However, in reviewing the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, VA agricultural survey for the third quarter of 2011, it indicated that farmland values for their region (Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and most of West Virginia) had actually declined in value.  The decline from the second quarter of 2011 was 1.5% and 4.5% from the same quarter in 2010.

The survey presented a chart of farmland values from 2002 until 2011 and most farmland values in this region peaked in early 2007 and have not recovered to that value since.  The average price of farmland during the third quarter was $3,263. 

In the fourth quarter survey done by the Dallas Federal Reserve, this region actually had an increase in irrigated land values and dry-land and ranch values held fairly steady.  Even with the drought conditions in the area, most of the bankers are expecting prices to rise over the next three months.

As the saying goes in real estate, “It is Location, Location, and Location”; it is certainly true about farmland prices.  The increase in price depends on where it is located.

At 8:15, my breakout sessions started.  Each one last 55 minutes and were back-to-back-to-back.   I thought the last session would be the smallest, but it actually turned out to be the largest and each session had many good questions (and I think I gave good answers).

Ann Duignan of JP Morgan gave a presentation on how the global economy is affecting the farm machinery business and then its affects on our farmers.  The presentation was very informative.

Last night we had the Top Producer of the Year award dinner.  There were three finalists and based on the video presentation for all three, I could not tell who was going to win.  Each farmer has been very successful and will continue that success.  The one thing that was brought out to me by all three was each of their passion for the employees that work for them.  They are part of their family and it showed.

I think this is the first time that I have ever seen a farmer use a pink flamingo as part of their branding process.

I won’t tell you the winner here since it will be posted on the Top Producer section of www.agweb.com.

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.

Most of the partnerships that developed in the 1970s and 1980s to take advantage of cost savings failed since the most important object for them was purely financial.  For Chris and his “partners”, the other non-financial considerations are more important.  That is why I think we will see more and more of these type arrangements, especially with new combines in excess of $350,000, etc.

There were several break-out sessions and I attended one on the quest for 300 bushel yields.  There are 7 key components that get you to this number and some are more important than others.  Since in our area, irrigated corn is consistently in the high 275-300 bushel range, these numbers are very realistic.

I did one break-out session today and I look forward to Thursday when I do three of them.

I will keep you posted.

The main Top Producer conference begins on Wednesday and goes through Friday morning.  I have three breakout sessions on Thursday morning from 8:15 to noon dealing with tax savings tips, etc.  At the end of the third one, I will be worn out from talking.

I look forward to the conference and please feel free to stop me at any point during the conference to discuss farm accounting, taxes and who will win the Super Bowl.

On another note, we had some technical difficulties with our site yesterday.   The company that hosts the site had an issue with their internal database for our site and many others.  I would like to say it was very nice to be able to actually call and talk to someone in technical support without being on hold for an hour and they got the issue resolved fairly timely, but we were down for most of yesterday, but everything seems to be working just fine now.  Many of these so called hi-tech sites (including Google and others like it) seem to feel that customer support does not involve telephone numbers or talking to a human being over the phone.  It is very refreshing when one does allow this.

The Job Creation Act of 2010 reduced the Social Security tax component of the SE tax from 12.4% to 10.4%, for 2011 only.  Therefore, the SE tax rate on the first $106,800 of 2011 net SE income is “only” 13.3% (10.4% for FICA and 2.9% for Medicare) versus the normal 15.3%.  Since the temporary SE tax reduction only affects the first $106,800 of 2011 net SE income, the maximum amount that a farmer can save is $2,136 ($106,800 times 2%).

What you may not know is that the 2011 above-the-line federal income tax deduction (most states allow the deduction also) remains unchanged.  Before 2011, the deduction was a straightforward 50% of the SE tax bill.  For 2011, the deduction equals 57.51% of the SE tax amount, as long as the amount does not exceed $14,204 (the SE tax on $106,800 of net SE income).  If the SE tax exceeds this amount, you multiply it by 50% and add $1,067.

The effect is to allow a SE tax deduction equal to 50% of what the SE tax bill would have been if the Social Security tax component was the normal 12.4% (instead of the temporary 10.4%).

There has been an extension of this until February 29, 2012 and it may get extended, but we are dealing with Congress on this subject and who knows what will happen.

Also, one additional comment is that the self-employed health insurance premiums allowed as a deduction against SE income for 2010 in arriving at net SE tax owed has been eliminated for 2011.  This means that your SE tax bill will be higher this year than 2010 assuming the same amount of health insurance premiums.

