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CapitalPress.com
Friday, March 11, 2022
Harvest Capital Company: Serving farmers’ financial needs
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Harvest Capital Company
of Canby, Ore., founded in
1992 by Brian Field, began
as an idealist’s desire to serve
agriculture and the business
of real estate finance.
Since then, it has grown
into one of the largest com-
mercial agricultural real estate
lenders in the Northwest.
“Harvest Capital is a boots-
on-the-ground lender,” Field
said. “We are intimately and
integrally involved with each
one of our borrowers through
the experience of structur-
ing their operation with long-
term financing, from start to
finish.”
“It’s not just about money
to us; it’s an ingredient for the
stabilization of balance sheet
structure and success for our
family farms and ranches
scattered throughout the
Northwest,” Field said. “We
want to enhance and add to
that picture, and we do that
through very intense planning
that involves our custom-
er’s agricultural real estate
finances and, quite often,
their entire structure into the
future.”
“We get involved in all
aspects of assisting our cus-
tomers with whatever their
needs are, but at the base we
are commercial agricultural
real estate lenders,” Field
said. “That’s the one thing we
do, we do it with passion for
our producers and our indus-
try and we don’t miss very
often.”
Field and his team fre-
quently encounter farmers
who have “all their financial
eggs in one basket.”
“If you’ve got two farms
and they’re 40 miles apart,
throwing those farms into the
same mortgage is not benefi-
cial to the family operation,”
Field said. “Separating them
SEE YOU AT
THE SHOW
Harvest Capital is the
Title Sponsor of the
Central Oregon Ag Show.
Brian Field, left, and Royce Ann Simmons, right, of Har-
vest Capital Company visit with Andy Root, a hay and
cattle producer in Eastern Oregon.
gives farmers leverage on
their terms rather than on the
dictated terms of their lender.”
“Farmers, ranchers and
agribusiness people accept
special risks and face very
specialized challenges,” he
said. “In order to meet those
challenges, they will need the
most advanced credit services
and presentation techniques
available, and we provide the
tools, ability and experience
today to help them finance
tomorrow’s agriculture.”
“What happens if the
neighbor’s place comes up for
sale?” Field said. “You need
to be structured appropri-
ately to refinance and get that
place bought rather than have
a prepayment penalty in your
face as you’re trying to take
advantage of an opportunity.”
Establishing a level of
liquidity makes farmers and
ranchers nimble enough to
take advantage of such oppor-
tunities while successfully
navigating whatever Mother
Nature dishes out that year.
The Harvest Capital team
is familiar with the unique
challenges of the ag industry,
being primarily composed of
people who grew up on farms
or ranches, including many
past FFA officers.
The National FFA honored
Harvest Capital Company
with its Distinguished Service
Citation at the 94th National
FFA Convention and Expo in
Indianapolis in October 2021.
“FFA students are part of
the future of American agri-
culture, something the pub-
lic should be aware of and be
sure to support,” Field said.
“Trades are what make this
nation tick and agriculture
and the FFA are the cream of
the crop.”
FFA’s ag-based education,
emphasizing leadership and
personal growth skills, has
produced some great Harvest
Capital employees, he said.
In the coming year, Har-
vest Capital will be looking
for a few new team members
to join their ranks, and an agri-
cultural background will be a
key component in the search.
“We’re looking for people
to join us,” Field said. “It’s
not just a job; it is a choice to
serve the industry of agricul-
ture throughout your career.”
Harvest Capital’s lead-
ers are excited to be the Title
Sponsors of the first-ever
Central Oregon Agricultural
Show and look forward to
meeting new producers and
catching up with old friends
and colleagues.
Perfect Balance USA: Breakfast
helps farmers, ranchers seek balance
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
S278825-1
Perfect Balance USA will
be the beneficiary of the annual
Buckaroo Breakfast at 8 a.m.
Saturday, March 26, at the
Central Oregon Ag Show. The
breakfast will continue as long
as supplies last.
McDonald’s is donating the
food, and between breakfast
proceeds and charitable dona-
tions, the Perfect Balance USA
nonprofit hopes to gain suffi-
cient funds to continue with
their plans.
Started in 2016 by Jer-
emy and JoHanna Symons of
Madras, Perfect Balance is tak-
ing a multi-pronged approach
to a complicated, dire situa-
tion related to the discovery of
the endangered Oregon spot-
ted frog along the banks of the
Deschutes River, sole water
supplier of the area’s farmers
and ranchers.
A major effort is educating
the public. The Symonses host
tours of their operation to edu-
cate people about the impor-
tance of a common-sense
approach to achieving bal-
ance between agriculture and
government.
Guests are taken on wagon
rides around the ranch’s 1,100
acres and the cattle feeding
facility to give them an idea of
their day — feeding and caring
for the animals, growing and
harvesting crops, composting
manure for use as fertilizer.
“It’s a full-circle opera-
tion,” JoHanna Symons said.
“The reason we’ve kept giving
tours is because we’ve been
100% effective in reconnecting
people with where their food
comes from and what it takes
to produce it. People are posi-
tively educated after a visit.
“In addition to large groups
of students, we’ve had environ-
mentalists, animal rights activ-
ists, and once a group of 48 col-
lege professors,” Symons said.
“A professor from UC-Berke-
ley came to us in tears, saying,
‘I feel so bad because I’ve mis-
led thousands of students over
the years about the ag industry;
I had no idea that small family
farms were like this.’
“Keeping the balance
where everything thrives is the
key. The scale got tipped too
far one way and the balance
was catastrophically thrown
off,” Symons said. “Fish &
Wildlife Service got so focused
on the water needs of the frog
that farmers are now fac-
ing bankruptcy because their
water allocation has been dras-
tically reduced, for the use of
the frog.”