Month: November 2019

When Creating 2020 Budgets, Keep in Mind Family Living Costs

By: Bradley Zwilling, Illinois FBFM Association and Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. University of Illinois. farmdoc Daily (9):216

In 2018, the total noncapital living expenses of 1,306 farm families enrolled in the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association (FBFM) average was $77,999–or $6,500 a month for each family. This average was 2.3 percent lower than in 2017.  Another $4,579 was used to buy capital items such as the personal share of the family automobile, furniture, and household equipment.  Thus, the grand total for living expenses averaged $82,578 for 2018 compared with $85,542 for 2017, or a $2,964 decrease per family. Continue reading When Creating 2020 Budgets, Keep in Mind Family Living Costs →

From Across the Field – 11/7/2019

High Moisture Harvest

How it is November already, where did fall go? As things progress with harvest around the county, the intermittent rain sure hasn’t helped with the already slow crop dry down. With regards to corn specifically, we can estimate how quickly corn will dry in the field. Based on the forecast, if your corn is at 30% moisture now, in 10 days it will be about 25% moisture and by the end of the month it may reach 21%. If our current moisture is 25%, in 10 days it will be about 22% moisture and by the end of the month it may reach 20%. When looking at these numbers, it seems like corn is field drying well.

However, if we look at the forecast for corn at 20% now, the calculator predicts a moisture loss of less than half a point over the next 10 days and less than a point by the end of the month. Keep in mind, these are median predictions and if the weather model changes, we could see more-or-less field dry down. Continue reading From Across the Field – 11/7/2019 →

Farm Bill Meetings To Be Held Across Ohio

By: Davis Marrison, OSU Extension

Click here for complete article with locations of meetings

Ohio State University Extension and the USDA Farm Service Agency in Ohio are partnering to provide a series of educational Farm Bill meetings this winter to help producers make informed decisions related to enrollment in commodity programs.

The 2018 Farm Bill reauthorized the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) safety net programs that were in the 2014 Farm Bill. While the ARC and PLC programs under the new farm bill remain very similar to the previous farm bill, there are some changes that producers should be aware of.

Farm Bill meetings will review changes to the ARC/PLC programs as well as important dates and deadlines. Additionally, attendees will learn about decision tools and calculators available to help, which program best fits the needs of their farms under current market conditions and outlook. Continue reading Farm Bill Meetings To Be Held Across Ohio →

Ohio Bill Would Provide Support For Beginning Farmers

Published by the Ohio Farmer Online

A bipartisan effort to create incentives to support new and beginning farmers is gaining traction and broad support in the Ohio Legislature.

The Ohio Soybean Association recently testified before the Ohio House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee in support of House Bill 183.

“The average age of farmers in Ohio increased from 54.6 in 2012 to 55.8 in 2017,” said Trish Cunningham, OSA Policy Committee chair who testified on behalf of OSA. “As this increases, the need to support the next generation of farmers becomes more critical.”

Sponsored by Rep. Susan Manchester, R-Waynesfield, and Rep. John Patterson D-Jefferson, HB 183 will provide a state income tax credit to established farmers and agricultural producers that sell or rent assets such as land, machinery, building facilities and livestock to a beginning farmer. This credit is equivalent to 5% of the sale price, 10% of the cash rent, or 15% for a cash share deal. Continue reading Ohio Bill Would Provide Support For Beginning Farmers →

How Much Hay Will A Cow Consume?

By: Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist. (Previously published by Drovers online)

Estimating forage usage by cows is an important part of the task of calculating winter feed needs.  Hay or standing forage intake must be estimated in order to make the calculations.  Forage quality will be a determining factor in the amount of forage consumed.  Higher quality forages contain larger concentrations of important nutrients so animals consuming these forages should be more likely to meet their nutrient needs from the forages.  Also cows can consume a larger quantity of higher quality forages. Continue reading How Much Hay Will A Cow Consume? →

Cautious Optimism on CWD

By: John Maday. (Originally published by Drovers online).

Since Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) first emerged in captive deer in Colorado in the 1960s, the prion disease has spread to at least 26 states, three Canadian provinces and several countries in Europe. While the fatal disease continues to spread, fears that it could cross species barriers to affect livestock or humans have, so far, not come to fruition.

Results of a long-term exposure trial, reported in 2018 in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, for example, support the belief that the lethal prion disease is highly unlikely to spread to cattle. Continue reading Cautious Optimism on CWD →

From Across the Field – 10/31/2019

Older and Wiser?

Each year at the end of October I get an annual reminder that I am another year older. As a kid, my dad’s side of the family practiced the tradition of “Birthday Bumps”, where as long as you were small enough to lift, you were picked up and had you backside bumped against the wall, one each per year of age. These were always followed by “one to grow on, one to learn on, and one to behave on.”

Now as an adult, who hasn’t had to worry about being “bumped” for some time, I think our birthdays are a good time to reflect on what we have learned over the past year. This year, given the challenges brought to us by Mother Nature, everyone involved with agriculture had the opportunity to learn quite a bit. On one hand we learned that we’d rather not have a “2019 Spring” any time soon. On the other, farmers and landowners have learned how to manage planting delays, unplanted acres, annual forages, and cover crops among other things in a way that they haven’t before. Continue reading From Across the Field – 10/31/2019 →

Measuring Financial Stress

By: Michael Langemeier, Center for Commercial Agriculture, Purdue University. November 1, 2019. farmdoc daily (9):206

Financial stress is typically measured using a profitability measure and a solvency measure.  For example, profitability could be measured using the operating profit margin ratio and solvency could be measured using the debt to asset ratio.  As noted in Langemeier (2016) and Langemeier and Yeager (2018), the operating profit margin is a useful benchmark when comparing financial performance among farms.  The operating profit margin ratio is computed by adding interest expense and subtracting unpaid family and operator labor from net farm income and dividing the result by either value of farm production or gross revenue. Continue reading Measuring Financial Stress →

Assessing the Research Needs from the 2019 Production Year

By Greg LaBarge, CPAg/CCA, Dee Jepsen, Ben Brown, Anne Dorrance, Sam Custer, Jason Hartschuh, CCA, Ohio State University Extension

The 2019 production year has presented many challenges. Ohio State University Extension wants to be responsive to needs of the agricultural community. At short survey aimed at farmers to identify both short- and long-term outreach and research needs of Ohio crop and livestock/forage producers based on the 2019 farm crisis year has been developed. Questions relate to crop production, livestock forage needs, emergency forage success, economic and human stress concerns. Since challenges and concerns varied across the state, this survey is designed to assess needs on a county, regional and statewide basis. The study will be used to determine Extension programming and future research needs.

Please consider sharing your experiences at  https://go.osu.edu/ag2019.