Midwest banker wraps up time as ABA ag chair, plans further advocacy

Caleb Hopkins does not see his past 12 months as chair of the American Bankers Association Ag and Rural Bankers Committee as the culmination of his belief in the importance of community bank ag lending..Hopkins, 36, sees his tenure as chair as a steppingstone for further advocacy at the highest level of government. An ag production officer for Yankton, S.D.-based Landera Ag, a subsidiary of First Dakota National Bank, he was recently succeeded as chair by Kansas banker David White.His time as chair featured the inclusion of the Accessing Credit for Rural Economies Act (ACRE) in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by President Donald Trump on the Fourth of July. ACRE includes a 25 percent exclusion from gross income for commercial banks on interest from newly originated loans secured by rural or agriculture real property.Hopkins, who is based in the west central Iowa community of Halbur, took multiple trips to Washington, D.C., in the months leading up to ACRE’s passage to speak to legislators about the proposal. He credited First Dakota National Bank for allowing him to spend up to 20 hours a week advocating for the legislation.“ACRE will help new farmers and ranchers by lowering their cost to acquire land, which is the most capital-intense portion of any farming operation and a critical asset to achieve long-term, reliable access to credit,” Hopkins testified last March before the Senate Agriculture Committee on behalf of the American Bankers Association. “Lastly, ACRE will reduce the need for farmers and ranchers to find off-farm income by reducing interest payments, which increases the cashflow from their operation and reduces the need for off-farm income.”Testifying in support of increasing the limit for FSA-guaranteed farm ownership loans to $3.5 million and to $3 million for FSA-guaranteed farm operating loans, Hopkins also advocated for speeding up the U.S. Department of Agriculture loan approval process.He also testified on how to make the industry more attractive to young and beginning producers, and advocated for the industry as Congress considered economic assistance and disaster relief packages.ABA Senior Vice President Ed Elfmann appreciated Hopkins for his willingness to tackle all issues impacting rural bankers. “Nothing was too small for him to be involved with or too big for him to be involved with,” Elfmann said.He recognized Hopkins for ensuring rural bankers were represented at the federal level, sometimes by making a banker subject expert available for an interview. As a first-generation farmer, Hopkins neither shied away from honestly asserting the views on the state of ag banking to policymakers or the adverse conditions impacting rural bankers across the country, Elfmann added.“It is an underrated skill in D.C.,” Elfmann said.A background in advocacyHopkins has been an ag banker for more than a dozen years, the past two of which as a loan production officer for Landera (formerly Dakota Mac).Hopkins, who has always been interested in agriculture, helps his family operate a small purebred calf operation. “I love that the work and dedication I put in, you reap your reward. And I love being able to see that,” he said. “Whether you are going out or putting in. I’ve never been a grain farmer, but you sow the crop, you control it. It is your business.”Hopkins prioritizes personal interactions with customers, as most of his days are spent on farms with producers. Landera primarily oversees ag real estate lending. “That’s what I love about my job,” Hopkins said of interacting with customers. “My favorite question to a young producer is, ‘What are your goals? Where do you want to be in five, 10, 15 years?’ And then helping them work through their goals. If that is, ‘I want to buy a farm’ and they don’t today, how can I help you put together a plan to achieve that dream? To me, it is putting in the work and the time to help those people see those goals.”Growing up, Hopkins had neighbors who were farmers and ag lenders. He realized he wanted to be an ag lender while in college at Iowa State University. As he prepared to graduate in 2011, Hopkins spoke to an acquaintance who was set to become a president/CEO of a family-owned bank. The early 2010s were a good time to be in ag banking amid high profitability.One of the bank’s better borrowers at the time was trying to buy a farm, but the size of the bank Hopkins worked for at the time — only $60 million in assets — was not big enough to handle the transaction on its own. Hopkins approached the owner of the bank, who said the loan needed to be secured through farm credit. Hopkins found and secured a loan participation agreement with Farmer Mac. He built the bank’s portfolio with Farmer Mac to $25 million before he left for Landera.“I had good FSA lenders at the time who were well-seasoned who gave me the ins and outs of balance sheets and cash flows,” Hopkins said. “I was able to learn that during the good times to prepare me for the ‘wandering the desert’ years in ’14 up until covid, when it was a grind.”A decade ago, Farmer Mac asked Hopkins to describe how his bank participated in the loan participation program during a panel discussion at an ABA Ag Bankers Conference. He was on the ABA’s planning committee for the following year’s conference.Attracted to what he deemed as the ABA’s commitment to advocating on behalf of the industry, Hopkins established a friendship with Elfmann, and was appointed to the ABA’s Agricultural Bankers Committee in 2020. He was named vice chair for the 2023-24 year.In December 2024, Hopkins received a call from the American Bankers Association saying he needed to travel to Washington, D.C., amid negotiations for an economic assistance package. He quickly realized farming issues in the southeast part of the country were being underplayed and mirrored the issues the Midwest faced during the farming crisis of the 1980s, with regional per acre losses of $300 to $500 for several straight years.“We went back and forth, and we were able to talk with offices one-on-one, on here’s what’s going down in Rural America,” he said.Hopkins credited past ABA Ag Committee Chairs and First Dakota leaders Denny Everson and Nate Franzen for their work. Franzen is president of ag banking for First Dakota National Bank, having succeeded Everson in the role.“I’m not a person who is going to waste my time,” Hopkins said. “And none of those 12 other members are either, and that’s what is fun. Iron sharpens iron.”Now immediate past chair, Hopkins planned to return this month to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the passage of a new Farm Bill, which has not happened since 2018. He expected to meet with House Committee on Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) and Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.).Hopkins’ comments during the ABA Ag Bankers Conference in November spotlight why he joined the ABA and the reason for his continued involvement. “Nobody is going to fight for our industry but us,” Hopkins said in St. Louis. “If we care about our ag finance industry and we care about our customers, that’s imperative of all of us in this room working together, and we have to be willing to do that. If we don’t raise our voice, nothing will happen.”