Farm Industry Trends

  • Top Farmer Day 1 – Session 2

    My next recap is in regards to the “Crop Markets in Transition” presented by Darrel Good of the University of Illinois.  Darrel noted that there is the potential for a 14 billion bushel crop with added production in South America, it may be tough to meet the export estimates by USDA.  Ethanol consumption should pick […]

    Read More

  • Top Farmer – Day 2, Session 1

    Since I have my laptop with me today, I am going to try to do a separate post on each session for today’s Top Farmer Conference.  Yesterday’s sessions were very informative and I hope today is even better. First session today is an update on Ethanol and Bio-Diesel production presented Scott Irwin of the University […]

    Read More

  • First Full Day of Top Farmer

    Today was the first full day of the Top Farmer conference and it was packed with a lot of good sessions.  Due to finding out that I had to get something done early this morning, I missed the most of the morning session, but here are my highlights from the rest of the day. Right […]

    Read More

  • The Start of the 46th Annual Top Farmer Conference

    This afternoon is the start of the 46th annual Top Farmer conference done by Purdue University.   About 100 farmers are attending the conference. The first session was done by Professor Mike Boehlje and Elizabeth Yaeger regarding farm risk management.   This discussion on risk did not focus on price or yield risks, but rather other […]

    Read More

  • Trade The Farm

    I am spending tonight with my friend Tommy Grisafi of Indiana Grain on my way to Top Farmer at Purdue tomorrow.  Here is his trading setup and he is actively trading grain contracts as I type this. If any of our readers are going to be at the Top Farmer conference, please stop me and […]

    Read More

  • 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 […]

    Read More

  • Employer Mandate Delayed for One Year

    One of the major initiatives of ObamaCare was the mandate for employers to either provide health insurance or face possible extremely steep penalties for not providing health insurance or providing insurance that was too costly.  This mandate was to take place starting January 1, 2014.  The mandate applied to employers with 50 full-time equivalent employees.  […]

    Read More

  • CRP in an S corporation?

    We had a reader ask the following question in response to our posts on CRP payments being subject to SE tax: “What about CRP income that is earned by an S corp which only rents out farmland and also collects CRP income.  Will that CRP income be subject to SE tax while the land rent […]

    Read More

  • Remember, Corn is Not Just Grown in the Corn Belt

    With today’s release of the USDA acreage report, it is becoming more apparent that the production of corn is rapidly expanding outside of the corn belt.  North Dakota (3.9 million acres) for 2013 has almost planted as much acreage to corn as Ohio (3.95 million acres). My father was born in South Dakota and was […]

    Read More

  • Start of Day 1 of the Santa Fe Seminar

      A shot of the crowd eagerly awaiting the start of Day 1 of the Santa Fe farm tax seminar.  

    Read More