Profit Center
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Twelve Steps to Avoid Being a Marketing Lemming
I came across a good marketing company be watching Agday the other day. Alan Brugler was discussing the corn and bean market and I decided to go check out his web site. He is located in Omaha, Nebraska and has a very good short guide on how not to be a marketing lemming. I will […]
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My Last ACRE Post for the Year (I Promise!)
With less than two weeks to sign up for the ACRE program (the date is August 14, which is a Friday) and with most ag offices being understaffed, if you need to sign up for ACRE, I would suggest doing it now. I have read about several meetings where there might be a crowd of […]
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One More ACRE Posting
I know my readers are probably getting tired of me writing about the ACRE program, however, I think it is very important for you to review how it affects your farm operation and your landlords. Marcia Zarley Taylor at DTN has several good postings on how the ACRE program works and how to communicate it to […]
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Three Weeks to ACRE Sign-up
There is now less than 3 weeks to make your final decision on signing up for the ACRE program. You have until August 14, 2009 to sign up for the 2009 season which will lock you into the program through 2012. There are many sites out there that have a review on how the program […]
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Lock in Low Rates with LIBOR futures
Most farmers know that they can hedge their corn, wheat or beans (or about any other agricultural commodity) using various types of futures contracts. You can use the regular contract, options – both calls and puts, spreads, etc. However, many farmers do not know that they can hedge their operating loans interest rates using LIBOR […]
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Supplemental Nitrogen – Don’t Waste It
Summary: Delayed corn plantings have allowed pre-plant forms of nitrogen to dissipate, leaving many fields with wide variations in their need for supplmental nitrogen applications. One potential solution is tractor-mounted sensors which detects the amount of greenness in corn and reveals whether there is sufficient nitrogen or it needs additional side-dress application and the amount to apply. Such a […]
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High Cost – High Return : Low Cost – Negative Return
During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s I was a part owner of a plastic packaging company. We had always used a costing mechanism that relied upon standard costs and return for various products. This usually resulted in accurate information except when the cost of the product got too high. In many cases, we would […]
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Corn Coming out of our “Ears”
Many are calling the USDA Planted Acreage Report that came out this week “Bloody Tuesday” since the amount of corn acreage planted this year was much higher than what the trade was expecting. Even though there was a large amount of rain early in the Eastern Corn Belt, three of the Western Corn Belt states, […]
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Defer Your Land Sale into 2010 Today
My partner Scot and I have a 1031 exchange company that handles many tax-deferred exchanges each year. About this time of year I like to remind our clients that they may be able to sell their land or real estate for cash, yet defer paying the tax on the sale until 2011. Here is how […]
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Your Time is Worth Something
As a CPA, I get asked many times by small business owners what their business is worth. As part of calculating that value we usually work up what the net bottom line earnings of the business is. To detemine that, we take the profit and loss of the company and make certain adjustments. Normally, we […]