property. This was something kind of unique that at the same time fits like a puzzle piece into the rest of the farm.

THE TASTING ROOM AND CRAFT BEERS

Katie Ward:

Great. Awesome.

Let's talk about the gorgeous tasting room that we're sitting in right now. If I am correct, it was once a 9-stall horse stable and now it looks like a modern day brewery.

Justin Harrison:

Yeah, it was. I wish I could say it had all this historic reverence, but it doesn't. In the early nineties, we were starting to see an expansion of the thoroughbred industry. This started out as nothing more than a storage barn for hay, because we had more animals that were coming on to the property, so we needed that storage.

We then added the floor out of the stalls and it was an overflow barn because we were working at the time with the Maryland Stallion Station which is right off Tufton Avenue. When they folded in 2008, it was this wave of reality where you knew nothing is permanent. We had a business partnership with them and it's gone, so now what are we going to do with this building. It was where we stored a lot of junk. It really was trash and old equipment that we didn't use for years.

The irony is we actually had our CSA pick up here. When this still had the stalls, we had one area that we would put all our refrigerators and cold storage for vegetables and stuff in. We would set up a table and a booth and customers would pull up, they'd walk in, they'd get their produce and they'd leave. That's how that whole thing started and evolved. As we looked at locations for this brewery, we didn't want to build anything, so it was fitting that we started this concept here, so let’s finish it and see where it goes.

Geoff Delamater:

How many beers have you created? How many beers do you have on tap?

Justin Harrison:

We have 12 taps and actually have a hard time keeping them filled, which I'm working on. Since our start, we have probably brewed somewhere around 75 to 85 different beers. There's a lot of variability and try to keep everything as seasonal as possible and that doesn't necessarily mean that it's always unique.

If you take an IPA, for example, there's IPA's that we do year round with a beer called Beet Box that has a beet juice in it. It's about 60 pounds per batch of beet juice that we grow. It’s a West Coast IPA so it has that citrusy element that blends really well with the beet juice that might be on year round. We've done stuff with spruce tips. We have Norway spruce around here and we can only get that in the spring, so it only comes out this time of year.

Katie Ward:

Wow. Is the beet juice IPA a reddish tint?

Justin Harrison:

It's like magenta color. It's actually one of the most beautiful beers we've done. It freaks people out because they look at it and think that it must be a sour or something like that.

Then they taste it and the hops jump out and you get the earthiness from the beets. It blends together as a little bit of sweetness to it, but it works well. That’s not on tap right now. It will be on tap in the next two to three weeks.

Katie Ward:

What is your favorite Farmacy Brewing Beer that you've ever brewed?

Justin Harrison:

That's tough, I have two and they are kind of opposites.  I have always had an affinity for stouts and darker beers. We have a beer called Sassy Love that's named after one of our mares. It's a Mexican chocolate stout. It’s kind of chocolatey and it’s kind of spicy. It has guajillo and fish pepper in it. Fish pepper is unique to the Chesapeake Bay region. It's a nice clean spice, but it's not a fiery beer.

Between that, and a beer on tap right now called Knowing A Ghost. It's a Belgian-style Wit. It’s like a perfect spring, summer, fall beer. It's named after a friend of ours that passed away too. It uses a lot of farm grown wheat. What’s kind of unusual is that we get to use a lot of raw ingredients, so this beer has 50% raw wheat in it.

A lot of brewers shy away from that because you're not sure what the turnout is going to be. It doesn't have the enzymatic activity there, but it works really well in that style and you can drink it all day long. It’s about 4.8%, so it’s an easy drink.

Katie Ward:

Awesome. That's very special too with the name.

TO-GO OPTIONS

Geoff Delamater:

For the folks that want to take your beer home with them, what are your to-go options?

Justin Harrison:

We started initially with doing growlers and we had people that brought in their own glass growlers and we had really nice stainless steel ones. After COVID, we shied away from that. I'd like to get back to it, but it's tough because you really want to have a dishwasher and a way to sanitize everything.

We have growler cans right now and we use them. The problem is aluminum is really tough to find, so I'll get a palette of metal and I will hoard it and we'll use them as we can. We've been working a lot with the mobile canning company, so we do 4-packs to-go as well.

