Demographics
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Sugar Drops 20% in Two Days
Prices for sugar hit a 30-year high on Thursday at 33.39 cents per pound, however, by the end of the day, prices had dropped about 9.6% closing at 29.66 cents a pound and dropped another 11.6% on Friday to close the week at 26.21 cents per pound. The drop in prices was sparked by the […]
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Cropland Prices Rise More Than 6%
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (representing Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and the Mountain States) just reported that non-irrigated farmland prices for the year-over-year ended September 30, 2010 rose more than 6%. Irrigated cropland was up an even more robust 9.6%. After dipping slightly in the third quarter of 2009, prices have risen each […]
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What is Your 20 Year Plan?
I was skimming the Corn and Soybean Digest website the other day and came across this very good article on planning ahead for the next 20 years on your farm operation. It is very important for farmers to set goals and plans. I believe that these goals should be in writing and quantifiable. Also, on […]
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Watch Out For Morocco’s Phosphate Monopoly
In the November 14, 2010 issue of Bloomberg Business Week, one of their key articles was on Morocco’s potential monopoly in phosphate. As most farmers remember, phosphate prices in the 2007-2008 time period rose, in some cases, by tenfold or more. For many decades, phosphate sold for about $40 per ton. However, currently, phosphate trades near […]
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North Dakota Tops Kansas (In Wheat Production)
According to an article in Agweek.com based upon the North Dakota Wheat Commission data, the 2010 North Dakota wheat crop produced 375 million bushels of wheat, beating Kansas by about 15 million bushels. These high production amounts (last year was about 2 millions bushels higher) is due to record yields of about 45 bushels over these […]
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How’s Your Sugar High?
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the sugar prices are nearing a 30 year high. The benchmark March sugar contract settled at 30.15 per pound yesterday. That was the highest close since January 14, 1981. There was a rally earlier in the year that got close to the same price, however, that rally was […]
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Volatility – Is it Your Friend of Enemy?!
Another nugget of information that I got out of the speech by Dr. Boehlje of Purdue University on Wednesday is that accordingto their studies at the school, the volatility associated with agriculture has gone up by 400% in the last few years. This means that the price swings in ag commodities is now 4 times greater than […]
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Remember Your 3 To 1 Ratio!
Now that the USDA has really surprised us with an US corn crop of about 156 bushels per acre, as farmers you need to remember how this will correlate to your planting intentions for this year and next. Since we can assume at current prices, corn, bean and wheat will be profitable next year, the […]
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Ag Struggles in 2nd Quarter, How Will 3rd Quarter Look?
In August of this year, The Minneapolis Federal Reserve reported that the agricultural credit conditions in the second quarter were somewhat pessimistic compared to the previous quarters. The Ninth district comprises the states of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. Although the credit conditions for this district were slightly […]
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The Use of Dyed Diesel Leads to $9,000 IRS Penalty
In my home state of Washington, we now have a case of the IRS fining a farmer $9,000 for using dyed off-road diesel in his bale wagon to transport the hay from his field to his haystack. During this transport, the farmer was briefly on a public road and an IRS agent staked him out […]