Demographics
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Senate and House Appear Closer on Farm Bill
After the House passed their Farm Bill today, it appears that their version on the Senate version are not too far apart. The key points for both are: An elimination of all direct farm payments A reduction in CRP acreage to either 24 or 25 million acres Consolidation of many farm programs A Price Support […]
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What is “Draconian”
I was doing a google search on the House Farm Bill today and the 10th item that showed up in my search was this article. With a title of “House Ready to Make Draconian Cuts to Food Stamps in House Bill” I was interested in what these “draconian” cuts were. As you read the article, […]
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Debt to Asset Ratio Looks Great – But!
The University of Illinois puts out a great daily email called the “Farm Doc Daily”. In today’s email, they summarized the debt to asset ratio from 2005 through 2011. The lower this ratio goes, the better. Their database showed that the average farmer in Illinois for 2005 had total assets per acre of $1,267 and related […]
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Mainstreet Index Still Remains Robust
Creighton University produces a monthly index called the Rural Mainsteet Index (RMI) indicating the overall economy for several rural states in the Midwest and Mountain states. The May Index was recently released and I thought this month I would recap the index for each of the states covered. Any value greater than 50 indicates economic […]
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When Congress Says “Simplified” Watch Out!
WARNING – THIS IS MY LONGEST POST EVER The House Ways and Means Committee just issued a proposal to “simplify” the treatment of small business (including most of our farmers). I will attempt to summarize it: Core Changes: Permanently expanding Section 179 from the current $25,000 level (for 2014) to $250,000 with a phase-out starting […]
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Irrigated Cropland Values Up Sharply Due to Drought
The Kansas City Federal Reserve issued their latest Agricultural Credit Conditions report for the 4th quarter of 2012. Due to the widespread drought in their area, irrigated cropland values saw a 13 percent jump in the 4th quarter alone and up 30% for the year. Cash rental rates for irrigated cropland also surged more than […]
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Another Bill to Reduce Farm Payments is Introduced!
Four Senators (two Democrats and two Republicans) this week introduced a bill “The Farm Program Integrity Act of 2013” to place a cap on farm payments that an individual farmer can receive and try to close “certain perceived” loopholes in the farm payment program. This bill closely follows language that was included in the original […]
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It May Pay to Fill Out Your Ag Census Online
Every five years the Department of Agriculture sends out a very detailed census form for farmers to prepare and send back. We have already discussed this form with several farmers and as usual it can be very hard to follow the paper form. We have found preparing the form online can save some time and […]
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Are Taxes Progressive in the US?
Every once in a while we read an article on either how progressive or non-progressive our tax system is in the US. We ran across this article while browsing the Internet and the first thing that struck me is how the word progressive is denoted in these articles as being equal to percentage. In the article, […]
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KC Fed Reports Drought-Reduced Income Boost Farm Loans
The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank just released their third quarter Agricultural Credit Conditions report. The report indicated that the drought caused lower farm income for the quarter which caused farmers to increase their farm operating loans. Capital spending plummeted in the quarter. This could have been caused by the drought or perhaps the lower […]