Katie Ward:

What size are those cans?

Justin Harrison:

Those are 16 ounces, so we do 16 ounce 4-packs. We're not quite at the production level to shift down to 12 6-packs. Because of the seasonality of our beers, if something comes out, we might be able to bring it back in one to two months, but it's not something that's always on the shelf.

When people go in and make a choice about what they want to buy that's in a 16 ounce 4-pack, it still conveys that it is a special edition or a one off or something like that.

Katie Ward:

You mentioned COVID changing your growler situation. I'm sure it's also changed the whole functionality of being at a brewery.

Do you have any online ordering or digital options that you been using?

Justin Harrison:

We do.  Like everybody else, when we were shut down, we switched over to that completely. We had online ordering, but we just finally set up the order and pay at your table. You swipe a QR code to pay so everything is contactless.

We still do the online ordering. That's everything from people that want to run in real quick on the weekends and pick up something. Or if we do something special, like around the holidays, we'll have extra days for people to come in. They know they may see family, so they want to get something extra and we'll do it that way as well.

Katie Ward:

Awesome. Do you foresee that sticking?

Justin Harrison:

Yes, totally. It’s interesting, as reactionary as you are to something like COVID, the local regulatory hurdles also shift. We've seen this change over where Maryland used to not let you ship alcohol and now they do.

There’s programs like Beer Me, which as we grow our inventory here, I hope to get on that. We're just a little too small right now, so it's tough to keep up with that, but absolutely. I think the marketplace in general, not just beverage purchasing, but everything is switching to ordering on a smartphone.

HOW THE BEER IS MADE

Geoff Delamater:

I know you grow and incorporate a lot of the ingredients into your beer.

Can you explain your beer making process?

Justin Harrison:

The things that I've learned in the last couple of years, really two years almost of operation, is that you can't just take any recipe and just throw something into the base recipe. We literally talk and we have meetings here with staff every Monday morning.  We have a pow-wow of what did you experience this past weekend and what do you want to do moving forward?

We tie in where we are at the production level with everything up in the gardens. We talked about the beet beer and that wasn't the first time we had a couple of other beers where we wanted to figure out a way to incorporate beets. The first iterations were the food coloring. It's kind of pinkish, but it just tastes like an IPA. It was a good IPA, but that was it. You push forward without it blowing up in your face, so to speak.

I think that the things that I've enjoyed doing are taking a concept and then just going to the next level with that. We have a beer right now in cans called Sun Bleeds Red. It's a dark Saison, which is an unusual style and loosely based off a French farmhouse recipe. It’s a darker beer, with darker malts.

We actually have pumpkin, beets, sun dried cherry tomato in it. There's a little bit of cinnamon, so it adds warm spice, but then it's a very dry finishing farmhouse beer, very low hop presence. Those different vegetables with the herbs, spices and everything blends together to where you have this really different experience. At the end of it all, something has to taste good for people that want to come back, so you have that delicate balance.

Katie Ward:

I am sure it’s all trial and error too.

Justin Harrison:

Yes, definitely and we have been pretty fortunate as well. We switched over out of the home brew realm to this small three and a half barrel system. I kind of hate it right now because I double batch everything into seven barrel fermenters.

It’s twice the amount of work to get one tank filled, but starting out it actually was okay because we were lucky that we never really had to dump anything. We didn’t feel that enormous pressure of having $10,000 worth of ingredients going into this single batch that if I screw it up then we're done. This is pretty manageable to handle.

Katie Ward:

That's good.

Do a lot of the ingredients come from your farm or from other local farmers? What would you say is the percentage of the outsourced jobs?

Justin Harrison:

Full disclaimer, we don't grow hops here. That's usually the very first question I get.

Katie Ward:

That’s a little difficult to do in Maryland, right?

Justin Harrison:

We're not the best climate. The heat and humidity of the summer really stacks the cards against you. We already had established some other for lack of better term, holistic kind of practices. We have beehives all over the farm that my sister takes care of them. We have pollinator habitat, an orchard, a couple high tunnels of greenhouses and a lot of other things going on.

