Dave Hedlin manages loan funds as well as crops

La Conner farmer Dave Hedlin drives a pickup truck, a tractor, and a variety of farm equipment. The much less visible seat he sits in is as a board member of Northwest Farm Credit Services, a financial cooperative that’s part of the Farm Credit System.

Hedlin is one of 11 elected members of the board of directors. For three years, ending in 2017, he was board chair. He finishes his third five-year term in 2021. As a co-op member, he has taken loans with Northwest since 1979, when he and his wife, Serna Campbell, bought the Thein Family farm near Dodge Valley and Landing Roads.

Hedlin recalls it as the “first loan in my generation.” But his family had earlier borrowed funds for farm purchases. They borrowed money from what is now a 102 year old institution, formed in 1916 to “provide American agriculture with a dependable source of credit and closely related services,” as stated on its website.

Hedlin recounted the volatility and uncertainty of farmers getting funding. The key, he said, “is consistent and completive” funds. By forming a cooperative, with elected stockholder members as board members, farmers evaluate and make decisions about fellow farmers. A portion of the money loaned is their money. And when the system succeeds, they earn a return on their investment, as well as having a loan to build their business.

Members of co-ops have institutional as well as individual memories. Hedlin was at the 100th anniversary celebration and heard Bob Dole, the 1996 presidential candidate and longtime Kansas senator, speak. Dole, as a young congressman, had spoken at the 50th anniversary.

Dole needed help getting onto the stage, Hedlin said. But once “he got the mike all the years melted away. He talked about the farm credit system and all the good it has done over the years,” Hedlin remembered. Dole also “Took us to the woodshed [over the current state of politics]. ‘We fought,’ he said, ‘but rolled up our sleeves and did what was the best for the country. We are losing that,’ Dole warned.”

A co-op depends on member governance, a democratic process. After serving in the local advisory system, a liaison between area farmers and the board, Hedlin was asked to run to be a director, but it was a contested election. Getting on the board is just the start of the commitment. Hedlin recalled the classes he took, away from home, the first three years he served. As chair, he has been “on the road or off the farm 40 days a year,” up from 25 days as general board member.

Northwest, as the organization is called, operates in five states, from Alaska to northern California and over to Montana.

Hedlin is particularly proud of Northwest’s young and beginning farmer program, which recruits and mentors new farmers. Like him, these members have taken loans. By taking classes on business and financial management, they can gain basis points. Collect enough and their loan rate gets reduced. “It’s pretty cool, actually,” Hedlin said, smiling.

For all borrowers, the co-op’s financial success means a patronage refund based on their annual participation. That was $108 million, 10 percent of eligible average daily loan balances in 2017. The business’ capital grew to $2.6 billion.

“As a co-op as if we run the business profitably we get a check at the end of the year. That’s pretty cool,” he said.

Looking back at his 13 years on the board, he likened it to the best parts of college: “For me personally it has been incredibly rewarding. It’s like going back to school, to college, where there are high expectations. You build lifelong friendships. It has been very educational and frankly very humbling.”

Hedlin wouldn’t say how many farmers in the Skagit Valley have loans. He did make a call to verify this number: “Nationally we are about 45 percent of the market.” And, he said, “There is a lot of Northwest money in the Valley.”

As for his farm, he defined it as a diversified farm outside La Conner, of about 400 acres of which about 250 acres are organic. It focuses on fresh market vegetables, vegetable seeds, small grains, wheat, barley, spelt, growing a lot for Skagit Valley Malting, Conway Feed, Cairn Springs Mill and the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. The farm is also a member of the Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative.