Walton, who farms near Lumber Bridge, successfully completed the college-level, online course over several months and learned to develop business and financial plans, as well as budgeting and management skills essential to a farm’s success.
Walton farms in partnership with his father and mother, David and Virginia, and a younger brother in a family farming operation in Robeson and Hoke Counties that includes approximately 5,000 acres of corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat. He graduated from the NC State University with a B.S. degree in agricultural business management and agronomy in 2004.
As a wrap-up to the program, Herring recently attended a two-day FCU AgBiz Planner Conference in Raleigh. From sessions led by Dr. David Kohl, an agricultural finance and business management expert, he and 26 other farmers in the program gained additional insight on how to better manage their farming operations.
Recounting what he learned from the AgBiz Planner program, Walton said, “This program definitely gave me a better understanding of our farms’ finances and the way in which we make decisions regarding major purchases. It certainly made me a better manager.”
As part of the AgBiz Planner program, Walton had a close mentoring relationship with Rebecca Wood, a Cape Fear Farm Credit senior loan officer working in the financial cooperative’s office in Raeford. Sharing her thoughts on the value of the program, Wood said, “In addition to learning marketing and business management skills, Sam now has a better understanding of how to prepare documents to apply for loans and credit for future expansion.” Walton has been a member of Cape Fear Farm Credit for one year.
Of the two-year grant from the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, Cape Fear Farm Credit CEO Richard Eason said, “We are pleased to have provided this educational opportunity for farmers and agribusiness owners to learn, network with peers and benefit in ways that are certain to enhance their farming operations.”
Cape Fear Farm Credit is an agricultural lending cooperative owned by its member-borrowers. It provides farm loans for land, equipment, livestock and production as well as rural home mortgages. Cape Fear Farm Credit has a branch office serving each of its each 12 counties in southeastern North Carolina. It is part of the national Farm Credit System, a network of financial cooperatives established in 1916 to provide a dependable source of credit to farmers and rural America. To locate a branch near you, visit www.capefearfarmcredit.com or call 1-800-368-5819.
Area young farmer, Sam Walton of Lumber Bridge, receives a FCU AgBiz Planner certificate and congratulations from Cape Fear Farm Credit CEO Richard Eason (left), while his mentor, Rebecca Wood, of the financial cooperative’s branch office in Raeford, proudly looks on. On the far right are FCU Managing Director Alicia Morris and Dr. David Kohl, president of AgriVisions, LLC and developer of the AgBiz Planner program.
Editor:
In addition to the information in this news release, Sam Walton, has agreed to be contacted for more information. You can reach him by email sdwalton@hotmail.com or by telephone at: 910-734-4493.
For more information, contact:
Skipper Jones – Cape Fear Farm Credit VP of Marketing
Email: ssjones@capefearfarmcredit.com Phone: 910-323-9188 – Ex. 3238
and/or
Jim Haskins - AgriBusiness Communications Group
Email: jim@abc-group.net Phone: 919-933-2327
Post a Comment
