Demographics
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Some Fun Facts About Farming
The Agricultural Statistics Board of the United States Department of Agriculture publishes many reports during the year. I find it interesting to review these on a periodic basis (my wife does not seem to think this is much fun). Some of the fun facts that I recently spotted were: Texas is about four times larger […]
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Minnesota Median Farm Income Down 15% in 2008
The University of Minnesota has a Center for Farm Financial Management that performs an survey of farms in Minnesota. In August, they issued their report for 2008. Some of the key findings are as follows: Median net farm income was $90,039 which was down from $105,489 in 2007. This represents an approximate 14.6% decrease. Median net […]
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Federal Reserve Bank Says Land Values are Stabilizing
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City issued their second quarter report on thier survey of agricultural credit condtions. Some highlights of the report are: 1. Farmland values seem to be stabilizing. The value of farmland in the second quarter was basically unchanged from the second quarter of 2008. Irrigated acreage was slightly higher due […]
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The Five Year Forecast – Is It Better or Worse?
As the global economy turned south a year ago, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri decided to revise their projections of food prices and production over the next five years. This was done early in the year and many commodity prices have changed direction in the last several months. FAPRI […]
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USDA Says 2009 Farm Income Will be Down!
The USDA reported on their website on Thursday that they expect net farm income for 2009 to be $54.0 billion down from the record 2008 preliminary estimate of $87.2 billion. This equates to a net decrease in farm income of $33.2 billion or an over 38% decrease. What is even more disheartening is that the […]
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Economic Rebound in Farm Sector Still on Hold
For the third straight month, a rural economic indicator has declined. This suggests that a rural economic rebound is still several months away. Creigthon University (located in Omaha) performs a monthly survey of bank CEO’s in an 11-state region which primarily comprises the corn belt region and related states. The Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) which […]
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New Farmers Get a Helping Hand
An article in the Denver Post today and in other papers outlined a program in Iowa that is designed go help young non-farmers become farmers by hooking them up with farmers that are ready to retire. This particular program is located in Iowa at Iowa State University and is headed up by Dave Baker. The program […]
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Where is our Stimulus Package Going
My colleague, Scott Heintzelman, has a great blog entitled The Exuberant Accountant. In one of his most recent posts, he references a site that gives a breakdown by state and county of the stimulas money that is being spent on projects, etc. If you are interested to see where your county ranks and where the […]
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Farm Profit Trends 1998 to 2008
The Iowa Farm Business Association, comprised of various farm management companies, recently issued a nice 4 page newsletter that had a lot of good information on farm profit trends. All of this information relates to farms in Iowa but the trends show hold true for most states that grow corn and s0ybeans. The newsletter recapped […]
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The Road From Good To Great
As a CPA, I review a lot of financial statements. As part of this review, I try to determine the ratios that separate the business from other businesses in the same industry. Sometimes these ratios are positive and sometimes they are negative. For comparing ratios for farmers, a great site is the Farm […]