AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce the addition of Austin Tyson as a Commercial Loan Officer in the Tifton Branch.  A native of Tift County, Mr. Tyson graduated from Valdosta State University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.  He has over nine years of ag lending experience with Farm Service Agency, where he most recently served as a Farm Loan Manager in the Sylvester office.

“We are excited to bring Austin on board,” said Tamara Shrable, Regional Lending Manager for AgGeorgia. “Not only does he possess a great working knowledge of ag finance, but he has also established a great degree of trust with many farmers in the area through his time with FSA.”

Austin grew up on a farm, has deep familial roots in agriculture, and currently has his own small row crop operation.  He resides in Tift County with his wife, Savannah, and children Davis Tyson and John Michael Daniels. In his new role, Austin will be utilizing his agricultural background, networks, and finance experience to meet the borrowing needs of the farmers and rural land owners of Tift and surrounding counties.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce the hiring of Savanha Teate as Member Service Representative in the Clarkesville Office.  A native of Franklin County, Ms. Teate was raised on a small family farm where she developed an early love for agriculture. Savanha showed pigs for three years and was very involved in FFA, serving as an officer in both middle school and high school.  She earned her American FFA Degree – the highest degree bestowed to FFA members, with only 1% of members earning this designation – in November 2023.  After graduating from high school Ms. Teate continued to pursue her interest in agriculture, studying Agribusiness at North Georgia Technical College and Emmanuel University.  

Ms. Teate looks forward to applying her customer service experience and agricultural background to service the needs of residents of Habersham and surrounding counties.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce that Melissa Redd has been named Director of Loan Operations.  Ms. Redd joined the Waynesboro Office as a loan officer in 2009 and expanded her career, holding positions in the Special Assets Department, as Branch Manager for the Waynesboro and Sandersville Offices and, most recently, as Regional Manager for the Dublin, Perry, Sandersville, and Waynesboro Offices.  In her new position, she will be responsible for the management and oversight of the Loan Operations Department.  This position provides leadership for all loan operations servicing and processing procedures, policies, processes and employees.

Melissa resides in Burke County and is co-owner of Mellow Bay Farms, a commercial beef cow/calf operation and Coons Crossing Apiaries for bee pollination, both of which are co-owned with partner Michael Tankersley.  She has a daughter, Marshall Baylor of Aiken, South Carolina, and a son, Owen Eugene of Waynesboro, Georgia.

Tax form(s) mailed January 30 and will be available in Digital Banking for primary account holders February 9.

Register for Digital Banking to access your tax forms online when available. After signing up, simply navigate to Documents and Forms > Tax Documents to view your form(s).  

Sign Up for Digital Banking

In addition, 2023 Loan Activity Statements were made available January 5 and can be accessed by navigating to Documents and Forms > Annual Activity. 

If you have questions about your 1098, 1099, or Loan Activity Statement, please reach out to your local branch office or send a secure message through our Digital Banking portal.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce the hiring of Brianna Chastain as Senior Human Resources Generalist.  Mrs. Chastain graduated from Emmanuel University with a B.A. in Music and later earned a Certificate of Human Resources Management from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.  She has over 7 years of experience in Human Resources in both local government and the mortgage industry.  Brianna lives in Gainesville, where she was born and raised, with her wonderful husband Drake and their two children, Amberleigh and Conan.  She enjoys gardening, canning and preserving, and camping with her family.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce the promotion of Madison Bailey to the position of Senior Associate Accountant with the Centralized Accounting Department in the Royston Office.  In this new role, Mrs. Bailey is primarily responsible for coordinating loan disbursements, performing data input and processing loan transactions for performing loans.

Madison started her journey at AgGeorgia in February of 2022 as Member Service Representative. She is a native of Hart County and comes from a family of farmers.  Growing up, her parents had eight broiler houses and her grandfather had cattle.  She and her husband, Nick, took over her grandfather’s cattle operation in 2020.

Mrs. Bailey looks forward to continuing serving farmers and rural residents of North Georgia in her new role.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit recently awarded $55,000 to twelve local non-profit organizations as part of the cooperative’s Community Mission Fund. The grant program was established in 2023 with the goal of supporting endeavors that further the future of agriculture and enhance life in rural Georgia. Forty-eight grant applications were received, and awards of up to $5,000 per application were distributed in the fourth quarter.

“The Community Mission Fund provides a springboard for these great organizations to impact their communities in not only the upcoming year, but for years to come,” said AgGeorgia CEO Rob Crain. “We look forward to seeing the fruits of these investments and funding a new group of deserving non-profit organizations in 2024.”

The twelve organizations that received funding were:

