Day: February 4, 2025

Property owners and suspicious drone activity: what laws apply?

Written by Peggy Kirk Hall, Attorney and Director, Agricultural & Resource Law Program

Drones, or more accurately named Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), have helped provide new methods of pesticide applications and agronomic data collection to assist farmers with productivity and efficiency. Yet the possibility of unknown drones flying over a farm property can cause concerns. Recent conversations and sightings of drones in rural areas have producers raising questions such as “what can I do about suspicious drone activity” and “can I shoot down a drone over my property?” Federal and state laws provide answers to these questions. Here are several points farmers need to know about dealing with UAVs traveling over their properties.

1. Shooting a drone is a crime under federal and state laws. Federal law prohibits a person from intentionally harming UAVs and other aircraft. It is a federal felony to willfully “damage, destroy, disable, or wreck any aircraft,” and the federal government has prosecuted persons for doing so. The potential punishment can be severe: a fine of up to $250,000 and twenty years of imprisonment. Ohio law also establishes a crime for “endangering aircraft.” A person who knowingly discharges a firearm, air gun, or spring-operated gun at or toward any aircraft can be subject to misdemeanor or felony charges, fines, and imprisonment, depending upon the risk of harm resulting from the endangerment. Continue reading Property owners and suspicious drone activity: what laws apply? →

C.O.R.N. Newsletter: January 28 – February 3

In this edition of the C.O.R.N. Newsletter:

  • 2025 Corn College and Soybean School – Alyssa Essman, Stephanie Karhoff, Amanda Douridas
  • Considerations for Soybean Trait Programs in 2025 – Alyssa Essman, Stephanie Karhoff, Peggy Hall, Nic Baumer
  • Meet your new forage Extension state specialist – Dr. Emma Matcham – Stephanie Karhoff, Alyssa Essman, Amanada Douridas
  • Hot, Dry, and Extreme 2024 – Aaron Wilson, Geddy Davis
  • Soybean Resilience Blueprint – Free Webinar Series – Laura Lindsey
  • Register for the upcoming Certified Livestock Management (CLM) webinar series! – Rachel Cochran, Amber Emmons, Paige Garrabrant, Joccelyn Ruble, Heather Torlina

C.O.R.N. Newsletter is a summary of crop observations, related information, and appropriate recommendations for Ohio crop producers and industry. C.O.R.N. Newsletter is produced by the Ohio State University Extension Agronomy Team, state specialists at The Ohio State University and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). C.O.R.N. Newsletter questions are directed to Extension and OARDC state specialists and associates at Ohio State.

Principles of Government: Tariffs

Written by Robert Moore

Note: This article marks the beginning of a new series, Principles of Government, where we explore key legal concepts shaping public discourse. Our goal is to provide a clear, unbiased, and nonpolitical explanation of these issues, allowing readers to form their own opinions on the social, political, and economic impacts. As new developments arise, we will continue expanding this series to keep you informed.

What Is a Tariff?

A tariff is a tax or duty imposed by a government on imported goods. Tariffs serve several purposes, including generating revenue for the government, protecting domestic industries from foreign competition, and sometimes serving as a tool in international trade negotiations. When a country imposes tariffs, it raises the cost of imported goods, making domestically produced alternatives more competitive. Tariffs are typically applied as a percentage of the value of the imported goods but can be a fixed amount per unit of goods.

Who Pays the Tax on a U.S. Tariff?

When the U.S. imposes a tariff on imported goods, the tax is paid by the importer of record, typically a U.S. company or individual bringing the goods into the country. The foreign exporter does not pay the tariff directly. Instead, the importer must pay the tariff before the goods clear customs.  To offset this cost, the importer may either pass it on to consumers through higher prices or absorb it, reducing their profit margin.

Where Does the Tax Go?

The tariff revenue collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is deposited into the U.S. Treasury’s general fund. This money is not earmarked for a specific program but becomes part of the government’s overall revenue, which can be used for federal spending, such as infrastructure, defense, or social programs.