To then go in and take over some field area to put hops in and start spraying to prevent fungal diseases, it just didn't work. So we do buy our hops. I actually feel pretty strongly about that, just because there's so many choices out there.

Every other brewer has access to every ingredient on the planet, so why should farm breweries limit themselves. If I had to put a number on it, we're typically somewhere in that 40 to 45% range that we're growing stuff and harvesting it here.

We try to use a lot of raw ingredients. We have oats and wheat that we're using and I have barley and rye in the ground. We'll alternate back and forth depending on the plot. That allows us at our scale still to incorporate some of those ingredients.

We also work with local malt houses. Dark Cloud Malthouse just moved up to Westminster. They are a place where we can take our grain and they'll malt it for us. It’s nice because we're both right around the same scale, so I can take one of those grain bins on the back of my pickup truck, drive over, and drop that off. That's relatively a batch size for them to then turn over to whatever I want, which works out very well.

BEING INVOLVED IN THE AG COMMUNITY

Geoff Delamater:

To change direction a little bit here, I know you have a young family. I know you have children that are involved with farming and 4-H.

Do you have any type of Ag education opportunities for children on the farm?

Justin Harrison:

Formally no, but I think that I'd argue that experiential education is probably better than anything you could get in a formal setting. I think one of the things we've tried to preserve here and I get feedback from our customers, is being able to come out here as families and bring their children along.

They get to walk around and see the horses, which maybe is the first time they've ever done that. They can go up and see the greenhouses or what's growing in the garden and maybe it's the first time they've ever done that. Parents get the social aspect because everybody knows everybody. They might see someone from their child’s daycare, school or whatever.

They meet up here and they can hang out. It becomes a little bit more of an outdoor social setting, which is nice, especially with young families. Having my daughter be able to walk over here from our house because she knows daddy's in the brewery and she knows what's going on. She's going to go see her horses and she's going to go feed her cows. She's two and a half and it’s wild to just have that experience and to know that it's actually registering and that she gets it. Other children that come here, it's the same thing, and they get it too.

Katie Ward:

Speaking of events and this being an outdoor venue on the farm, do you have any events planned for the summer? I know you host meetings here and you mentioned food trucks earlier.

Do you have any plans?

Justin Harrison:

We actually have our Farm Bureau meeting here on Monday. We've been really pushing to get back in touch with everybody. We've done everything virtually since shut downs last year and I actually cannot wait because we just put it out there.

We have to have an in-person meeting, everybody will be spread out, but we just need to be able to have that face-to-face interaction to get our work done. I was blown away because almost everybody on the board said yes, which is great, because you have that commitment now.

Geoff Delamater:

You didn’t have to twist their arm too much (laughing).

Justin Harrison:

(Laughing), yes, exactly. Come to a brewery for our Farm Bureau meeting so that you can participate, instead of just being at your iPad screen or whatever. We are going to shift back in the summertime where we'll do Friday night Farmer’s Markets. We always have a food truck, so right now we're booked out with food trucks Friday - Sunday from here until at least the end of August.

On Fridays we try to double up where you can come out and it’s a little bit lower key. We're only open for a few hours on Friday and there's food truck and music normally. You can grab some vegetables or talk to us about what's growing in the garden. That is kind of something that's unique that we always try to incorporate.

This year has been a little tricky to plan, but we've done some other neat stuff with other organizations. We’ve hosted fundraiser events and things like that with a couple of groups in Hampstead with raffle tickets and such. We want to incorporate as much of the community as possible without you feeling pressured into anything.

Geoff Delamater:

You mentioned your daughter coming down and feeding your horses and your cows and she knows you're in the brewery.

How did growing up on a farm with your dad as a veterinarian shape your career path and your future?

Justin Harrison:

I don't think if you had asked me that 30 years ago, that I would have said that I'm going to open a brewery on the farm. There was a point in time where I was thinking that I was going to go into veterinary medicine. Right now we're in the middle of foaling season and almost every night we have a mare foaling. I'm usually the one that actually gets the alarm and hears everything.

By the time my dad gets down there, I've already delivered the foal. My sister comes over from her house to help out too. We’ve just grew up in it and we are actively still a part of it. I think that with being here though, one of the things that I now can appreciate so much more is the value of open space and all of the environmental elements that come from that fresh air and clean water.

