Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Good morning, we're back. We're going to spend some time talking with Wendy Wilton, State Executive Director of USDA Farm Service Agency. I have known Wendy for a long, long time and known what she does, but I don't know what she does. So I think, Wendy, I'd like you just to give a brief introduction when you're ready, not only to yourself, but what do you do and then we go from there. The floor is yours.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Great to see some familiar faces here and I Do you know, because you

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: haven't, so

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: listen I didn't meet senator Plunkett. Senator Plunkett. Yeah. When you when you went to meet you. And I met a senator major, senator Heffernan. Yep. I have known this guy

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: for a long time.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Well, he's old. Rutland.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: He drinks formaldehyde for breakfast. I mean, that's a

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Oh, goodness. Anyway, my name is Whitey Wilson. I'm the state executive director of Flint Farm Service in Vermont. And here are two prime agricultural related federal agencies in Vermont, Farm Service Agencies. One of them the other one is NRCS, Natural Resource Conservation Service. Where we are located throughout the state, which I've given a nice map here, we're co located with NRCS. We work in partnership with them. Their prime goal is soil conservation and conservation in general. We do have a conservation program on the FSA side of the house though that we collaborate with, which you guys are familiar with, CRP and CREB, right? Yep. Which is really about watershed, mostly, in Vermont and keeping the water clean. But the rest of the programs from Farm Service Agency are much more agriculturally, operationally based, okay? So, not so much what I do, it's what the staff really does. And if you look at this map, you can see in every one of your districts, there is a closed office for FSA. So, you're getting calls from folks that are in farming and they have some issues, they probably will call the agency and they probably have a relationship with us as well. So, feel free to reach out even to the local offices or to me if you have any kind of issue. You've got my card. I'm happy to help. We work collaboratively a lot with the agency, with the Anson's group. So, in fact, last week he called me. He's got a farmer in trouble and called me right up and said, Hey, what do you do for that? And so our folks made contact with that farmer and met with them and see what programs we can assist them with if they're financially So, know, there was a great collaborative working relationship. I'll talk about that in a minute. But there is a location close to you where you see these little squares on the map. Those are the offices where NRCS and FSA are co located. And they're publicly they're open to the public. If any of you want to meet your local staff, give me a call. I'll make that arrangement. We have great people in both agencies. Just wanted to reach out to you. Statewide, we have nine offices. Those are served by 31 people out in those county offices and eight people that are represented in the state office, although they're not all located there. In three centers, which is Newport, St. Albans, and Addison, we have a Type I service center, which means they have a farm loan team there. So, example, Addison is a Type I office. Their farm loan team serves Addison, Rutland, Bennington, okay? So, we have that spread around. So, there is access to farm loan throughout the state even though it may not be geographically close to you. But your service center for program side is obviously in those nine service centers. I want to also mention that at the current time, we do have two TAP positions, full time positions with benefits open. One of those positions is in Newport and the other one is in St. Alms. So, if any of you know anybody who has an interest, they could send me a resume. You've got my card. We are interested in filling those positions. I expect at some point here in the fiscal year, we'll have permanent positions as well. And anyone that worked in a temporary position for us and was successful would be a great candidate for that. Absolutely. Okay. So that kind gives you a lay of land on who we are. Now let's talk about what we do. Cool. So, you're probably familiar with farm loans. FSA, which used to be Farmers Home years ago, later had another acronym name, but morphed into FSA back in the eighty's. Basically the whole farm loan thing came with that. So what FSA really is, we like to say a lender of first opportunity. So if there's a beginning farmer, small farmer trying to get started, maybe has been in farming for a few years, but they really need some capital, we're likely to lend them money where a bank may not or Farm Credit East may not feel that the credit is good enough. So, FSA has that as a vision, to serve beginning farmers and to serve farmers that really need the leg up. But also, that, when we lend to farmers, if they achieve a point where they are bankable or they could go to Farm CreditEase or Ag Ventures or some other commercial lender, then they have to graduate. But despite that, we still have a pretty good caseload. And currently, we have about $112,000,000 in loans. That is reduced over the last few years, and primarily that's because of consolidation in dairy. Dairy is an expensive business to be in, and when a smaller farm gets bought out by a bigger farm, chances are they're not seeking funding from us. They're going to Farm Credit East, they're going to Add Ventures, they might go to a commercial bank. I know People's Bank up in St. August does a few farm loans. Many of those lenders are also collaborating with us too because we have guaranteed loans, just like the SBA does. So, when there are low limits above what we will do, you know, we're talking millions of dollars, you're really talking about a guaranteed loan. OFAC is the other lender I should mention also. We work a lot with them. So, it's VAC, Farm Credit East, Peoples to some degree. Maybe we've got some association with another commercial bank, Ag Ventures. So those are the primary commercial lenders or case of acts, state lender that we work, and they also carry the guarantor program.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: So, I just need some definitions. When you say graduate, is that, they sell the loan to, a larger No. What exactly

