July, 2009
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A Farm Couple Scores a Victory Over the IRS
In the US Tax Court decision – Paul D. Garnett and Alicia Garnett v. Commissioner – rendered in June of this year, the court ruled that farmers who hold business interests in limited liability companies (LLC) and limited liability partnerships (LLP) are not passive investors. This is a great victory for many farmers and entrepreneurs that own […]
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One More ACRE Posting
I know my readers are probably getting tired of me writing about the ACRE program, however, I think it is very important for you to review how it affects your farm operation and your landlords. Marcia Zarley Taylor at DTN has several good postings on how the ACRE program works and how to communicate it to […]
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Three Weeks to ACRE Sign-up
There is now less than 3 weeks to make your final decision on signing up for the ACRE program. You have until August 14, 2009 to sign up for the 2009 season which will lock you into the program through 2012. There are many sites out there that have a review on how the program […]
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Wind Energy Report Card
We have several farm clients in Washington and Oregon that either are getting royalty checks from wind turbines or will be getting these checks in the near future. In many cases, the income from wind turbines is substantially higher than the income from traditional farming. In many cases, one turbine can generate in excess of […]
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Go Tom Watson
This is another one of my posts that is not directly related to farming. When I was growing up on the farm, I was a great fan of Arnold Palmer in my very early days, however, when Tom Watson came on the scene I became a great fan of his. He is from the Kansas […]
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Global Warming – Its the Sun
At the Leading Edge Farm Conference held in Des Moines, Iowa this week, Drew Lerner of World Weather, Inc. gave a very informative talk on the current and future weather trends. Some of the discussion focused on the Sun Spot activity over the last several hundred years. In periods of lots of Sun Spot activity, […]
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Lock in Low Rates with LIBOR futures
Most farmers know that they can hedge their corn, wheat or beans (or about any other agricultural commodity) using various types of futures contracts. You can use the regular contract, options – both calls and puts, spreads, etc. However, many farmers do not know that they can hedge their operating loans interest rates using LIBOR […]
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ACRE To Be or Not to Be
For many farmers, the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program is about as easy to understand as learning a new language for the first time. I have read several articles and listened to a couple of slide shows on the program. You have until mid-August to make up you mind regarding the election for […]
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Supplemental Nitrogen – Don’t Waste It
Summary: Delayed corn plantings have allowed pre-plant forms of nitrogen to dissipate, leaving many fields with wide variations in their need for supplmental nitrogen applications. One potential solution is tractor-mounted sensors which detects the amount of greenness in corn and reveals whether there is sufficient nitrogen or it needs additional side-dress application and the amount to apply. Such a […]
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High Cost – High Return : Low Cost – Negative Return
During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s I was a part owner of a plastic packaging company. We had always used a costing mechanism that relied upon standard costs and return for various products. This usually resulted in accurate information except when the cost of the product got too high. In many cases, we would […]