Knowing, seeing, and living where agriculture has been vilified and everybody wants to go in their little camp where you're either organic or not organic and asks how we do things. I think for us, I was able to take a step back and have the old school point of view. There are some very radical, progressive point of views and just meet somewhere in the middle where I can kind of understand that because I've lived on both sides, so to speak.

Katie Ward:

How has your involvement in the Ag community also helped you with your brewery?

I know you and I met years ago through Maryland Farm Bureau events and you were part of the Young Farmers Committee, and now you are President of the Baltimore County Farm Bureau.

Could you talk a little bit about your involvement in the community?

Justin Harrison:

This year in particular with COVID has been difficult, but prior to that and one of the things that I think is tough to have the conversation about what's involved in farming with somebody that hasn't lived it. You try to have partnerships and some people say their job is really stressful; getting there at 9:00 a.m., can't leave until 5:30 -6 p.m., but I get an hour lunch break.

To me, that's unreal and it sounds awesome. I don't know the last time I didn't eat lunch in my truck driving somewhere on a run. I think that the community is just keeping it real, or at least knowing that the core is Ag and that it's still farm life. We are very lucky out here. Its farm families, its people that have farm land and they understand that.

Bringing people out that have never seen that before and now you get the opportunity to help them understand that it's not all this bad negativity, that there is a whole other side of it. In this day and age, it is tough to have a cordial conversation without going down a political rabbit hole.

We do have a lot of people stoking the fire and that's what attracts attention. It can be negative and it can be angry, but that's not really the right thing. We have these local communities and that's a relative term.  The community radius is not just from here up the road two miles or five miles, it can be all of Baltimore County, it can be Maryland or it could be the Eastern seaboard. We get a chance to share with other people and people that have never had that chance to come out and see it for the first time.

Geoff Delamater:

With your involvement with Baltimore County Farm Bureau, I'm sure you see a lot of trends.

What would you say is your biggest opportunity for the farm and also for the brewery?

Justin Harrison:

I honestly think that that's shifted probably 180 degrees from a year ago. I think prior to that, one of the things that I know with Farm Bureau that we struggled with was just attention; that's probably the simplest way to put it. It's this stupid smartphones that everyone wants instantaneous gratification all the time and if anything takes more than a few seconds, then you're wasting my time kind of attitude.

One of the things we've struggled with on the farm is to get people's attention. In the horse industry, I’ll be the first to admit it’s a little bit of a cottage; everybody knows everybody, and everybody has worked together at some point. People were buying hay from this person who is buying horses from that person and gets training from that person. It goes around in circles.

When you look at agriculture and talk about food, I think it's the same. We know people that run organic market gardens and everybody knows everybody. It's tough to break in, it's a big hurdle. I think what is probably going to continue to be the biggest challenge is just having an opportunity to talk to people and having that opportunity where you can express facts, because there's a lot of misinformation out there too. That's tough because once you're up against that, you unfortunately spiral into this little world of doubt and that's a really tough uphill battle when you're trying to unravel that mess.

Katie Ward:

It's great that you recognize that as a producer yourself, because it's hard to articulate and feel like you're put in a corner and then have to explain your practices when you know that they are environmentally friendly and that they're safe for consumers.

Driving up the lane to get to the brewery, you see the fields and you see the horses, so as a consumer not knowing anything about Ag, it puts you in that mindset before you even stepped foot into the brewery. The fact that you are here on the weekends working, and you're the one growing all the ingredients, it's the perfect place for a consumer to come, who needs any kind of education or has any kind of questions.

Justin Harrison:

Right and we try pretty hard to have that full circle conversation. You’re right, you come in the lane and that's for lack of a better term, that's the show portion. The first building you go by is our farm office, and it’s our foaling barn, so there’s a lot of mares and foals in there. That's what people are attracted too.

Then you come through the rest of the farm and you realize behind this building is basically the guts of everything. We’ve got a lot of hay fields and crop fields that are in the back 40, although it's really more like the back 100. We also have cattle and you don't really even see them because they're on the other side of the building.

When you come to the brewery, if you sit in the back, you can see them. I often I find myself explaining to people that they are my herd and that it’s not somebody else's farm or another property. The grain that comes out of here goes to them. They get rotated out on to temporary hayfields, so they help to fertilize or plant whatever for putting hay out. Then we harvest hay or grain off of that and then it can be used back in the brewery or fed to the horses or whatever other options we have. It’s tough to say it's holistic, that is a played out term.

Katie Ward:

Yes and seeing it helps.

Justin Harrison:

Yes, exactly.

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING A BREWERY

Geoff Delamater:

I'm sure, you know, the craft beer industry is rapidly growing, especially with the farm breweries.

What advice would you give to someone that wants to start a brewery or get into the business?

Justin Harrison:

Prepare yourself and make sure your stomach is ironclad. I started everything, like I was saying at the beginning, we had the initial conversation in 2015, so I didn't even get my use and occupancy permit until 2019.

There were moments throughout that whole thing where I thought “screw it, I'm done.” It can be so complicated, so frustrating. I think because I was a guinea pig in some element, but now there’s something to go off of. We kind of set the precedent with being not only a working farm and keeping it that way, but then also having a MALPF (Maryland Ag Land Preservation Foundation) as our land preservation group, we worked with them initially.

We work with the Valleys Planning Council on a lot of things as we were kind of evolving our model and how this was going to affect the local Ag community. All of those little things were building up. For somebody now to come in, it's a journey, it's a long process, but I think there's so much diversity out there too in craft beverages. Not just craft beer, but I think craft beverages is a way to reference it now.

You can find your niche and that's probably the most important thing. You need to figure out what makes you unique and what you are good at. If you can identify that, and then they align, you're going to succeed.

Geoff Delamater:

You need to make a beer named Trailblazer.

Justin Harrison:

(Laughing) yes, sure.

Katie Word:

Yes or Guinea Pig.

Justin Harrison:

We will have to come up with something.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Katie Ward:

Awesome.

We always like to do a fun little game on the podcast called the Lightning Round. I'll ask you a couple of this or that and either or questions. Don't take time to think about it, just fire out your answer. We don't need to explain it. We'll just move right onto the next explanation.

Justin Harrison:

Okay, so no explanation. Don't be wordy, got it.

Katie Ward:

Yes, so as fast as you can - a flight or one beer?

Justin Harrison:

One beer.

Katie Ward:

Lager or ale?

Justin Harrison:

Lager.

Katie Ward:

Fruity or hazy?

Justin Harrison:

Hazy.

Katie Ward:

Drinking beer from a can or a glass?

Justin Harrison:

A glass.

Katie Ward:

What is a beer’s best friend, pizza or wings?

Justin Harrison:

Pizza.

Katie Ward:

A brewery game, bingo or trivia?

Justin Harrison:

Trivia.

Katie Ward:

A brewer’s swag, having a beard or wearing a flannel?

Justin Harrison:

Can I say neither?

Katie Ward:

Yeah.

Justin Harrison:

(Laughing) yeah, neither.

WHAT DO YOU ADVOCATE FOR?

Katie Ward:

Okay, neither it is. Well that was fun, thanks a lot.

Before we end our conversation, we always like to ask our guests the same wrap up question at the end of every episode.

What do you advocate for an agriculture?

Justin Harrison:

Having an honest, genuine future. Being able to practice what you preach and being comfortable with that and knowing that you can go to sleep every night with that. Knowing that what you're doing is actually going to be around and be a positive influence on the future, because I don't really think we have much else after that.

Katie Ward:

Well, I appreciate that. Thank you for your time and for sharing your farm and brewery with our followers today.

How can our listeners find you the brewery online? We will link all of this on our podcast website and in the show notes, but if you just want to give a shout out to how they can find you.

Justin Harrison:

We have websites as farmacybrewing.com, but you can also do Instagram, Facebook and I’m pretty sure we have Twitter, everything is kind of linked together. Instagram is usually the best way because we're always trying to update that and keep up with new pictures, new info, stories and everything else.

Katie Ward:

Great.

Where is the brewery located?

Justin Harrison:

It is right in the middle of our farm – 3100 Black Rock Road. It’s Reisterstown, Maryland, but it's really closer to Butler, its dead center on the farm.