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: They have to refinance to the

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: Oh, say they refinance. Yeah. Okay.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Because then when that's paid off, that frees up capital from FSA to then re lend to another beginning farmer or a similar farmer.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: My second question is, these these loans seem it it it is you take a

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: lot of risk.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Yeah. But that's the the FSA job.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Alright.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: You know, that's our mission given by congress.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: And I don't get me wrong. I absolutely appreciate it. It's needed, particularly in Vermont where the our farming community is particularly our beginning farming community is being reduced. How are we alerting potential farmers of this program?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Well, it's interesting because we work extensively with other partners in agriculture, the agency, UVM Extension, the other lenders that I mentioned. I can't think that there's too many farmers out there that don't know who we are. I just say it that way, Sandra, but it's No. I just for new farmers

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: in in particular because I I that just that is our

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: Yes. Our area sheet. We're not grown. Yes, absolutely.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: And we're very cognizant of that, and we have a beginning farmer program. I actually have staff dedicated as part of their workload to do outreach to beginning farmers. UBM Extension is doing a series around the state. We'll be present at that and we'll be talking mainly about lending and other farm programs. So, we do have a mission to do outreach so that the few people that may not know about us, and maybe get a chance to know about us, but also that's where you folks may come in. If you're talking to a farmer who doesn't know who we are, oh my gosh, please send them our way. We would love to talk to them, tell them what we have to offer. And the first step in that is to come in and form a relationship with FSA. It typically means a crop report. That's pretty much we'll talk about that in a minute as it relates to this farmer bridge program you probably heard about.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: So I don't wanna get in ahead of you as far as what you're gonna present. So if I ask something, you say, well, we'll Are do you are you do you have monies to lend yourself? Are you underwriting loans? Are

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: It's money from FSA.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Okay. So you It's have

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: actually have own pool of money.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Dedicated fund in USDA.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Yeah. Plus,

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: you do do Guarantee Guarantee books. Yes. Kind of underwriting.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: So actually when we do one of those, the lender, let's say it's back, they're actually underwriting the loan according to our specifications for guaranteed lending program. They're actually certified as a guaranteed lender. They have to apply the section. They do the underwriting package, they send it to us, we give the approval, and then they close.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Are you first monies in, last monies in, all the monies in, or all of the above as far as on some of these programs that you're showing We

