Farm Industry Trends
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Harvesting Good Wheat on Steep Hills
I spent Friday afternoon and all day Saturday harvesting wheat for my cousins near Dixie, Washington. Dixie is the town I grew up in until we moved to the big city of Walla Walla when I was in high school. The fields we were harvesting on were about a mile away from the old homestead. […]
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Will the IRS want your Accounting Software File?!!!
In a recent Florida Federal District Court Case, the IRS was granted the right to summon the accounting software file of a small business. This case did not involve a farm, however, the IRS has gotten very aggressive in demanding the actual accounting software file, especially Quickbooks and other common software accounting programs. Before the […]
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Corn Price is Now Higher Than Wheat!
Historically, wheat prices have generally been higher than corn prices and sometimes the difference can be major. In many years, wheat could be $1 or $2 higher than corn. This is due to two main reasons: Corn was primarily used for feed Wheat was more heavily used for bread and other products directly consumed as […]
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Motorcycle Trip Along the Minnesota River
On Saturday, I met up with a couple of my partners in the CPA firm in New Ulm, Minnesota to ride motorcycles. We left about 9:30 in the morning and drove out of town up onto a nice flat area with very good looking crops. We then dropped back down into the Minnesota River Vally […]
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FFSC – Day 2 (Session Six)
Phyllis Parks, a CPA with Daughhetee & Parks Management Consulting gave a presentation on understanding our competition south of the Equator. Phyllis had taken a trip to South America in December. The state income tax rate is 18%. The employer rate for social security is 27% and the employee pays about 3%. Brazil seems to […]
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FFSC – Day Two (Session Five)
On purpose, I skipped talking about session four since it was my discussion on income taxes which we have posted on many times already. Session Five was presented by Tim Ohlde, President of Elk State Bank in Clyde, KS on the applications of the FFSC guidelines to Today’s Ag Lending World. He stated that what […]
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FFSC – Day Two (Session Two)
Danny Klinefelter from Texas A & M was the second speaker of the day and his discussion on Peer Advisory Groups and Continuous Management Improvements. The studies from about 1,100 top producers around the US over the last several years attending the TEPAP conference show that only about 50% were using cash flow budgets and […]
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FFSC – Day Two (first session)
The annual conference of the Farm Financial Standards Council just got started this morning. The first speaker of the day was Dan Looker, business editor of Successful Farming and his discussion was on Ag Megatrends. The first Ag Megatrend dealt with Ethanol. Even though the blender credit is most likely being phased out or allowed […]
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Farm Financial Standards Council Annual Conference
I will be leaving bright and early Tuesday morning to attend the annual conference of the Farm Financial Standards Council (FFSC) in Sioux Falls, SD. The FFSC is comprised of bankers, CPA’s, farmers, and other ag leaders who are promoting standardized financial accounting for ag producers. This will be my first time for attending the conference. […]
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The Pacific NW Wheat Harvest is Late!
My wife and I rode our motorcycle from Yakima to Lewiston on Thursday with a stop in Walla Walla. Normally this time of year, wheat harvest would be in full throttle, however, I noticed very little harvesting going on that day. I visited with my Uncle and Aunt at their house on Thursday and spoke […]