Arthur Barbeque

Every year the Pinnacle Bank in Ogallala has sponsored a free barbeque at the Arthur County Fair in Arthur Nebraska. A few Pinnacle staff members load up grills, hambergers, buns, pickles, chips, cookies, lemonade and ice tea to feed around 350-400 people before the 4-H sale. Since I have been interning with the bank all summer long I got to go along and help with the barbeque. (post of my internship experience coming soon)
A big part of my summer internship wasn't just about banking, but about relationships with the community and customers as well. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone in the community. 

This year Pinnacle Bank fed around 360 hambergers and had many compliments as people moved through the line. Here is a few pics of the event.

The young 4-H kids helped hand out the food.

All the 4-H kids are excited for the sale to get started!

Long line of hungry people.

Summer as an Intern

This entire summer I have been interning at Pinnacle Bank in Ogallala, Nebraska. My internship is set up through the University of Nebraska Agricultural Economics Department and the Nebraska Bankers Association. A student must be an Agribusiness-Banking and Finance major and be accepted into the Nebraska Bankers scholarship program to be eligible. The student receives a scholarship every year and has the opportunity to be placed in a bank between their junior and senior year in school to fulfill their degree program. The Nebraska Bankers work hard to connect the student to a host bank, but once the connection is made it is completely up to the student to set up interviews and discuss summer employment.

I was fortunate to have worked with Pinnacle Bank in Columbus so I had a connection within the company and got a very good reference from the president at that branch when I inquired to do my internship through Pinnacle Bank in Ogallala. After a short interview and discussion the Ogallala branch president decided he would take me on as a intern for the summer.

I started my internship around June 1st and was immediately thrown right into the daily operations. Beings that I had previous experience at a bank, my initial training was minimal. Here's a list of some of the things I got to take part in as part of my internship.
- Teller and cash operations
- Created loan documents
- Analyzing Financials (Web Equity Manager)
- In House Real Estate Appraisals.
- Farm Inspections
- Commercial Real Estate Analysis
- Home Loan Preparation (disclosures)
- Entity Documentation.
- Loan Officer's Meeting
- Regional Board Meeting
- Daily Reports
- Community Involvement (Rotary, Chamber Events, County Fairs)
- New Accounts

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful opportunity and experience all the different areas in the bank. Everyone that I have worked with has been absolutely great to work with and very kind and helpful in explaining their duties in the bank. Everyone one that I have met, including customers and fellow community members have been extremely nice and welcoming. I hope that everyone a the bank has enjoyed the experience just as much as I did.
After this summer I have no doubt that I want to be anything but an agricultural loan officer, and hope to have the opportunity available after graduation. But all in all I will still need a job, so I would enjoy anything that was agricultural related.

Once again a big THANK YOU to all the staff at Pinnacle Bank, Ogallala and to the Nebraska Bankers and Agricultural Economics Department for making this an enjoyable summer internship. 

Farming and the Weather

With all the adverse weather in my area lately I decided to write a quick post about the risks in farming, mainly the risks associated with Mother Nature.  Every year farmers take a gamble with mother nature, they all hope for plenty of rain at all the right times and to avoid the severe weather; but Mother Nature doesn't always work that way.  Farmers are dependent on the weather everyday, one can get an abundant amount of moisture all year long, but that one final severe storm that brings baseball size hail just a week before harvest can be devastating. Some farmers are fortunate to have irrigation and can help control moisture to their crop, but it never seems to be the same as rain water. Plus with more restrictions in irrigation areas and higher energy cost irrigation can become quite an expense and a lot of work.

The following are just a few photos of how bountiful mother nature can be to crops, and how devastating it can be as well.

A gorgeous gravity irrigated corn field.

And the ugly, a corn field that was hit with golf ball size hail in mid-July.

 

Another angle of the field. The ears on the cornstalks were only partially developed once the corn hit and the ears will have damage. The corn will still be able to harvested, but the kernels will be damaged and not of very good quality.

I hope this post helps to relate the constant worry, stress, and gamble that a farmer may experience everyday while they tend to their growing crop.