A salute to Farm Credit's diverse customer base.

Profile of a 'nontraditional' agricultural businesses

When most people think of the "typical" Farm Credit customer, they probably imagine a dairy farmer, or a potato farmer or perhaps a crop farmer who grows several hundred acres of corn, beans, lettuce or grain.

That's okay. Most of our borrowers are farmers in the traditional sense. However, as the Northeast's number one agricultural lender, Farm Credit serves "agriculture" in the broadest sense. That's why our customer base also includes a wide range of "nontraditional" ag-related businesses.

So, for this issue article, we decided to look "outside the box" to provide you with an up-close look at two nontypical Farm Credit customers: a sawmill operation and a field-tile business.


Green Meadow Lumber

Steve Oleksak is the fourth generation of his family to make a living in the timber business, but his apparent entrepreneurial skills set him apart from his forebears. That's because he has grown the family's business from a two-man enterprise in his father's day to a $4-million operation today, with 44 employees, two sawmills and a pallet mill.

Green Meadow Lumber occupies a 55-acre site. The main building mills logs for high-grade lumber, but Steve also operates a scragg mill, which processes small, low quality logs into pallet lumber, cants and log cabin stock. At their peak, the main mill runs two shifts and turns out 40,000 board feet daily and the scragg mill produces up to 50,000 board feet daily. Steve also runs the pallet mill on the main site.

Steve also owns forestland, which is managed to provide a supply of logs for the business. Otherwise, he buys logs for his mills from forest landowners, foresters and loggers.

"I noticed that no one in the industry was processing small logs efficiently. Since sawing time is increased to process smaller logs, most milling operations go for bigger logs to maximize yield and efficiency. So I chose to aggressively pursue low-grade timber—the junk that no one else wants."

Someone obviously wants the end product, because Green Meadow now turns out between 8-to-10 million board feet of lumber annually and ships up to 4,000 pallets per week to markets as far away as 100 miles.

Loans and consulting
Green Meadow relies upon Farm Credit for periodic loans and leases and general business consulting services.

Steve said. "Farm Credit saw the potential in our operation when I was younger and the business was very small. They are excellent to deal with, always pay attention to what's going on and work very closely with me to help ensure that the business succeeds."




Contact us at info@farmcreditwny.com for more information about our financing options.

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