Ag Policy
-
Farm Debt is Growing
The Kansas City Fed just released a report indicating that farm debt is accumulating at a faster pace. Farmers with carryover debt increased from 18% of loans to 29% of loans in the first quarter of 2016. Also, 18% of total loans made in the first quarter involved restructuring existing debt to meet short-term liquidity […]
-
Farmland Values Continue to Drop
The Chicago Federal Reserve just released their First Quarter 2016 Ag Letter showing that farmland values continue to trend lower. The district covers most of the I states in the corn belt and show the following year-over-year changes in farmland values: Illinois – Minus 5% Indiana – Minus 2% Iowa – Minus 5% Michigan – […]
-
Crop Insurance Payouts Lower in 2015
Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois just posted an article in FarmDoc Daily on an analysis of crop insurance damage payments in 2015. In 2015, the entire loss ratio for the industry was only .65 (1 is breakeven). This ratio is much lower than the .97 ratio from 2010 to 2015 and also much […]
-
Does FSA Allow Section 179 for Corporations
About two years ago we posted that FSA was not allowing Section 179 as a deduction for S corporations and LLC/LLP/LPs. We communicated our concerns to FSA and to others in Congress, etc. and thought that the FSA would update their interpretation to reflect Section 179 as an expense in arriving at AGI for these […]
-
Pooling is Back!
Senator Backus a few years ago proposed replacing the current tax depreciation system with a pooling system. Under that system, personal property purchases and sales would be “pooled” together and the net remaining number would be multiplied by a percentage for that year to arrive at your net depreciation deduction. If the net number was […]
-
Final FSA Yields More Likely to be Under NASS Yields?
There is a lot of chatter regarding the lack of ARC-CO payments for the 2014 crop year due to yields coming in higher than what farmers might have expected for their county. When we were doing Farm Bill analysis about two years ago, we had taken a look at how final FSA yields compared to […]
-
2015 Estimated ARC-CO Corn and Soybean Payment Amounts
Farm Doc Daily put out by the University of Illinois just posted an article on the estimated 2015 ARC-CO corn and soybean payments. Maps were provided showing an estimate of the payment by county and these maps are based upon the NASS yields that were released last week and using the current MYA price estimates […]
-
Can You Defer ARC/PLC Payments?
I continue to get questions regarding whether you are allowed to defer 2014 ARC / PLC payments received in 2015 to 2016. The confusion relates to the misconception that these payments qualify as crop insurance proceeds. These payments are agricultural program payments. Crop insurance proceeds related to yield losses are allowed to be deferred one […]
-
Some Crops See More Premiums Paid Than Claims
Crop Insurance continues to come under attack from certain members of Congress. They will have less ammunition based upon claims for 2015 crops. Through February 8, 2016, the RMA has paid out total claims of about $5.482 billion. Total premiums assessed to farmers were about $9.714 billion. This results in a loss ratio of .56. […]
-
Be Careful What You Wish For!
Chris Clayton of DTN Progressive Farmer just did a post on their website regarding possible lawsuits for those counties where no ARC-CO payments were made for the 2014 crop year. The attorney’s are complaining that the FSA did not follow the directions of the Farm Bill when it came to determining crop yields for each […]