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: really expect in most cases that there is, it's a shared opportunity. We're not gonna fund it 100%.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Sure.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: You know, a lot of times it's collateral, you know, and making sure that we have collateral coverage. So, you know, there is an underwriting process. As you can imagine, there's handbooks about YAFIC on farm loan lending. Most of our loans that are shown here, this 112, these are the direct loans. Direct from USDA.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: And is there one part of Vermont that seems to be receiving more? Like Addison County, Kittany County, that might be showing that there's more growth in that county over some other because of new farming.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Let me correct something for it. The guaranteed caseload is 66,000,000. That's part of the 112, so I included it there. But the direct loans are 45. It's interesting because I served in this role from 2017 to 2021, and now I came back again in May. And it's interesting, while the portfolio has reduced, it's amazing how close those three service centers are in terms of loan volume. But I would say that we've seen an overall reduction because of the consolidation in the dairy industry. Where we're seeing new loans is in very small vegetable operations, generally. Some small organic dairy stuff, know, that kind of thing. But generally speaking, we're seeing a lot of growth in that area.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Well, think we're happy with that, as Senator Major said. I mean, it's the, you know, so small areas. We seem to gravitate to that. The plank that we have in this committee seem to gravitate towards those small farmers to make them bigger farmers when it's all said and done.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Our money rates are very good. They went down recently for the direct operating loan. So, comparably, we're favorable, which is other than for being any farmer. We also have emergency loans, and the drought we had this summer got so severe that it triggered emergency loans in terms of putting out emergency loans for farmers that needed help. So, for example, if somebody needed to drill a new well, we could do it through that emergency loan. Then after the farmer applies for another program on the program side, we could provide some funding to actually pay down or pay off that loan. So, both sides of the house work together in that way and I just kind of want to mention that. But an emergency loan, say somebody, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have people looking for that this year. The drought had a terrible impact on feed. We're gonna have farmers, oh, the farmer that I mentioned that was in distress, they're running out of feed. So that is where we need help now. But even though we are first opportunity or last resort, as some people might want to say, but our delinquency rate at 2.2 is not bad. I mean, worked in banking before I was treasurer of the city of Rutland, and maybe that's your path to, Senator, but you know what? A 2% delinquency rate is not bad.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: And

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: in terms of the national perspective, other states, our delinquency rates are very low in Vermont for this program. Amazing.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: On emergency loans, how long does it take if, okay, I need to drill this well tomorrow, so I come to

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: you for the loan, what are

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: we looking timeline for the firearms?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: It's a pretty quick turnaround on those. I won't say a week or two probably, The but that would others though, if we're talking a direct loan where you've got collateral that's real estate, you have environmental issues that you need to address, it takes a lot longer.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: I understand, I figured you were going tell me that the farmer needs to drill the well, pay for the well, they get reimbursed or it's fast enough by the sounds they drill and directly paid

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: by the loan.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Yes, it's meant to be that.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: And our most, when they come for the emergency loan, have they already set up the FSA and our unknown