What many farmers do not realize is if the wages reported for any quarter exceed $20,000, the corporation is now subject to paying Federal Unemployment taxes (FUTA) and in most cases state Unemployment taxes (SUTA).  Although FUTA can be fairly minor (perhaps $42 per person), it can increase to around $400 per person if SUTA is no handled or paid correctly.

In many states, once you are subject to SUTA it can take a minimum of two years to get out of paying it since it requires you to be under the $20,000 quarterly threshold for the current year and the previous year.  Also, these states usually require you to be in the highest rated pool and your tax rate can exceed 3.5% and you would owe SUTA on up to $35,000 in wages or more.

Let’s look at an example, assume the farmer pays himself $50,000 per year in wages all in the fourth quarter.  Let’s assume his SUTA rate is 3.5% on the first $35,000 of wages.  His SUTA liability would be $1,225.  His normal FUTA liability would be 6% of $7,000 or $420, however, since he paid into the State, he is allowed a credit to reduce this liability down to $42 (some states do not get the maximum credit.  We recapped that in a post about two weeks ago).  Therefore, his total SUTA and FUTA liability for 2012 is $1,267.

Now, if the farmer has spread out his wages evenly over the four quarters, he would not owe any FUTA or SUTA.  Also, the payment of commodity wages is exempt from FUTA and SUTA (although you need to check your state rules).

Every state seems to have different rules on the application of SUTA to shareholders of a corporation, but at a minimum if you keep your total wages under $20,000 per quarter, you can save some payroll taxes.

For January, the index rose to 59.8 from 59.7 in December which is the highest it has been since June 2007.

Here are some other trends from the survey:

• Bankers expect average farm input costs to rise by 7.2% in 2012
• 9 of 10 bankers do not expect the end of the blender’s tax credit to have a significant negative impact
• More than one in four bankers indicated that a decline in agriculture commodity prices is the biggest economic challenge in 2012
• Almost as many indicated a shortage of jobs and workers was the main economic challenge

After rising to a record level of 84.1 in December, the farmland price index fell almost 12% to 74.3 in January, 2012.  A recap by state is as follows:

• Colorado – Dropped from 88.5 to 78.9
• Iowa – Dropped from 77.1 to 68.2
• Minnesota – Dropped from 76.2 to 57.8
• Nebraska – Dropped from 84.6 to 73.5
• South Dakota – Dropped from 69.4 to 60.1
• Wyoming – Dropped from 84.3 to 73.9

These are healthy drops in the index, however, this drop is based on only one month of data and December can very very skewed with certain sales happening for tax purposes.  It will be interesting to see what the index numbers for February are.

The correction on the post is that a deferred sales contract calls for the delivery and sale of the grain in 2011, however, the payment of the grains sales delivered in 2011 will be deferred til 2012.  If your grain sales contract meets this criteria, then you would normally report the grain sales in 2012 since that is when you collected the funds (assuming a cash basis farmer).

However, you may elect out of this installment sale on a contract by contract basis and report the income in 2011 if you so choose.

I am sorry for the confusion.

“You previously wrote about electing out of deferred farm sales where the farmer could elect to include the income for a March delivery contract into the previous year to increase his taxable income in the previous year. I deferred my payment on my 2011 grain until 1/3/12. Can I elect to show part of this income on my 2011 taxes. ”

When a farmer sells their grain on a deferred sales contract into the next year, they can elect out of the installment method on the grain that is covered by that particular sales contract.  The key point is that they have to elect out of all of the grain covered by the contract or none of it.

In the question, the bushels of grain covered by the contract for delivery on January 3, 2012, all of that grain would have to be reported as income in 2011 if he elects out of reporting it in 2012.  He cannot elect to report part in 2011 and part in 2012.

That is why we suggest having multiple smaller deferred sales contracts so you can pick the best one to defer if you need to.

For example, let’s assume the farmer above had sold 25,000 bushels of corn for $150,000 delivered on January 3, 2012.  He can elect to report all of this income in either 2011 or 2012, but it has to be all in one year or the other.  Now, let’s assume he entered into 5 separate 5,000 contracts at $30,000 apiece.  Under this example, he can elect out of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 of these contracts to bring in $30, 60, 90, 120 or $150,000 of income into 2011 if he so elects.  By spreading the contracts this way, he has five times the flexibility than having one contract.