Relationships are what make so many business and client pairings work. It is especially true in farming, and farmers rely on their marketing advisors, and trusted agronomic partners. In a new HAT video on our YouTube channel and Facebook page, our new video specialist Elise Koning has captured the special relationship between a northern Indiana farm family and their ag lender.
“At a time when things were stressful and tight, I woke up one night and couldn’t sleep real well, and I started putting numbers to some things, and I thought I have got to talk to Ashley,” says Indiana farmer Phil Huber from the White and Jasper County area. “And the next day I was able to call her, and she walked me through things, gave me options, and gave me a calming presence at a time when I felt anything but calm.”
She is Ashley Hopp with Farm Credit Mid-America. The company’s relationship with the Huber’s dates back fifty years, and Ashley makes it clear what a business-customer relationship should look like.
“When I first meet a farm family it’s important to me to get to know a little bit about them, their family, and a little bit about their operation, so I often have them show me around their farm before we ever dive into financials.” Hopp adds, “Once I get to know them, we sit down and look at the numbers, we go through balance sheets and taxes and I have them explain to me what their goals are and what they want to see out of the operation in the future.”
The video is one in a series we have this year with Farm Credit Mid-America that takes you to the farm and closer to the relationship that helps the Huber family and farmers like them grow the operation when it makes sense and work through the challenging cycles farmers inevitably face.