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: What's interesting is we actually don't do too many of them. You know, it's interesting to me. You think there would be a lot of need for that. I didn't bring any numbers with me to tell me what we have out there, but it's really only a handful, which is surprising given that. I think a lot of farmers may be relying on the program side instead of looking at the emergency loan. I'm just mentioning it is a way of doing that with a loan first, get the well drilled, and then back in the program money later. Okay. So, program. I mean, my goodness, the last two years took well, now we're in '26, the last three years. The twenty three flood, the twenty four flood, the '25 drought was really tough. We've only just started chipping away at the '25 drought. Most of the money you see here on this slide is really about the '23 and the twenty four floods. And they came, these programs came out, you know, just one after the other, ADVOC programs to address these issues because Vermont was not the only state that experienced some of this. Out west, it was severe drought with ranchers and, you know, just terrible experiences with floods and heavy rains and other places. So, to date, with these programs, we put out over $10,000,000 to Vermont farmers. Again, we've only just scratched the surface on the '25 drought. And the last program you see on this slide, the SDP, that is also still related to flood. And that was something that Congress passed a year ago in a huge bill that had disaster relief for the entire nation, particularly focused on agriculture. So already to date, even though we just started getting applications this fall for that, we've already put out 3,600,000.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: I want go back to the questions that Senator Baker first raised because we're all kind of new in here other than Senator Collamore, who's been here for a long time. But you guys seem to do a lot, and your outreach is good. I mean, it really, really is. I mean, somebody knows how to find you and where to get to and all that. You feel comfortable that you're out there enough to Right. People are gonna understand how to ring your phone or email you or text you and everything?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: I think most people in agricultural circles know where to find us. But we still have an obligation to do that outreach. And actually it's interesting because this time of year, January, February, March is outreach season for everybody that supports the industry, whether it's season extension or the agency, whatever. So, for example, the dairy conference happens next month. There's a no till conference, so my people will be going to those things. I'll be going to a few of them. The veggie growers, these next week. So, we've got folks going to that. So, we do have that obligation and it's part of how we're assessed as an agency. Are we meeting those goals for outreach? So, we are doing that and we continue to do that because it's funny, I mean, are people that get into farming and really don't even have a relationship with us right now. I mean, these numbers only represent the people that have come in and sought yet to say help, whether it's a program or a crop report, that kind of thing. So, there are people out there that don't ever want to do business with the federal government. I'm just going to say that. There are farmers that But if you have respect that, okay, you don't want to come in and see if you can qualify for any kind of support, that's certainly up to them. But we do try to make the effort.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: Sure. The number is huge, it's a good number, but I actually think it's for how much damage we had in that, that it's not astronomical. Was there more money available and people didn't use it? Because it's three right. Million dollars over the dairy industry alone. It's $5,000,000,000 so you're you're You're percentage wise, it's hardly anything.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: No, that's true.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: So, and Can Vermont get more if they asked for more?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: I think in some cases for people that didn't wanna apply to FSA or take the time to do it or the disaster programs, there were probably a lot of people that didn't, that could have. But also, all these programs, the federal government provides a Chevy, not a Cadillac. So, if you have $5,000 worth of damage, it's a cost share. We're not going to do the whole thing. So, there's that piece too.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Can we stay on that line of questioning just for a little bit? Sure. Because I think one of the things that really struck me last year when I went to the Middlebury, the group down there, the farmers, coalition, the Champlain Valley Coalition of Farmers, and talking to the young farmers, they had a big aversion to debt. Are you seeing that, that the young farmers are, we're just gonna figure it out, we're just gonna do it as we go? I mean, how has that changed the time that you've been in this business as far as with the people willing to take on debt or not, or is there a correlation of any of that?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: I think I see that in some of the younger farmers who are not in dairy. Because I think there's an understanding in dairy. You can't run this operation without some sort of financial support. But yeah, that's a smart tactic. Know, if they don't need a farm loan, great. That's awesome. But if they grow their operations, they might eventually need something. Even manufacturing, you could start a small manufacturing outfit in your garage, right? And self fund it for a long period of time. But if you're going to grow, start you to need some capital support. Right? So that's what I think we might be seeing, that kind of thing. We have some people that don't have a loan with us, they do a lot with programs. NAP, which is one of these, you call it under disaster, these were payouts on NAP and it's really crop insurance. So, I could talk about these various programs, but I would say that where we've got drought applying is in that second one, ECP. So, that one we started seeing drought. Like for example, somebody has dried well. That's where we can actually apply for some funding there. You know, it paid for that well. And also, ELAP, which is the $60,000 we also, during the drought this summer, we provided water hauling costs under that program. Know, some of these like, LIP, which is the livestock loss, that was huge out west. It was, you know, cattle that were lost. You can imagine the money that went out from that program in different areas. So, it's a lot and certainly our staff has really made an effort to make sure that the people that they're in touch with are can apply for these programs and maximize what they can get for support. Another thing I want to mention about this, so two sides of the house, farm loan and farm programs. Farm loan is considered GS employees, which you probably don't care about. But in terms of the program side, these are called county employees. FSA is very unique across federal government. On that side of the house, the county employees are actually managed by a farmer board in each one of our locations. And maybe some of you know some of the people who are actually on the county committee in your area that get elected by the farmers in their region to serve on that committee. So, for example, in the Newport office, there is a county committee of five people and they actually are technically managing that office. Even though there's performance reports for the employees that come through the federal system, ultimately up to me, but they are actually managing that. And when there are applications that come through from producers, the county committee needs to approve it. So, is a layer of community involvement on the program side, particularly for these disaster programs, that gets a second set of eyes by the producers in that region that understand what's happening. So this is a very unique thing in federal government. And it's a great thing.

