November, 2010
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What is Your 20 Year Plan?
I was skimming the Corn and Soybean Digest website the other day and came across this very good article on planning ahead for the next 20 years on your farm operation. It is very important for farmers to set goals and plans. I believe that these goals should be in writing and quantifiable. Also, on […]
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When a Deposit Costs You Money?
One of our readers sent us the following question: “If I prepay inputs for 2011, do I have to deduct them in 2010? Also, if I just need some of the expense this year can I deduct part of it? Thank you!” A farmer that uses the cash method of accounting (which is substantially all […]
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Watch Out For Morocco’s Phosphate Monopoly
In the November 14, 2010 issue of Bloomberg Business Week, one of their key articles was on Morocco’s potential monopoly in phosphate. As most farmers remember, phosphate prices in the 2007-2008 time period rose, in some cases, by tenfold or more. For many decades, phosphate sold for about $40 per ton. However, currently, phosphate trades near […]
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North Dakota Tops Kansas (In Wheat Production)
According to an article in Agweek.com based upon the North Dakota Wheat Commission data, the 2010 North Dakota wheat crop produced 375 million bushels of wheat, beating Kansas by about 15 million bushels. These high production amounts (last year was about 2 millions bushels higher) is due to record yields of about 45 bushels over these […]
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How to Handle Allocation of Purchase Price
One of our readers wrote in the following question: “Our son is in the process of taking over our hog operation. They would like to buy all the buildings, equipment, and house on a contract. Do we need an appraisal for this transaction? Some of the buildings and equipment are 16 years old and fully […]
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How’s Your Sugar High?
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the sugar prices are nearing a 30 year high. The benchmark March sugar contract settled at 30.15 per pound yesterday. That was the highest close since January 14, 1981. There was a rally earlier in the year that got close to the same price, however, that rally was […]
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Watch Your P’s & Q’s on Section 179
Joe Kristan of Roth & Company, a CPA firm in Des Moines, Iowa writes a very good blog on income taxes and in one of his more recent posts, he recaps a case (Thomann TC Memo 2010-241) where a farmer attempted to take Section 179 on equipment that was leased to their farm corporation. During 2004, […]
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Is China Running Out of Farmland
Colvin and Company provides a very good blog related to farm land investments called Farmland Forecast. In one of their more recent blogs, they did a great analysis of whether China is running out of good arable farmland. At the beginning of 2000, China had about 128 million hectares of good arable land. As of […]
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My Idea of a Vacation
I flew to Kansas City on Thursday of last week. On Friday, I spent about five hours in the John Deere 9660 combining soybeans. The field had several terraces and many ditches, so the combining was not simply going back and forth across the field. I filled up two semi loads with beans and had […]