Northern Pastures
A Taste of Minnesota 
   New fields and forest for Duluth family farmers

Left: Matt Weik with one of their Large Black sows, Minnie

Right: The Weiks' new pasture in Carlton, MN (photos from Yker Acres website)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Iro qu ois Valley recently made its first investment in Minnesota, providing first mortgage financing to Matt and Sara Weik, owner and operators of  Yker Acres .  The W eiks operate a 200+ head pastured heritage hog farm selling directly into the Duluth a nd Twin Cities farm-to-table restaurant and premium pork products markets.  Matt and Sara's new farm includes a house, two barns and other outbuildings on 160  acres  - a meaningful step up from their prior farm of 16  acres . Our  senior loan complements additional FSA/USDA program funds. This new farm will allow Yker Acres to significantly improve and diversify their operations including better conditions for their animals. 
 
Matt is a 3rd-generation pig farmer, originally from Iowa, and has already been winning state-wide awards and recognition for the high quality of his heritage-breed pork. A local business using their products is farm-to-table restaurant, Red Table Meats.

Minnesota Connections

Teresa Opheim in Iowa showcasing a pending family farm transfer
W e are looking forward to working together with the many organizations and institutions already supporting sustainable agriculture in Minnesota. Helping to grow these relationships is newly appointed Board Manager, Teresa Opheim. Teresa recently relocated to the Twin Cities from Ames, Iowa, whe re she was the Executive Direct or of
Practical Farmers of Iowa ("PFI") for ten years. Teresa continues as Director, Farm Transfers for PFI and has recently compiled and edited  The Future of Family Farms: Practical Farmers' Legacy Letter Project. In this book she tells the personal stories of farm families that wish to pass to the next generation their legacies and their land. 

The Weik family was referred to us by Teresa through her association with Jan Joannides, Executive Director of  Renewing the Countryside  ("RTC"), and her work with Slow Money Minnesota . RTC is a St. Paul-based nonprofit working to improve rural America by fostering business, initiatives, and projects that support positive environmental, economic, and social benefits. 

Working the vegetable side of things is Fillmore County-based
Featherstone Farm, which impacts the Twin Cities market. Iroquois Valley is working with Featherstone Farm to procure land security on its existing fields so that they can develop a long term soil fertility program for their vegetable production business. Jack Hedin, who heads up Featherstone Farms, was appointed as one of the current Endowed Chairs in Agriculture Systems at the University of Minnesota.

Our PPM Offering will be closing soon -- after "harvesting" a few more farms

Closing soon and funding now - Our first Vermont farm financing


Our PPM Offering will be closing early this year to restructure and build the foundation for the next decade. After 10 years of confinement to accredited investors,  we will be opening our doors in 2017 to a broader public, including non-accredited investors. We consider this one of our most important social  impacts, that is, enabling the next generation of equity investors to support land access and soil restoration for the next generation of young farmers. We will touch on how the Company will better enable millennials to support young farmers in our Webinar (see details below).

Recapitalizing the monoculture (changing to healthier land uses) is going to require a few barns of cash. In the next few months we will be outlining our plans for the next 10 years to scale our business and meet this growing need. Contact us soon if you wish to invest yet this year. We are still funding farms in Vermont, Iowa and New York and could immediately use the capital.

To review our Private Placement Memorandum, click  here . To view the Update Report to the PPM, click  here .  Our Fact Sheet is available to view or download  here .

Upcoming Events
Visiting Minneapolis at the end of this month will be Vermont-based Board Manager Sally Dodge and Director of Investor Relations, Dale Guldbrandsen, to attend the annual Land Trust Alliance rally. Together with local Board Manager Teresa Opheim, they will manage our sponsor table while outreaching to land trusts about organic farming and clean waters/soils on working lands.  We believe that next generation agricultural practices are critical to future conservation success. At this conference we will be promoting our Young Farmer Land Access Notes and "soon to come" Soil Restoration Notes as great investments for land trusts to support healthy working lands.

SRI Conference in the Rockies -- Denver, November 9-11
This conference in Denver, Colorado is perhaps our most important for connecting with socially responsible financial advisors. We rely upon this community for sourcing about half of our capital annually. Many of these advisors are fee only and charge their clients for their services on an annualized basis. They grow with their clients which is parallel with how our farm lease revenues are structured. Dave Miller, Co-Founder and CEO, will attend the conference.
A review of Company impact milestones achieved in 2016 and an outlook for 2017 on future developments. The webinar will be held on November 2nd at 1:30 PM CT - RSVP  here . Participation details will be provided to registrants prior to the presentation. 

Connecting farm families, communities, and investors since 2007. 
 
As a corporate guideline,  we do not look for specific farmland to purchase or finance. We develop relationships with farmers, mostly young and organic, that want to grow their farm business. We move forward if we have a ready, willing and able farmer in hand. 

For more information please visit  our website .
 Connect with corporate staff a t info@iroquoisvalleyfarms.com
 
Iroquois Valley Farms, LLC | (847) 859-6645 | info@iroquoisvalleyfarms.com |  iroquoisvalleyfarms.com
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