Katie Ward:

What are your tasting room hours? I know you've mentioned Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday.

Justin Harrison:

Yep, it's Friday, 4 – 8; Saturday, 12 - 8; and Sunday, 12-6.

Katie Ward:

If all you listeners want to come in to Farmacy Brewing, make sure to mention Justin or the Farmacy Brewing’s staff that you heard about them on the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast. Thank you again for your time, Justin, and I hope you guys have a great spring and summer here on the farm.

Justin Harrison:

Thank you so much.

Katie Ward:

Thank you also to Geoff for being a great co-host with me today. Your knowledge of the industry and from working with Justin gave us some good insight. I know our listeners will enjoy hearing a new voice on the podcast today as well, so hopefully you can join us again soon.

Geoff Delamater:

Great, you are welcome.

Katie Ward:

Thanks everyone for listening to this episode. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe, and share this with a friend. You can get your podcast notes and subscribe to all email alerts at mafc.com/podcast. Do you have a suggestion for a topic or a new guest? Send them our way via email to podcast@mafc.com Have a great week and keep on advocating.

ROSE OF SHARON EQUESTRIAN SCHOOL

Joan is the Founder, Executive Director, and vision keeper of ROSES (Rose of Sharon Equestrian School) in Glen Arm, Maryland – a 90 percent volunteer-operated program for children, youth, adults, and senior citizens with special needs. “We serve individuals in all age groups,” she explains. “When we began, we served mainly children with disabilities. As time went on, we began to see more students with autism, behavioral issues, and social/emotional needs with many having multiple diagnoses.”

This fall, ROSES is preparing to celebrate their 20-year anniversary of serving their community. “We have a Board of Directors, a team of dedicated volunteers, a part-time barn manager, and part-time stable hand,” Joan explains. “Our barn manager, Connor Bayley, is a graduate student at New York University (NYU) in the mental health and wellness program. She hopes to become a counselor utilizing equine assisted therapy with her clients.”

Joan began her work with horses at age 11 in Massachusetts, working in barns, stables, and day camps caring for and exercising horses. “It was during my teen years as an equine-camp counselor where I began to see what powerful changes horses could facilitate in peoples’ lives, especially those impacted by trauma, disability or other special needs,” she expresses.

Joan eventually found herself working as a journalist, covering a budding therapeutic riding program in Virginia. “There were not many places to become certified,” she mentions. She eventually found and attended the Cheff Center in Michigan. “To attend, you had to be willing to immerse yourself in a month-long program of training, teaching, and testing,” says Joan. “Once certified, I began to look for a way to provide this service to people with special needs. Back then, therapeutic programs were often an add-on to typical boarding and lesson barns. That was when I decided to build my own program from the ground up.”

In 1996, Joan and husband Randy started plans on the facility. “We used a 12 acre parcel of land adjacent to his family’s farm,” she explains. “In the summer of 1997, we broke ground for the American with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant stable.” Building took several years, eventually welcoming the program’s first students in the fall of 2001.

The ROSES stable and arena were intentionally designed from the ground up to be completely accessible. Everything remains organized in a way that even those with limited cognitive ability or problems with executive functioning can become increasingly independent in knowing what to do first, next, and finally when working with the horses.

During the developmental stage, Farm Credit loan officer Keith Wills was available for assistance. “Joan reached out to me with the possibility of securing financing that would enable them to work towards completing infrastructure projects. What impressed me at first was what they had been able to accomplish through donations of both financial and hours of service,” says Keith. “Born from the idea of helping special-needs individuals, the classrooms, indoor-riding arena with ramps, and stairs to help reach and mount horses is truly amazing.”

Keith continues, “Just to have a riding arena of this quality is a huge undertaking. Now they have a mobile van unit that can transport miniature horses to schools, events, and care facilities.”

THE SILVER STEEDS PROGRAM

Three years ago, Joan and her team were approached by a continuing care facility wanting them to work with residents who had various forms of memory loss. “The Silver Steeds program was born, achieving much success prior to COVID-19,” explains Joan. “Over the years, it has become apparent that for every one student or senior coming to us, there may be five more left behind who cannot travel to the farm for multiple reasons. That, coupled with a request from a juvenile detention facility, led ROSES to conduct a campaign to purchase and outfit a van to transport miniature horses to off-site locations.” Joan has also been approached by an area hospital seeking visitations to help with staff morale, stress reduction for patients’ families, and an unexpectedly delightful distraction for the patients themselves.

