Agricultural Business Management News

by David Bau, Extension Educator U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced details of actions the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take to assist farmers in response to trade damage from unjustified retaliation by foreign nations.  The USDA will authorize up to $12 billion in programs, consistent with our World Trade Organization obligations.  These programs will assist agricultural producers to meet the costs of disrupted markets. The USDA aid package will be implemented in 2018 and will include three components: USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) will administer the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) to provide direct payments to farmers for corn, cotton, dairy, hog, sorghum, soybean, and wheat producers starting September 4, 2018. Total allocation for phase 1 of the MFP program is approximately $4.7 billion, plus a similar amount for phase 2, if all payments are allocated. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will administer a Food Purchase and Distrib

by David Bau, Extension Educator Each year I put together tables listing actual farmland rental rates by county from Adult Farm Management Records.  Unfortunately farmers and landlords are starting to negotiate 2019 farmland rental rates and the last actual numbers available are for 2017 so I am forced to estimate figures for 2018 and 2019.  When I did this last year I used an estimate of a 2.5% decline and the actual figure came in at 3.9% decline statewide.  For 2017 I heard many times that rents were down, although some rents went up and some remained the same, in table 1 below I estimated a 4% decline in 2018 from 2017. But what direction should 2019 farmland rental rates go?  How do I determine an estimate for 2018 farmland rental rates? Should they stay the same?  Landlord property taxes continue to increase. While the state legislature help with some of the school referendum costs, they still increase taxes.  If rents stay the same, a landlord’s income will go down if ta