The Farmer Mac board of directors swore in their latest member on September 30. Montana State University economist Myles Watts is the newest addition to the board.
President Obama and the U.S. Senate nominated Watts and Sara L. Faivre-Davis (of Cameron Texas) to the board of directors. Both took the oath of office in Washington D.C. with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack performing the ceremony. The two attended their first meeting on Oct. 5.
The nomination was announced in February when the Obama Administration chose to replace Grace Trujillo Daniel with Watts. On September 16 the Senate confirmed the appointment.
“They basically tried to find somebody with a strong background and knowledge in both finance and agriculture, and my name came up,” Watts said.
The board meets six times a year to address issues relevant to agriculture lending practices and policies.
“As close as I can tell, this organization is in much stronger shape than the Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac,” Watts said of Farmer Mac. “Agriculture has done relatively well in the last several years. We don’t have a lot of bad credit at the farm and ranch level. Farmer Mac is also involved with Agricultural business loans which may be affected by the recent general economic downturn.”
Watts served 17 years at MSU as the head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and worked alongside a variety of government and private agricultural organizations. His family owns a wheat farm in Montana.
For further information regarding this topic, or for information regarding loan products available, please contact Farm Plus Financial at 866-929-5585.