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: And they see denials in your claim if that board says, you know, because they're literally boots on the ground at that point, and go, we see that what they're saying is not actually That could happen. Okay.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: And it can be appealed. There's appeals, there's appeal rights. Okay. So, you probably heard about a couple of new programs. The first one you probably heard most recently is the Farm of Bridge Assistance. This was to address those agricultural industries impacted by tariffs, which is generally row crops, corn, wheat, soybeans, that kind of thing. The 11,000,000,000 in this for its total of 12,000,000,000, 11,000,000,000 is for the row crops, 1,000,000,000 for specialty. The good news with this, it's intended to be a very fast moving program. Some of our programs, as you can imagine, a county committee, prepare the docket, bring it to the county committee, they approve it. It takes a little while. This one, if someone submitted a crop report, which was due by December 19 for this program, and most of our farmers are reporting in the spring and summer when they plant. So, if you have a crop report in and your crop is one of those that is in this program, there's a price per acre, alright? So essentially, what USDA is gonna do, and this is where USDA wants to move, we're gonna apply that rate on the acres you planted and we're gonna set up a payment. So, the only thing the producer has to do is receive that application, sign it, bring it to us, and then we're gonna get paid. And those payments will start going out at the February. This is designed to be a rapid payment to support those people, particularly for the upcoming plant season.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Help us understand about, in Vermont, about the crop that would be affected by tariffs, Because we seem to be more end users than we are as far as exporters. So just for the committee, tell us what that might be in Vermont.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Well, I would say affected by tariffs in the past, certainly dairy affected Okay, twenty years, okay. But dairy is not specifically in this as an agricultural product that's going to be in this farmer bridge. The dairy farmers who grow corn and soybeans will get a payment for this.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Sure.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Okay, even though it's corn silage or it's feed, it's still gonna be on a payment basis because it is a commodity crop. Okay. I know that makes sense, makes it seem like, you know, it's not like some person out in Iowa growing a thousand acres of corn, that is going to be the application of it. So, we will see an impact to that here. I'm also thinking, in terms of tariffs, maple. I mean, the Canadians basically have a cartel on maple, right? I mean, worldwide. And so the 1,000,000,000 in specialty crop, I'm hoping nothing has been written yet. I don't have any promises. I don't have any intel. But I'm hoping maple might be a consideration for 1,000,000,000 piece on

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: the specialty crop because that