According to Joan, the growing sense of accomplishment and competence leads marked elevations in confidence and joy each week. Color coding, PECs (picture enhanced communication methods), and a good old-fashioned philosophy of ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ is used with students. Lessons are reliably structured, there is a predictable routine with appropriately individualized challenges added in each week. Their students’ levels of confidence and responsibility have grown not only at the barn but back at home and in academic settings, as well as within their communities at large.

“Research has shown that positive human-animal interactions can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and reduce levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Studies have also shown a rise in feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin occur during and after being around animals,” she shares. “To successfully interact with animals in general, and horses in particular, an individual has to be able to self-modulate their actions, reactions, and emotions. Doing that requires a certain amount of mindfulness; once a person becomes aware of their emotions, they can work on managing them.”

PROFIT IS NOT JUST DOLLARS

Keith has worked with ROSES for 15 years and still sees benefits of the program. “Profit is not just dollars,” shares Keith. “Profits can also be measured by the number of people you reach. Being able to help Joan and her organization just seems right.”

“Parents, teachers, family members, medical personnel, and other caregivers have all been responsible for seeking out the ROSES’ program,” Joan shares. “After completing an initial application, we set up a site visit and tour of the facility. If a good match can be made between the student’s (or agency’s) needs and what we have available in terms of openings and volunteer and equine staff, more in-depth paperwork is submitted and a profile is developed from which an individual set of goals and objective(s) is designed.”

Similar to the process of working with her loan officer, Joan always has a goal. “Farm Credit gets it! All things agriculture related… they understand the passion, determination, and character that is required to work with the land, animals, and environment,” says Joan. “I really appreciate the inclusive nature of the Farm Credit model; the guidance, resources, continuing education, advice, and inspiration available whether it comes through the staff or other members.”

The ROSES support system is made up of various individuals, many being voluntary. “The experiential nature of our program and the non-judgmental temperament of our horses and volunteers combine in ways that positively affect many aspects of our students’ lives: physical, emotional, and in many respects mental health, as well,” she shares. “We see this growing need for equine assisted services delivered in the natural environment of a farm for our current population of students and those beyond. ROSES is in the process of pivoting once again to meet this need bolstered by the fact that research continues to demonstrate that nature is good for the mind, body, and spirit, and now with COVID-19, increasingly becoming timelier and more relevant.

“With the onset and continuation of the pandemic, all of the populations we have served in the past, as well as members of the general public, are suffering from symptoms of anxiety and depression due to disruption in their daily routines and other limitations. . Many of the individuals we work with cannot fully understand why these disruptions and limitations are occurring. But they are deeply affected nonetheless.”

Many participants depend on the program for evolvement, life skills, and strengthening quality of life. “We have had students considered non-verbal speak some of their first words and sentences to the horses and members of their volunteer team. Students enjoy more social connections and improved peer relations due in part to their participation in equine facilitated learning,” Joan shares. “Accompanying staff and family members of the senior citizens we serve have reported positive changes in mood, motivation, movement, memory, and more meaningful conversation among the participants.”

The program has not only helped students, but the volunteers who serve them. ROSES barn manager Connor’s involvement has grown from volunteering to becoming a key player in the daily operation of the stable, and shall continue to grow as she completes her master’s program and required licensure for clinical practice. “My program at NYU emphasizes wellness,” shares Connor. “The backbone of counseling and mental health is promoting whole-system wellness from relationships and support, to physical needs, to directly targeting psychological concerns and taking the steps to overcome them.

“Working with horses can help target all aspects of wellness. Being in partnership with a thousand-pound animal, putting your trust in them and having them put their trust in you, is an experience like no other.” As one student’s mother has said, “He walks a little taller when he leaves here.”

To learn more about or donate to ROSES, visit roseofsharonschool.org

Facebook: @roseofsharonschool

Instagram: @roseofsharonequestrianschool