Agriculture Blog Brief

we harvest, we don’t get paid until 30-45 days afterward,” she said. “So you receive your last income in December, and then you have to make it through to May until you start getting income again - but there’s still rent, utilities, payroll taxes, and other expenses all of those months.” The Helsens turned to GreenStone to secure enough funds to make it through this time of growth. “GreenStone was instrumental for getting us going,” she said. “Now we can self-fund through the winter.” They chose GreenStone because of their experience with agricultural lending. “Though our personal credit was good, we were struggling to find a lender, and GreenStone was the only one that understood farming,” she said. “It’s hard to get collateral on trees with a regular bank. GreenStone immediately understood that, yes, there’s value in trees and equipment. Honestly, nobody really ‘gets’ farming like GreenStone does.”

Pandemic

During April 2020, the Helsens were greatly affected by the COVID-related shutdown of greenhouses and nurseries in Michigan, but they were still able to sell to their customers in Indiana. When Michigan opened in May, they were greatly relieved. During the pandemic, the Helsens again turned to GreenStone for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, which was designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on payroll. Karen worked with Mitchell Schafer, her vice president of lending out of the Grand Rapids branch. “Mitch helped us immensely with the whole PPP situation, and he also advised us on other monies that were available during the pandemic,” she said. “I was worrying about what I was going to do. He was super helpful, and he made it really simple. He was very responsive to questions along the way. It really helped us through that time.” Mitch is originally from the small farming community of Fowler, Michigan, and he started working at GreenStone seven years ago to help people just like the Helsens. The rollout of the PPP loan was an incredibly busy time for him and all lenders, not only because they had clients who really needed them, but also because they had to learn and implement a totally new system. “It was a buckle up and hold on, all hands on deck kind of situation,” Mitch said. “Hopefully, it was a once in a lifetime experience for all of us. We did everything we possibly could to get that money to our eligible customers.” Mitch wants customers to feel valued, no matter the size or scope of their operation. “I don’t ever want someone to feel they aren’t getting the best customer service, because farm size or style to us doesn’t matter – there’s an open door policy and we want anyone to call with questions. Many times we’re a sounding board for thoughts and ideas they have about their operation,” he said. “We’re here to serve all our customers, and the many of these are considered smaller, beginning farmers. Especially over the last year, I think you can see the true roots of a business you’re working for, and I like to think we proved ourselves through the whole process.”

Future farm

As the Helsens moved from a beginning farm, to a small farm, to having adult children, they’re also looking to the future. “A cedar tree is a five-to-seven-year crop,” Karen said. “When you’re planting 6500 trees a year on a seven-year crop, thinking about the future is no light undertaking. With our family, our crew, and our financial support system, we have many good options.” ■

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AGRICULTURE – OPEN FIELDS BLOG BRIEF

GreenStone publishes regular updates on our Open Fields blog. Check out some of the posts you may have missed at www.greenstonefcs.com/openfieldsblog.

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