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: But we won't see that for another couple months. The other one, the American Relief Act, again, was the one that came out last year, which I showed you that we did $3,600,000 so far in SCRP and we're not even done phase one and there's another phase two. So, these are the two pieces, the ELRP, Emergency Livestock Relief, or flooding. This particularly was important for grazing and feeding, so again, it impacts dairy. SDP was anybody that had, phase one, anybody that had crop insurance or NAP, this was an additional supplemental payment to go on top of it because again, these programs don't go 100% reimbursing you for your loss, So, this was additional. So, even if you got a NAP payment, it was an opportunity to get an additional payment out of this act that was passed by Congress. Also in that act was the Small States Block Grants Program, which Vermont is one of those states. And our group has been working very closely with the agency of agriculture on that. They've been working also with people at headquarters down at USA, at Washington on this. And so, what I think you can be very proud of in your state, in our state, is that we have an agency of agriculture that works with all the other partners. Other states actually, the agency of agriculture just said, we're not gonna work with FSA, we're gonna cover all the crop losses under this block grant. And that meant that those states couldn't use ELRP or SERP to get relief out to farmers. And in Vermont, we didn't do that. There were, you know, we're working collaboratively, they're going to have a piece out of the block grant, and then we did these other things so that collaboratively we're able to maximize what we can do for our agricultural producers. So, next slide is the One Beautiful Bill. There's some program changes. It's interesting. The One Big Beautiful Bill had a lot in it. It was sort of a mini ag bill, mini farm bill. Had a lot of stuff in it that was interesting. There were a lot of changes because there hasn't been a farm bill since 2018. And, you know, Congress is pretty far behind on that because it really should be, like, every four years. So, here we are, 2026. So, there was an attempt to make some of the changes and updates that needed to happen in this bill. And two, that we'll see impacts on, which we're gonna come pretty fast. Actually, the press release on DMC was yesterday, Secretary Rollins announced it at a Farm Bureau meeting yesterday. So, you can see that in Vermont, we put out quite a lot of money historically in the dairy margin coverage program, but there are some changes that are going to make it better. Both of these changes were expansions. On DMC, it was an increase from £5,000,000 to be covered to £6,000,000. And for those that don't know, DMC is sort of a price protection program aimed at smaller dairy operations. Not the big guys because you have a limit here of system wind pounds production annually. You are also able to establish a new production history. This is going be important for farms that bought out a neighboring farm. Their production history has now increased. So, having that level of production history that they can use for the program meant that they can get more out of it. On our PLC, some people call this the corn payment. Nationwide, there were 30,000,000 basic acres added to what can pay out on. So, there's an increase in pricing and an increased payment limit. So, this will have a minor effect in Vermont. Changes in DMC, I think, will be more meaningful. Any questions on that? And then lastly, I will say, since I've had this position twice, I've been fortunate enough to serve USDA in this capacity. And the secretary that we have now, her name is Brooke Ramos. She's in her 50s. I think her kids are high school age, but she has traveled everywhere to support agriculture. She's got a lot of energy. She's very concerned about small farms. And there's a document that she put together, which I think is really good. There's a web link here. But I just highlighted some of the goals, which is supporting smaller farms, family farms. Part of the One Big Beautiful Bill was a change to the tax treatment of transitioning a family farm, which was critical. Because if it costs you too much to give your farm to your next generation, you may not do. So, there's that. And there are other things that are goals of this secretary that I think are really important. The streamlining of the processes, the farmer bridge program where you've got a crop report, we know what the pricing is, we know what the payment's going to be, we get you the form and sign it and you're going to get through it. So much really streamlined processes is where we really want to go. And the administrator for FSA, Bill Bean, who was the director of farm programs, he's actually a soybean farmer from Pennsylvania, but he has his goal in front of him that he wants to create a platform, they're already working on it, to have your tractor, your smart tractor when you're planting, you are going to have data on what you planted and you can feed it into a platform and do your crop report at the end of your planting day On your farm. Yes. Precision agriculture. So, that's where things are kinda headed. I think that over the next ten years, we're gonna see huge changes in some of that, which means it's a lot less handholding in our offices and a lot more technology. I, even since the time that I served in this position, I see that the employees that we have in FSA and NRCS, the bar for being a lot more technical has risen over time. And it's because of implementing some of these strategies. So, we

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: should be getting more efficient and saving money. That's right.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: We've got a lot smaller footprint and a lot smaller staff than we did ten years ago. Okay.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Are remote farmers taking advantage of these programs? Because let me just kind of tell you, I mean, we're sitting in here trying to do everything we can do to protect remote farms. We've got a best 60 bill that's farmer, insurance program for loss. And the dollars that you're talking about here are astronomical dollars as far as when we look at them. Are Vermont farmers taking advantage of these programs?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: I think largely they are, But again, there's that constant need for us to do outreach and again, there are going to be some people that probably won't because they don't want to do business with it. I've heard this from some farmers. I can think of somebody in Rutland County. I think you know who I'm talking about. I like that I do. Probably will never come into the FSA office. But

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: you seem to be easy to work with, as other questioning that Senator Heffernan had. You seem to be willing to do it. You have vast amounts of money. Yeah, it is the government. I get that. I do understand that. But I just think that there might be some people missing the boat here.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Oh, think there are. It makes sense that we've got people that we haven't reached. I mean, can't reach everybody, but I would say generally speaking, especially in the dairy industry, most of those people know us. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: So I noticed one of the goals of Secretary Rutland's is like H-2A, and I'm wondering how that might unfold in Vermont. And then the other thing that happened is the ability to to serve whole milk again in schools. And I don't know when that can start. Where are we with that, I guess? But the h two a workers, I think, is very important given certain things that are going on.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: I agree. And I would tell you for the last this is my personal opinion. I don't understand why congress can't grapple with this. Yeah. We need these police employees on our farms. Because it's the big

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: for both parties. That's why. It's both parties that want to solve it.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Yeah, it's so unfortunate because, you know, they're long time employees. Absolutely. I've on these farms. You can see it. They're part of that farm family. And it's sad to me that we don't We have a solution for the seasonal farming need. You know, like picking the apples, right? But we don't have I mean, in dairy, you need somebody there year round. You need somebody there for years at a time. There's, why don't we have that? That will obviously be up to Congress, but I'm truly glad that she put it out.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Yeah, me too. Goal that

