Farm Operations
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Lack of Data Dooms GRIP & GRP in 1000+ Counties
Marcia Taylor with DTN/The Progressive Farmer had a great post recently on the elimination of crop insurance under the Group Risk Income Protection (GRIP) and Group Risk Program (GRP) in over 1,000 counties across the US. The primary reason for eliminating these counties were due to not reporting at least 30 yield reports or 25% […]
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Strong Farmland Auction Prices Continue
Mike Walsten from the “Your Precious Land” has posted recently that farmland sold at auctions are still enjoying high prices. Mike also was interviewed on Ag Day last week and one of his interesting comments related to the trend of farmers in the metro Chicago area. When pricing for development land was very high during the mid […]
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Hog Plant Closing = Higher Hog Prices?
Does the recent announced closing of the hog plant located in Sioux City, Iowa mean that hog prices will increase during 2010. First, the closing will directly impact 1,500 workers and their families in the area. Some of them may find work at other plants located in the area, but many will need to find […]
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CRI Trumps APH
Crop insurance has been available to farmers for many years. Until recent years most of this insurance was based upon Actual Production History (APH). Insurance products based upon Crop Revenue Insurance (CRI) have been introduced to enhance and/or replace APH. Marcia Taylor of DTN/Progressive farmer had a good blog on how one farmer in Ohio […]
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5 + 5 + 5 = Home Run
Many farmers do a good job of benchmarking their operations to other operations in the same state of region. By doing this benchmarking, they are able to see where they are either behind or ahead of other farmers. Some get discouraged trying to get out of the middle range into the top 20%. Most think […]
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Crop Insurance Competition – Is it Real?
Bruce Babcock, an economist at Iowa State University, recently prepared an extensive report on competition in the crop insurance industry. With all of this year’s crop delays in getting corn and beans harvested this fall, you may get to know your crop insurance agent better in the next couple of months. You are probably hoping […]
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Pay Down Your Debt
Farmers are enjoying fairly low short-term and long-term rates right now (that is assuming you can borrow the money). With the government continuing to pump large amounts of liquidity and stimulus into the economy, it is very difficult to predict that these lower rates will continue to last much longer. Much like, fertilizer, fuel and […]
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Defer the Crop Insurance Payment – MAYBE!
Several of my farm clients have called me and asked whether receiving a crop insurance payment this year is taxable in 2009 or 2010. I commonly tell them the answer is yes. It may be taxable in 2009 or 2010 depending on what type of crop insurance it is and other matters. In general, if […]
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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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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 […]