Meet the Experts Behind The Feed
About the Authors
Jackson Takach
Jackson Takach, the Chief Economist and Vice President of Strategy, Research, and Analytics at Farmer Mac, is a Kentucky native whose strong ties to agriculture began while growing up in the rural town of Scottsville. He joined the Farmer Mac team in 2005 and has worked in the strategy, research, credit, and underwriting departments. Today, his focus at Farmer Mac includes industry analysis and thought leadership, quantitative business data analytics and modeling, and strategic lending partnership development and activation. Jackson is a lead author and creator of The Feed, Farmer Mac’s publication on ag and the rural economy, and he regularly presents to lenders, producers, and industry experts throughout the year. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Centre College, a Master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Master’s degree in finance from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He has also been a CFA charterholder since 2012 and has served as a director on multiple corporate and volunteer boards.
Blaine Nelson
Blaine Nelson is the Senior Economist on the Strategy, Research, and Analytics team at Farmer Mac. In his role, he analyzes trends within America’s agricultural sector, with areas of focus including farmland values, commodity prices, interest rates, and agricultural sector profitability. He disseminates this information to borrowers and lenders to help keep them well-informed about the environment they operate in and to help guide their decisions. Blaine was raised on a commercial row crop and dairy farm in Northern Minnesota and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Zachary Carpenter
As Executive Vice President – Chief Business Officer, Zack leads the vision, development, and go-to-market strategy of the Farmer Mac brand. He also oversees the company’s Agribusiness activities, including the business development and marketing efforts for its foundational lines of business that provide agricultural lenders across the country with financial solutions and effective risk mitigation tools that allow farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses access to flexible and affordable credit. In this role, he oversees the company’s expansive loan portfolio, partner and business development strategies, product innovation and standardization, and marketing and corporate communications.
Brian Brinch
Brian is Farmer Mac’s Senior Vice President – Enterprise Risk Officer and is responsible for the maintenance and continuous evolution of an enterprise-wide risk management framework that supports the strategic goals of the organization. He works closely with senior leaders across the organization and with the Board Risk Committee to build upon Farmer Mac’s existing strong and conservative culture of risk management, and helps set the vision and strategy for enterprise-wide risk management. Brian joined Farmer Mac in 2000, and most recently served as Senior Vice President of Rural Infrastructure, where he was responsible for the division’s business development and customer success strategy. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, where he led the development of the company’s strategic planning initiative and guided its financial projections and data analytics.
Brian’s interest in Farmer Mac began while he was attending Pennsylvania State University for his Master’s in Agricultural and Applied Economics. He won the Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for his thesis titled “An Analysis of Farmer Mac Prepayment Penalty Designs.” Brian is a CFA Charterholder, is FRM Certified, and has completed Carnegie Mellon University’s Chief Risk Officer certificate program.
About The Feed
The Feed is Farmer Mac’s economic outlook for current events and market conditions within agriculture.
Articles cover multiple regions and commodities and incorporate data and analysis from numerous sources to present a mosaic of the leading industry information, with a focus on the latest information from the United States Department of Agriculture and their Economic Research Service.
The authors rotate through topics such as weather and major industry segments as well as other industries and topics as they become relevant in the seasonal agricultural cycle. Readers can gain insight from our unique synthesis of these multiple sources via articles published to the online home for The Feed.