Example

U.S. Flour Co. purchases wheat from Canada Wheat Co. for $1 million. The U.S. government imposes a 25% tariff on all Canadian wheat imports. As a result, U.S. Flour Co. must pay an additional $250,000 in tariff duties to U.S. Customs and Border Protection before the wheat can clear customs. This increases the total cost of the imported wheat to $1.25 million, which U.S. Flour Co. may either absorb or pass on to consumers through higher prices. Continue reading Principles of Government: Tariffs →

OSU Extension Small Farm Conference to be held – at Ohio State University Wooster Shisler Center Wooster, Ohio

By: Julie Wayman Community Development Educator OSU Extension Ashtabula County

Ohio State Extension announced plans to host a Small Farm Conference in Wooster, OH on March 8th. The theme for this year’s Small Farm Conference is “Sowing Seeds for Success.”

Conference session topics are geared to beginning and small farm owners as well as to farms looking to diversify their operation. There will be five different conference tracks including: Horticulture and Crop Production, Business Management, Livestock, Natural Resources and Diversifying Your Enterprise.

Some conference topic highlights include: Growing in a Hoophouse, Integrated Disease Management Strategies for Apple and Peaches, High Tunnel Tour, Using Cover Crops for Soil Regeneration, Creating Habitat for Beneficial Insects on the Farm, Growing Microgreens, Money to Grow: Grants 101, Growing Your Farm With Agritourism, Navigating Licenses/Certificates for your Small Farm Market, How Can Value – Added Help Your Farm, Vaccination Programs for a Small Farm, Grassfed Beef Tour. Continue reading OSU Extension Small Farm Conference to be held – at Ohio State University Wooster Shisler Center Wooster, Ohio →

BEEF Cattle Letter: January 29

Five new articles have been posted in this week’s issue number 1432 of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter: http://u.osu.edu/beef/

Are you signed up to receive the link to this evening’s first session of Ohio Beef School, a market outlook session with Kenny Burdine? It’s not too late to plan to join us . . . find details here: https://u.osu.edu/beef/2025/01/08/ohio-virtual-beef-school-begins-january-29-an-evening-with-kenny-burdine/

Articles this week include:

  • A vaccination strategy for newborn, and calves under 4 months of age
  • Scours Vaccines*: What are the Options?
  • Cattle Prices Hit New Highs to Start 2025
  • Placements Below Expectations in January Cattle-on-Feed Report
  • Headcounts aren’t everything: Understanding the full impact of cattle inventories

Newsletter release by Stan Smith, OSU Extension ANR Program Assistant, Fairfield County

What might be the impact on agriculture of tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports?

Written by Peggy Kirk Hall, Attorney and Director, Agricultural & Resource Law Program

The new presidential administration has raised the possibility of enacting tariffs, leading many to ask us how tariffs work and how they will affect agriculture. The tariff power is one of those topics that might have us reaching back to the last civics or government class we took and raising some questions. For example, what is the source of tariff authority, when can the government levy a tariff, and how does the tariff process play out? A desire to answer such questions led us to develop a new blog series on the “Principles of Government.” In this series, we endeavor to review and enhance our knowledge of our government and how it works.  We’ll begin the series this week with an explanation of the tariff power, then we’ll tackle other topics like executive orders, administrative agency authority, and the Constitution. But first, we offer an answer from our OSU colleagues on the important question of how potential tariffs could affect agriculture. Thank you to our guest expert authors for the following article, which helps us understand how tariffs against Canada and Mexico could impact agriculture.

Authors:

Ian Sheldon, Professor and Andersons Chair of Agricultural Marketing, Trade, and Policy, Dept. of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, Ohio State University

Chris Zoller, Interim Assistant Director Agriculture & Natural Resources (ANR), Ohio State University Extension

First Trade Policy Announcement(s) by the New Administration

Both before and after the 2024 presidential election, the trade policy community has been speculating about and discussing the likely economic impact of tariffs an incoming administration might implement once in office.  With the inauguration of President Trump on January 20, we now have the first view of what could be in store for US trade policy.  Specifically, while new tariffs have not been imposed immediately, the President indicated the possibility that 25 percent tariffs would be applied to imports from Canada and Mexico as of February 1 (Reuters, January 20, 2025).  Surprisingly, the much talked of hike in tariffs to 60 percent on all imports from China, and a 10 percent tariff on imports from the rest-of-the-world, have yet to be announced, the President instead ordering the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to investigate unfair trading practices globally, and whether China complied with the US-China Phase 1 Trade Agreement signed in 2020 (Bloomberg, January 20, 2025).

