Today’s Harvest Blog

Today’s Harvest is a valued, timely resource for stories, news, tips and information relevant to Northeast agriculture and our customers.
Farm tractor in a field during the fall harvest

Latest From Today's Harvest Blog

Crop Insurance

Building Resilient Dairy Businesses: Key Takeaways from Crop Growers Dairy Producer Meeting

Megan Clancy

Last week, Crop Growers and Farm Credit East welcomed dairy and livestock producers to Syracuse, New York, for an evening focused on market outlooks, industry trends and strategies to help build resilient farm businesses in today’s evolving environment.

May 14, 2026

cow and calf stand in the pasture

Latest Tax Talk

Two farmers in a crop field looking at a tablet
Tax Talks
Research & Development Tax Credits for Farms: A Case Study

Northeast farms innovate every day—and some of that experimentation may qualify for the federal Research & Development tax credit. Using a recent U.S. Tax Court case, we shed some light on how the credit works, what expenses may count, and why strong, documentation can make or break a claim.

April 22, 2026

Today's Harvest Blog

Tag: patronage 
Map of the New York, New Jersey and New England states with check box above the map that read Your Voice in Ownership
Business Tips and Tools
The Value of the Cooperative Model

2025 marks the International Year of Cooperatives. Additionally, each October is observed as the national Co-Op month to recognize the value of people-centered businesses. Farm Credit East is proud to be a cooperative, collectively owned and operated by its customers. This cooperative ownership means customers have a voice in their cooperative through a customer-elected board of directors who are also customer owners. 

October 16, 2025

Cooperative model graphic
Profitability
Returning Customer Value through Patronage Dividends

For the past 28 years, Farm Credit East has returned a share of its earnings to customers in the form of patronage dividends – a benefit of cooperative ownership. In fact, since the patronage program was first adopted, customer-owners of Farm Credit East (and predecessor cooperatives) have received more than $1.4 billion in dividends from ownership of their cooperative. But what exactly is a patronage dividend? 

February 27, 2024

Meet the Authors

Connect with and discover our Today’s Harvest blog authors and their broad range of financial and northeast agricultural expertise.