Chippewa County staff members were honored with the Friend of 4-H Award. Pictured (from l to r): Sue Bye, Diane Berven, Liz Ludwig, Laurie Golden, and Lori Olson. 

Five staff members of the Chippewa County Farm Service Agency in Minnesota were honored at the annual 4-H awards for their support and dedication to the agricultural organization. The group received the Friend of 4-H award for collaborating on several events that have educated and encouraged young people to get into the field of agriculture.

Chippewa County FSA employees have served as livestock herdsmanship judges at the county fair and in the past two years, they have also dedicated time to the “Little Farm Hands” exhibit at the fair.  The exhibit allows children of all ages to discover the origins of their food. Participants have the opportunity to collect eggs, feed cattle, hogs, sheep and dairy cows as well as milk a cow, pick apples, sugar beets and potatoes. They are then shown how to sell their goods at the market.

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Recipients of the 2011 Darrel Zerger Award for California Farm Loan Team Excellence are (back row, l to r) Sandy Davidson, farm loan officer; Alice Lycan, farm loan program technician; Katherine Lewis, farm loan manager; Ed DeBauche; farm loan officer; (front row, l to r) Jill Monson, farm loan program technician; Emily McCray, farm loan officer trainee.

The California Farm Service Agency has recognized the accomplishments of several farm loan employees by awarding them the Zerger Farm Loan Team Award.

The team, which consists of six employees from two county offices that cover California’s Northern mountain region, was honored for exemplary customer service, which is a challenge in the nine-county territory.

Covering the counties of Siskiyou, Shasta, Lassen, Trinity, Modoc, Plumas, Sierra, Tehama and Butte, requires team members to take day-long drives on mountain roads, sharing the narrow cliffside stretches of highway with semi trucks pulling doubles filled  with cut timber, hay super bales and cattle.

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By Chris Tatum, chief program technician, Bladen County FSA

Thomas Carlton “Chubby” Starling, Bladen County executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in North Carolina retired last month after 35 years of service.

Starling began his career in Cumberland County when he was hired as a compliance/field technician in 1976.  After being accepted and completing the County Office Trainee Program for managers he was hired by the ASCS County Committee in Moore County in 1983.  He held the position of county executive director in Moore County until 1985.  In that same year he was hired by the ASCS County Committee in Hoke County where he held the position of executive director until 1997.

That was the year “Chubby” was hired by the FSA County Committee in Bladen County where he served as county executive director until his retirement on Dec. 2, 2011.

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Climbing the ladder of success never meant walking over people or looking out for self. At least not for Carolyn Cooksie.

“You have to have a work ethic, show up every day and you have to treat people the way you want to be treated,” said Cooksie, associate administrator for operations and management at FSA.

Those words have been a part of Cooksie’s life since childhood. Growing up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, Cooksie said it was her parents that gave her the morals and work ethic necessary to operate in her personal life. But it was her first job with USDA that gave her those skills in business.

“I thank God I started in a county office,” said Cooksie, who began her career as a GS-1 while a junior in high school working in a co-op program. “I learned that it’s not about having a hidden agenda, it’s about doing your job and doing what’s best for the employees and customers.”

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State Executive Director Val Dolcini joined FSA program and loan staff from the Fresno County Office and donned the colorful, ornate ethnic garb for the Hmong New Year Celebration. (From l to r): Tou Thao, Nangpay Vang, Val Dolcini, Annie Lee and Phoua Yang.

California State Executive Director Val Dolcini joined USDA staff in Fresno, Calif to help ring in the Hmong New Year on Dec. 27.

The Hmong New Year celebration is a cultural tradition that takes place annually in select areas where large Hmong communities exist, such as California’s Central Valley.  During the New Year’s celebration, Hmong dress in traditional clothing and enjoy traditional Hmong foods, dance, music and other forms of entertainment. Historically, the Hmong New Year celebration was created to give thanks to ancestors and spirits as well as welcome in a new year.

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Hidalgo County FSA staff (front row):  Gracie Pena, Maricruz Cantu, Socorro Rodriguez, Cris Longoria, (back row): Terry Wolfe, Arnulfo Lerma, Mari Hernandez, Franco Trevino, Debbie Burns, Mary Cantu, Marty Garcia, Bee Perez.

The Hidalgo County Farm Service Agency (FSA) office in Edinburg, Texas, opened its doors around 1939. The office houses a farm program and farm loan team as well as Benny Cano, district director and is co-located with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Rural Development (RD). Franco Trevino, county executive director and Arnulfo Lerma, farm loan manager oversee a staff of 10 employees.

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Thomas Roque, Jr., works an 800-acre farm that has been in his family for 95 years. Thomas Roque’s family (l to r) Tiffany Roque, sister; Kathie Roque, mother; Thomas Roque, Sr., father; Sydney Roque, daughter; Anna Darensbourg Roque, wife; Thomas Roque, Jr.; Theresa Roque, aunt. 

When Mike Sullivan met a 30-year-old beginning farmer, he never thought it would launch a relationship that would influence an entire African-American farming community in the Cane River region of Louisiana.

“Sometimes good things can come out of a not-so-good situation,” said Sullivan, farm loan manager in the Natchitoches Farm Service Agency.

That’s what happened the day Thomas Roque, Jr., walked into the Natchitoches FSA County Office. Roque was hoping to get a loan to purchase calves to raise and sell for profit on his family’s 800-acre farm, purchased by his great-great grandparents Emmitte and Cecile in 1916.

But things didn’t work out as easily as he hoped.

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After 34 years of service as a program technician, Laura Ailts will retire on Dec. 2 from the Nobles County FSA office in Minnesota. “A lot of things have changed over the years, but things that don’t change are the farmers,” said Ailts, who has worked with three generations of family farmers. Although she has a few part-time jobs lined up after retirement, she plans to spend most of her time working on her golf swing. Read more (Daily Globe).