-
Largest Decrease in Cash Rents Since 1987
I was reading the latest Ag Letter from the Chicago Federal Reserve and noticed an interesting tidbit on cash rents. The first part of the letter addressed farmland values being relatively flat to slightly negative for the first quarter of 2015. A chart on page 2 showed the annual percentage change in cash rents for […]
-
Extreme Drought Hits Washington State – USDA Provides Some Relief
Ranchers in Eastern Washington may be eligible for financial drought relief from USDA after the US Drought Monitor reached D2, or extreme drought, for eight consecutive weeks. I know that this weekend is supposed to hit 111 or higher on both Saturday and Sunday and almost all of next week is expected around 105 or […]
-
June 30 Extension for Medical Insurance Penalties Rapidly Approaches
Small employers received some relief this year when steep penalties for employer payment plans were extended to June 30, 2015. These $100 per day per employee penalties apply when employers pay for or reimburse an employee’s individual health insurance premiums rather than provide employer sponsored group insurance. All employers were originally expected to comply by […]
-
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Obamacare
The Supreme Court released their long awaited ruling on whether participants obtaining health insurance from the federal marketplace instead of the state sponsored exchanges would be allowed to have subsidies, etc. In a 6-3 decision (Chief Justice Roberts plus Kennedy and the 4 more liberal justices ruled in favor plus Scalia, Thomas and Alito ruling […]
-
AICPA Ag Conference
We are now less than three weeks to the AICPA Ag Conference being held in Indianapolis on Monday July 13 to Wednesday July 15. For those who are interested in attending, there is still seats available but you should contact the AICPA immediately. The lineup of speakers is very good and whether you are a producer, […]
-
Is it a Bubble or Not?!
Marketwatch.com is published by the Wall Street Journal and last week they had an article on “Spiking farmland prices offer a lesson on market bubbles“. From the title, you would naturally assume that they believe farmland prices were at the bubble stage and headed for a large fall. However, in reading the article, it appears […]
-
Did High-Yield States Elect More PLC
The FSA released information on Monday that showed the amount of farms and acres electing ARC and PLC on both a national and state basis for each covered crop. I was curious if those states with very high yields (such as Missouri and Illinois) in 2014 would elect more PLC than other states since they […]
-
Who Was Closer – CBO or Paul?
The USDA yesterday released data on the sign up for ARC and PLC by all of the covered crops. As expected from our posts before on the subject, most of the corn and soybean acres signed up for ARC-CO versus PLC. Summarizing some of the major crops as follows: Of the crops on the table, […]
-
Verify AGI Now
Producers who will receive some type of program payment for the 2014 crop year (ARC or PLC) will need to verify their Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) with FSA before they will be eligible for a payment. Even though the payment will not be received until after October 1, 2015, the verification of income is based […]
-
Being a Tourist
Today is the first day of the farm income and estate tax planning seminar in Findley Lake, New York. I have posted on these set of seminars before, but today’s post will be on my wife, Patty and I being tourists yesterday at Niagara Falls. My wife and I had never been to this part […]
