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 couple hundred years or so.
America, with the Mississippi River system and inter-coastal waterway has by far the best series of cheap river and water systems in the world. That is why it is cheaper for an American farmer to ship his corn from Minnesota all the way to New Orleans than for a Brazilian farmer to ship his corn by truck for a hundred miles.
The only other water system that comes close to our is Argentina with three rivers that flow eventually down to Buenos Aries. Because of this waterway system, Argentina’s standard of living in 1900 was about 90% of ours.
There was a group panel on where the new farm bill was headed. Consensus was a bill in 2013, but may still get one this year. Direct payments will no longer be there and some expanded form of crop insurance is most likely to happen.
The value of peer groups was discussed in the afternoon and I believe that these have great potential value to all farmers. It is always good to get another opinion that you value and it is much easier to held accountable by a peer.
All in all, the first day of Top Producer was very productive and I had several readers of the blog come up and say hi. I hope to see more tomorrow and with three back-to-back presentations, I know I will be more tired tomorrow.
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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