Potential Impact of Tariffs on US Agricultural Sector

With the integrated agricultural market that has evolved under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and its renegotiated successor the US-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA), it should come as no surprise that Mexico and Canada are the top-two US agricultural export markets at $29.9 and $29.2 billion respectively (USDA/FAS, Outlook for US Agricultural Trade, November 2024).  Given the importance of these two markets to US farmers, and also in light of the declining US share of China’s imports of feed grains and soybeans (Glauber, IFPRI, December 2024), a trade war between USMCA members has the potential to have a serious impact on future US farm incomes. However, any analysis of the impact of such tariffs is an exercise in economic forecasting, and will also depend on the extent to which Mexico and Canada choose to retaliate, although Canada has already indicated it will respond in kind (Associated Press, January 20, 2026).

Agricultural economists at North Dakota State University have recently analyzed various US tariff scenarios (Steinbach et al., farmdoc, and Food Policy, 2024), which they have updated to include the impact of 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico (Steinbach et al., CAPTS, 2024).  Their analysis focuses on the potential export market losses in 2025 for 11 agricultural commodities, using baseline export projections for 2025 from the World Agricultural Board’s (WAOB) demand and supply estimates (WAOB, 2024). The sensitivity of US agricultural exports to the imposition of foreign tariffs is based on published estimates from the 2018/19 trade wear (Grant et al., Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 2021).

In the following table, three scenarios are reported for five commodities: soybeans, corn, dairy products, beef and beef products, and pork and pork products, along with total projected losses for the US agricultural sector.   Scenario 1 assumes 25 percent US tariffs on Canadian imports are met with 25 percent Canadian tariffs on US imports; Scenario 2 assumes 25 percent US tariffs on Mexican imports are met with 25 percent Mexican tariffs on US imports; and Scenario 3 combines Scenarios 1 and 3 with tit-for-tat additional US/Chinese tariffs of 10 percent.  The latter scenario is included here given President Trump has also signaled he will introduce an additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China as of February 1 (Guardian, January 22, 2025).

   

Source: Steinbach et al., 2024

While the total forecast losses to the agricultural sector are quite similar for Canada and Mexico, there is clear variation across key commodities, and forecast losses for the listed commodities are also higher for US/Mexican tariffs as compared to US/Canadian tariffs.  Importantly, these forecast losses increase if additional 10 percent tariffs are levied on Chinese imports, and subsequently matched by China.

While not reported in the table, if the United States were also to levy 60 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports, and 10 percent tariffs on all imports from the rest of the world, with tit-for-tat retaliation, the total value of US agricultural exports for 2025 are forecast to decline 34.4 percent, i.e., a loss of $60.6 billion.  In this scenario, US soybeans would be the most vulnerable, followed by wheat and corn.  At the state level, Ohio agriculture is forecast to lose -$705 million in export value in 2025 if the most extreme scenario plays out, with a loss of -$359 million for soybean exports.

Although these expected losses are obviously subject to forecast error, at a time when commodity prices have been falling, additional uncertainty about export markets due to changing US trade policy will likely exacerbate any financial stress faced by US farmers.   It will also place additional pressure on the federal government to consider ways of reducing sectoral stress through further ad hoc payments to farmers similar to the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) applied during the 2018/19 trade war.

Financial planning is always a critical component of operating a farm business, and the potential negative impacts of tariffs reinforce the need to analyze costs, evaluate alternatives, and develop plans.  For assistance, please contact your Extension Educator and enroll in the OSU Extension Farm Business Analysis and Benchmarking Program (https://farmprofitability.osu.edu/).  Enrolling in this program will provide you an in-depth analysis of your farm business and allow you to plan for future success.

We’ll explain the tariff power in our next post on the Ohio Ag Law Blog, when we kick off our Principles of Government series.