Farm Leadership
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Farm Exports Hit Record $152.5 Billion for FYE September 30, 2014
The USDA announced earlier this month that total US farm exports for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2014 hit a new record of $152.50 billion. This is up from the previous record set the year before of $141 billion (almost a 10% increase). It was the first time that exports for any month exceeded […]
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Monsanto Paying Less Than 2 Cents a Bushel on Settlement!
Monsanto on November 12, 2014 announced they had reached a settlement with Pacific Northwest soft white wheat growers to compensate them for losses incurred due to the GMO wheat plant found on a Northeastern Oregon farm in 2013. Total total settlement to farmers is $2.15 million with another $250,000 going to the state’s wheat associations. […]
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ARC-CO Can Still Make a Payment for High Yield 2014 Counties
One of the misconceptions I keep hearing about ARC-CO for this year is that it will not pay anything since my county yield for this year is so much higher than the Olympic average, therefore I want to elect PLC. I decided to run some numbers on McLean County, Illinois which is one of the better […]
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Where Do They Come Up With These Numbers?!
Yahoo News released an article yesterday estimating the amount of ARC and PLC payments for the 2014 crop year being in excess of $10 billion. We previously posted on how much the corn and soybeans payments might be for this crop year. We assumed that corn prices would average $3.20 for the whole year, soybean prices would […]
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Another Section 179 Update
It seems that my inbox is blowing up with questions about what Section 179 will be for 2014. Whenever, I indicate that we should know what the final number should be around Christmas or even New Years, I get emails back saying doesn’t Congress know that taxpayers really can’t make informed equipment decisions without knowing […]
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USDA and Partners Complete First-of-Its-Kind Sale of Carbon Credits from Working Ranch Grasslands
With the help of a grant from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, a carbon credit system for private landowners in North Dakota was created who agree to avoid tillage of grasslands. Grasslands store carbon dioxide which are one of the leading greenhouse gases contributing to climate change according to the USDA. Using this new carbon credit system, […]
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Direct Deposit Limits
In an effort to combat fraud and identity theft, new IRS procedures effective January 2015 will limit the number of refunds electronically deposited into a single financial account or pre-paid debit card to three. The fourth and subsequent refunds automatically will convert to a paper refund check and be mailed to the taxpayer. While this […]
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Succession Planning…. Start Early
I had the pleasure of speaking at the Tri-State Grain Growers Convention (WA, OR and ID) this past Friday on a panel about family farm succession where I was able to share the perspective of a CPA. The other panelists were an attorney, a financial advisor, and a family business advisor and we discussed a […]
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Project All Years Before Making ARC/PLC Decision
A difficult choice for producers this year regarding the election between ARC-CO and PLC is for those areas where yields are dramatically higher than the five-year average. In these cases, ARC-CO is likely not to make any payment for the 2014 crop year whereas PLC will make a payment assuming the MYA corn price stays under $3.70. These […]
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Where’s the Beef
Yesterday, I posted on work pork production. Today I will recap world beef production (again from the 2014 Agricultural Symposium). Here are some of the key points: Total beef production has held steady between 56 and 59 million metric tons over the last 10 years (about half of total pork production). US produces about 11 […]