• Adairsville High School FFA (Bartow County) – This organization will use their grant funds to purchase equipment, including a livestock trailer, to allow students to raise and show livestock. 
• Colquitt Christian Academy (Colquitt County) – Grant funds will be used to obtain a storage shed and needed supplies for Ag Education classes and hands-on learning labs.
• Crisp County Young Farmers (Crisp County) – This grant will be used to purchase a portable cattle chute which will aid smaller cattle farmers in Crisp County by enhancing farming efficiency, improving animal welfare, and supporting sustainable agriculture.
• Emmanuel University (Franklin County) – Emmanuel University’s Agriculture Department will use these grant funds to provide a raised bed demonstration area and training courses for agriculture students, homeowners and commercial growers.
• Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe High School FFA (Catoosa County) – This FFA chapter plans to start a school-based enterprise by building a coop and raising chickens for the community. Grant funds will be used to purchase supplies to build and stock the coop, as well as processing supplies.
• North Georgia Equine-n-Motion (Forsyth County) – This organization works with special needs/exceptional children from ages 4-18 that face the challenges of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and other emotional health disorders. Grant funds will continue to support their existing program and assist in developing a small farmer's market for clients to participate in the marketing and retail aspect of selling the fruits of their labor.
• Southeast FFA Chapter (Whitfield County) – Grant funds will be used to build a multipurpose livestock facility to expand their organization’s animal science program, Raising the Roof with Animal Science.
• STUDIO FARMER, Inc. (Richmond County) – This organization is a Veteran co-owned, limited resource farmer operated agribusiness organized for educational, scientific, literary and research purposes. Grants funds will be used to assist their educational program for YBSMV farmers.
• TJ Elder Middle School (Washington County) – Grant funds will be used to purchase equipment for a joint project between the school’s agriculture and special needs departments. The purpose of this project is to educate students about raising poultry with the added bonus of being able to offer fresh, local eggs to the community. 
• The Westfield School (Houston County) – The school will use the grant to cover the cost for garden towers, gardening tools, seeds and educational resources for their Garden Tower project.
• Turner Middle School (Turner County) – Grant funds will be used to purchase incubators, heat lamps, a protected chicken coup, and supplies for more raised garden beds, potting soil, seeds, and plugs for their agriculture education classes. 
• Vienna Fire Department (Dooly County) – This grant will be used towards the purchase of an Off-Road Firetruck that will allow their volunteer firefighters to navigate through crop land, timber tracts, and limited access locations to quickly extinguish fires.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit will begin advertising the program for 2024 grants in April of next year. For more information and to apply when the application period re-opens, please visit the AgGeorgia Farm Credit Community Mission Fund page at community-mission-fund.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit recently conducted its annual Director and Nominating Committee elections with the assistance of elections facilitator Survey & Ballot Systems.  Three candidates were elected to the Board of Directors and fourteen candidates were elected to the Nominating Committee.

After being provided a slate of candidates by a Nominating Committee of stockholders, AgGeorgia gave the opportunity for floor nominations at its October 11th Annual Meeting held in Perry.  There were no nominations from the floor for the three Director positions with terms expiring December 31, 2023, or for the 2024 Nominating Committee.  The candidates identified by the Nominating Committee were then voted upon via mailed and online ballot, with the following elected:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Directors to serve a 4-year term:

C. Chase Springfield – Position #1, Director Region #1
R. Brian Grogan – Position #2, Director Region #1
Henry C. “Clint” Wortman, Jr. – Position #2, Director Region #6

2024 NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Each to serve a 1-year term:

Rebecca A. Agnew - LaFayette, GA (Walker Co.)
Derrell C. Bennett, Jr. - Adel, GA (Cook Co.)
Jacob L. Callihan - Cherry Log, GA (Gilmer Co.)
Wayne R. Ertzberger - Carnesville, GA (Franklin Co.)
Jimmy D. Franks - Waynesboro, GA (Burke Co.)
Melvin B. Hudson - Vienna, GA (Dooly Co.)
C. Darrell Jones - Ellijay, GA (Gilmer Co.)
Michael Scott Moore - Unadilla, GA (Dooly Co.)
David B. Norman - Moultrie, GA (Colquitt Co.)
Jason T. Ridley - Chatsworth, GA (Murray Co.)
Wendell P. Sumner - Omega, GA (Colquitt Co.)
Hugh H. Veal, Jr. - Wrightsville, GA (Johnson Co.)
William Scott Everidge (Alternate) - Pinehurst, GA (Dooly Co.)
Matthew F. Perfect (Alternate) - Elko, GA (Houston Co.)

Congratulations to all of the elected directors and Nominating Committee members who now have the opportunity to represent the over 5,000 member/borrowers of the association.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce the hiring of Matthew Whitfield as Credit Analyst in the Clarkesville Office. A native of Franklin County, Mr. Whitfield graduated from the University of Georgia and majored in Environmental Economics and Management.  His family has been raising beef cattle for generations and he owns and operates a small beekeeping business.  Before coming to AgGeorgia, Matthew worked for Clemson University’s Agricultural Service Lab to assist farmers and producers maximize their yield through soil analysis.

He lives in Toccoa with his wife, Raleigh, and their yellow lab named Reggie.  His brother, Ryan, works in the Royston office of AgGeorgia Farm Credit.    

“I love talking with farmers and I am passionate about supporting and serving them as they feed and clothe the planet,” states Matthew.  Mr. Whitfield looks forward to applying his agricultural knowledge and experience in serving the agricultural needs of the producers and rural residents in Habersham and surrounding counties.

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is pleased to announce the hiring of Beth Poff as Appraiser in the Cartersville Office.  A native of Virginia, Mrs. Poff graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.  She has fifteen years of residential, commercial, and land appraising experience in Northwest Georgia and has been appraising properties through appraisal partners for AgGeorgia for 4 years.

Beth enjoys traveling, cooking, yoga, hiking, kayaking, boating, and going to the lake.  She lives in Dallas with her husband, Doug, and they have two sons, Alex and Carson.  Mrs. Poff looks forward to applying her appraisal experience in serving the agricultural needs of the producers and rural residents in Bartow and surrounding counties.