Farm Leadership
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Women Own 47% of Iowa Farmland
I noticed a post on the Iowa Farm Union that indicated 47% of the farm land in Iowa is owned by women. I think this trend will continue and there may be a good chance that this percentage may be in excess of 50% at some point in the near future. Women appear to express a […]
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When Are My Agricultural Options Taxed?
We had a reader ask the following question: “I am looking at options to put floor prices in for my corn and soybeans. I have a few questions on the accounting for income taxes. Is the cost of options an expense for income tax the year you buy them? If you sell the option the […]
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Tools to Help You Make a Decision on What to Plant
With the late harvest in Ohio and other areas affected by all of the heavy rain and bad planting weather, many farmers face crucial decisions on what crops to plant. Should they take a risk on planting corn, switch to soybeans or collect insurance on prevented-planting acreage. You can check out these tools to help […]
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Are You Ready For The Whipsaw?
With the turmoil in the world commodity markets and the concern about the flooding and weather conditions in the US, farmers can expect that their commodity prices are going to whipsaw up and down very rapidly over the next several months. A key to not getting personally whipsawed is to have a written plan in […]
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Watch Your Date of New Construction
The tax law passes late last year had a very favorable tax treatment for the construction of new farm buildings. In that law for any new farm buildings placed in service after September 8, 2010 and before January 1, 2012, a farmer would be able to write off 100% of this new construction cost in […]
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If Grain Markets Are Topping, Start Locking In Profits
During 2008, grain markets were almost as high as they are now, however, many farmers were not able to take advantage of these prices either through already having their crop sold or through inaction by the farmers. I don’t know how many times I have heard a farmer in my office or out in the […]
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Don’t Taint Your Farm Building
We had a reader ask the following question: “Does a construction company putting up a building get the same 100% bonus depreciation for 2011 like is on Ag buildings” The quick answer to this is “no”. A construction related building is not considered to be 20 year property and therefore is normally depreciated over 39 […]
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It’s Total Farm Compensation – Not Wages – That Counts
I think that every farm operation should have an employment contract with each of their farm employees including all family members employed in the farm operation. As part of this document, there should be an exhibit that outlines the total compensation package to each employee. Most farm operations offer much more than a wage such […]
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It’s Not How Many Times You Get …….
Being in the middle of the busiest tax season that I can ever remember, we took some time out last week to attend a luncheon for the local economic development group. The keynote speaker was one of the co-founders of the game Cranium. His first story was about being in a taxi ride in Dallas […]
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Federal Reserve Reports Rapid Rise in Land Values and Farm Income!
The Federal Reserve of Kansas City on Tuesday reported that farm land values in their district had risen substantially from the previous year. The year-over-year rise for non-irrigated land were as follows: Kansas 19.5% Missouri 6.6% Nebraska 17.6% Oklahoma 5.0% The overall value for their district was a 14.8 percent rise for non-irrigated crop land and 12.9 […]