Ag Policy
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Evaluating the New Century Go-Go Farmer
Bob Craven, head of the Center of Farm Financial Management (FINPACK) for the University of Minnesota gave a discussion on evaluating the new century Go-Go farmer. The Median income for 2012 for Minnesota farmers was a slightly less than $200 thousand, while the top 20% were almost $700 thousand of net income. Top 20% characteristics: […]
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Farm Financial Standards Council – Part 1
The annual conference for the FFSC got started this morning with a presentation by Dr. Tom Gillaspy a retired Minnesota State Demographer. He led off the presentation by stating that demographers are even more boring than accountants. I was almost insulted by this comment until I decided to consider it a compliment since he was fairly exciting. […]
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Top Farmer – Day 2 – Last Session
The final session of the day was presented by Marcos Fava Neves of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil on the Brazilian Agriculture Perspective. Marcos is based near Sao Paulo which does not have much soybean or corn production in the area. Rather, they are in the heart of sugar cane country and Ethanol plants. Marcos […]
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Top Farmer – Day 2 Session 3
The next session was presented by Jason Henderson who just started with Purdue after being with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He presented a series of maps showing farmland values from 1900 to the 1980s using constant current dollars. In 1900, there were no counties that had average farmland values exceeding $3,000. Some […]
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Ag Labor Employment Up in Washington
According to a recent Agricultural Labor Employment and Wages report compiled by the Employment Security Department (ESD), total agricultural employment for the state of Washington increased 8.7 percent from May 2012 to May 2013. Here are some other highlights: From April 2013 to May 2013, statewide total agricultural employment increased 4.2 percent South central Washington […]
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Getting Ready For Santa Fe
My wife and I made the trip from Seattle to Santa Fe today. Southwest actually has a nonstop flight from Seattle in Albuquerque that takes less than 3 hours and then it is only an hour drive to Santa Fe. I knew we were getting higher in elevation and I decided to download the “Elevation” […]
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Semantics Can Be Important
It has been brought to our attention that certain AGR crop insurance policy claims are being denied. These claims are being made by a single member LLC which is being filed on a schedule F on the farmers personal tax return. An AGR policy is based upon the gross revenue of the farm operation. A […]
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ACRE Produces Higher Payouts Than New Farm Bill Proposals
Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois just released an excellent analysis of the projected crop payments under the old ACRE program or the proposed Senate ARC or House RLC or House PLC programs. As most know, under the old Farm Bill, a farmer could elect to participate in the ACRE program in return for […]
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FICA Wage Base is Going Up (and Up and Up)!
In the annual report by the Social Security Administration Chief Actuary is an estimate of the top Wage Base for 2014 through 2022. For 2013, the Wage Base is $113,700. The 6.2% FICA tax applies on all earnings up to this amount. Once you reach the threshold amount, the remaining earnings are subject to the Medicare […]
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Update on 2012 Crop Insurance Losses
Farm Doc Daily from the University of Illinois just release an extremely good article updating the total net crop losses incurred during 2012. As most of us are aware, 2012 resulted in the highest amount of indemnity payments ever paid under the crop insurance system at slightly more than $17 billion. 2010 was in second […]