Farm Leadership
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Does Ridge Till Net More
I was browsing the soybean net income statistics reported by the University of Minnesota for the 2011 crop year. There were 1,372 farms reporting soybean statistics for 2011 and 680 used some type of chisel or reduced tillage (635 gave no answer on tillage practice). These farmers reported an average of $147 return over direct […]
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Additional Thoughts on the KC Fed AG Symposium
Continuing our post from yesterday: During the last 10 years, the world has planted an extra 184 million acres to the 10 ten major row crops. The Black Sea area has added 48, South America 42 and China 31 million acres. The US has only added 8 million acres. Total acres in production has increased […]
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FFSC Day 2 – Session 5
The last session of the day was presented by Ben Romine, an accountant from Northern Indiana on Using the Standards in an Accounting Practice. Using Enterprise accounting is very valuable but you must determine what the standards are and how much detail. If you have not started this yet, start simple and then go to […]
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FFSC Day 2 – Session 4
The 4th session was presented by Todd Doehring of Centrec Consulting Group on Using the standards with producers and lenders to analyze operations. The top 5% of farmers are now producing about 75% of total crop production or about 120 thousand farmers. The last three years we have been able to insure a profit for […]
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FFSC Day 2 – Session 3
The first session in the afternoon was a panel discussion of three professors from the University of Illinois on using cash versus accrual income. There is a myth that cash versus accrual “averages out over time”. With surgery of about 1,000 farms from 2001 to 2006, they found: 1. Cash versus accrual was about […]
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FFSC – Day 2 Session 2
Our second session was presented by Ron Homann with 1st Farm Credit Services on how to use the ratios and standards. A first level loan may not require a balance sheet or income statements. If the “score” is high enough then a loan of up to $250k or $500k operating loan may be granted. Their […]
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FFSC – Day 2 Session 1
Our first session today was presented by Economics Professor Kevin Waspi of the University of Illinois. He presented a discussion on the Economic and Financial Outlook and some highlights are: Our economic policy is based on the the policyI used in the late 1990’s to help get Japan out of their lost decade. Everybody knows […]
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Farm Financial Standards Council Annual Meeting – Day 1
On Monday, I had a meeting in Milwaukee and then headed down to Bloomington, IL by car. I stopped off in Leland, IL to meet with a client and he took me on a tour of a couple of his fields. Normally, his corn yields would near or exceed 200 bushels per acre. From the […]
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Ethanol Makers are Getting Squeezed
The Wall Street Journal issued a report today on how Midwest Ethanol makers are getting squeezed by the rapid increase in corn prices (to read the article, you may need a subscription). Production earlier in the year was running at about 950 million barrels per day. The current run rate is about 800 million barrels […]
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Building US Ag Exports – One BRIC at a Time
We periodically quote publication issued by the Kansas City Federal Reserve. Last month, they issued a report entitled “Building U.S. Agricultural Exports: One BRIC at a Time”. The report is only 10 pages long, but has a lot of good information. Here is a recap of what I found interesting: A chart showing the amount […]