Ag Policy
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Most Farmers Would Prefer House Over Senate Farm Bill
Texas A & M just published a very good report on the key differences between the House and Senate Farm Bill. The report indicated that for almost all farmers, the House version of the farm bill would provide more revenue over the five year period than the Senate version and in the case of lower […]
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More Updates on the Senate Farm Bill
Here are additional updates and comments on the Senate Farm Bill: Eliminates Direct Payments, Counter-Cyclical Payments (CCP), Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) payments and Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) as of the end of the 2012 crop. Beginning with the 2013, all of these payments will be eliminated. This creates $15 billion in savings for […]
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1 AGI instead of 3 AGI
For farmers who are enrolled in ag programs with the FSA, there are currently three different levels of AGI (adjusted gross income) that affect whether they qualify to receive any payments from the FSA during the year. These levels are: $500,000 of non-farm income $750,000 of farm income $1,000,000 of non-farm income, but OK if […]
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Number of Farms Get Smaller, But They Produce More
Most of you are aware that the number of farms in the US continues to get smaller, but they produce more and more. In the dairy sector, one report from the Idaho Dairymen’s Association indicated in 2008, there were over 800 dairies in the state of Idaho. Just three years later, this number had dropped […]
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My First Tornado Warning!
I got into Nashville late Thursday night/early Friday morning. Friday morning I headed over to the Gaylord Opryland complex. Wow, what a facility. There was probably five acres or more of glass roofing and it felt like a 10 minute walk from my car to the convention center. I was able to attend the last […]
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Production Down, Income Up in 2011
We posted a couple weeks ago about production for almost all of the major crops in 2011 being down from 2010. Even though, production was down, income for most of these crops seems to be up in 2011 from 2010. A recap of the major crops are as follows: Corn $76.5 billion up from $64.7 […]
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Almost All Crop Productions were down in 2011!
With another year of low corn production, but high acres, did this negatively affect the total production for other crops in 2011. The USDA just released the final numbers on US crop production for 2011 and I thought I would take a look. The major findings are as follows: Corn production down 1% to 12.4 […]
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Not All Farmland is Going Up in Value
When we see in the headlines that farms in Iowa and other parts of the corn belt are going for $10,000, $15,000 and perhaps $20,000 an acre, I think we automatically assume that all farmland values across the US are increasing. However, in reviewing the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, VA agricultural survey for the […]
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Top Producer Seminar – Day Two
Wow, what an action packed day. First, breakfast was at 6 am to get the day started. At 7 am, we had the taping of the show for the US Farm Report to air this weekend. At 8:15, my breakout sessions started. Each one last 55 minutes and were back-to-back-to-back. I thought the last session […]
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Top Producer Seminar – First Day
The Top Producer Seminar started out today with a bang. Peter Zeihan with Stratfor Group gave an interesting presentation on the economic outlook in general and for ag. It was very interesting to see a map with an outline of the world’s river systems and how that has affected the world’s economy over the last […]