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: that needs changing. And of course, she sees this from a national perspective, it's not just the dairy industry. I mean, if you're growing strawberries in California, you're probably, you know, you've got a farm that's operating all year round, you might need people. And even some of the operations I've seen here, they're keeping people like Jamaican farm workers, they're keeping them to a better part of the year. They're housing for

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: them.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: So, yeah, I think that it can be done to Congress to do it. But obviously, you know, we can't lobby in that regard. But the secretary could certainly work with Congress to make suggestions on It how this could be would be nice to see that happen. And what was your other question? Whole milk. Whole milk. That has been a desire of there's a congressman out of Pennsylvania, his name is Glenn Thompson, and he has been after that for a long time. My understanding is there is something that got done in that regard. And I'm also seeing on X there's some really funny posts with, you know, back with the milk mustache I'll get back to you on that because I gotta find out what that is. It might be through some of the funding from USDA for school lunch programs.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Okay.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: But it's not my outfit, but I have a feeling that's where it might be.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: And we had a champion here for years at Bobby Star. Yeah. Pushed and pushed and pushed to get that. Old Oak is better. Yep. Mhmm.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: As old as I am, I drink cold milk. Well,

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: nice committee. Oh, great job. Thank Thank you.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: Yeah, thank

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: you very much.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Thank you for having me. Any other questions?

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: No, just

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: I'm in easy reach.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: It seems like your whole organization is, and I can almost see us being an advocate to make sure that if anybody's having any funding issues or wants or needs, they haven't reached out to you, why haven't they? The amounts of money are staggering, and it seems to be that it's available. I

[Sen. Joe Major (Vice Chair)]: hope

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: we're taking advantage of it.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: And we're hoping on the twenty three-twenty four flood that the agency will have its program with that block grant that will help fill in some of the gaps that we could not. And, you know, so there's that hope too. Again, you know, trying to get there to close as we can to 100%, you know?

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Do states partner with you? I mean, I know you say that you work with the agency of that close in the state of Vermont, but are they sending basically referrals to you? I guess I'm just on this thing that I see this massive amounts of dollars being there and I just want to make sure that Vermont farmers are aware. I'm not saying that there's an underperformance on anybody's part. I just want to make sure that farmers are aware.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Yeah, well usually from the agency or us with the agency, it's someone who is in trouble and we're very collaborative on that. They do outreach, we do outreach. And, you know, again, there's a lot of partners. And we're present in, like you mentioned the Champlain Valley Farmers School, I'm going to that meeting We'll after

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: see you there.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Yep, yep, and there's one in Franklin County also in February. Yeah, there's a again, this January to March is event season.

[Sen. Steven Heffernan (Clerk)]: Yeah, it's

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: fun to Yeah. Harvest that

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: And I guess the farm show is gonna come back next year in 2027 is what I saw. They weren't able to get it together for this year, but that would be nice to see the farms for the Vermont Farm Show come back at the January, usually it was at the fairgrounds. I'm happy to help any of your constituents that may have an agricultural question, need, concern. Our people in our offices are great. They have a passion for agriculture. Many of them have farming in their background or they're currently farming today. My district director is a maple producer who's got a great maple operation. So, you know, a lot of them are in it anyway. Well, we're

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: gonna keep you current. So yeah.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Okay. Alright. Thank question? Sure.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: What's the funding look like for off the farm housing, on the farm housing, and technical support through the USDA?

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: That would reside with Rural Development, which is a sister agency to mine. And they do have, it's in New Hampshire, Vermont jurisdiction.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: Correct.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: Yep. Patrick Sopranowicz is the executive director for the two states. What you referring to?

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: New person in that department? No. Haven't heard that name before. Yeah.

[Wendy Wilton (State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency–Vermont)]: He's the state director for the two states.

[Sen. Russ Ingalls (Chair)]: But I've been trying to