Agriculture Commons^™

Recognizing Power And Control When Planning Your Estate, Allan Vyhnalek

Cornhusker Economics

The older generations have spent their entire professional lives using the power and control that they accumulated through hard work and their long tenures. Having them retire and give up that control and power is difficult for some in those generations. Overall, it is challenging for them to give up control or power.

Agriculture And Community Well-Being: A Review Of Three Research Studies., Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

Personal observations are often obscure to the facts. For instance, recently I worked at a booth at Husker Harvest Days. The booth focused on rural community development. My observations were that many of the agricultural producers decided to not stop at our booth or for those who did stop, conversations showed a disconnect of the importance of their local community to their farm operations. Similarly, when working with communities, I have observed the lack of understanding of the importance of the agricultural producers to the local community’s well-being. Why the disconnect between these two very important components of our rural …

Pass-Through Entity Tax Deduction, Tina N. Barrett

Cornhusker Economics

In 2023, the State of Nebraska became the 36th state to implement a Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) Deduction law. This law is in response to a change made by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 which limited the state and local tax deduction eligible for itemized deductions to $10,000. This new state law allows partnerships and s-corporations to pay the state income tax on behalf of their owners which qualifies it for a federal tax law deduction. The individuals will then receive a credit on their individual return for the tax paid on their behalf.

Will Nebraska Farms And Ranches Be Ready For Double Digit Operating Line Rates?, Jeffrey Stokes, Jim Jansen

Cornhusker Economics

For those involved in agriculture, it has been quite a while since interest rates on farm real estate, equipment, and operating lines have been as high as they are for the industry. As the fall harvest winds down and producers focus on next year, interest rates on operating lines may cause shock. It has been over 20 years since interest rates on operating lines exceeded 10%. To better understand what may be causing interest rates on operating lines to rise, it will be beneficial to understand some basic monetary policy tools the Fed has at its disposal. The tool receiving …

Notes From The Brazilian Cornfields, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

In the last few months, I have been traveling in Brazil. My objective with this trip is to meet with industry professionals, government officials, and academic researchers to learn about recent developments in Brazilian agriculture and what we can expect to see in the future. I have essentially been asking people their opinions about the main developments in Brazil in the last few years and their perspectives for the future. One of the main topics that has emerged consistently in these conversations is, not surprisingly, the corn market.

Diesel Tractor Fuel Efficiency And Exhaust Emissions Standards, Jerin Tekolste, Cory Walters, Michael Mccullough, Lynn Hamilton, Lia Nogueira, Roger M. Hoy

Cornhusker Economics

Diesel engine performance and costs represent crucial factors for agricultural producers while pollutants from the exhaust are largely a social concern but also important to producers. Beginning in 1970, Congress authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions with amendments in subsequent years (U.S. EPA, 2023). In 1996 the EPA issued strict Exhaust Emission Standards for Nonroad Compression-Ignition Engines, causing a major paradigm shift in acceptable emission levels. A primary concern coming from many manufacturers was the difficulty of designing an engine to meet these standards without compromising the engines’ power output and efficient fuel consumption (Lloyd and Cackette 2001; …

Owning Our Identity – Celebrating Cooperatives In 2023, Charlotte Narjes

Cornhusker Economics

Owning Our Identity is the 2023 theme to build awareness of cooperatives nationally. October has been nationally recognized as cooperative month since 1964. The following bullets in this year’s USDA Proclamation emphasize the impact of cooperatives.

Market And Welfare Impacts Of A “Portion Size Reduction” Policy, Hanin Hosni, Konstantinos Giannakas

Cornhusker Economics

The portion size of common food items consumed at home, restaurants and fast-food establishments in the United States (US) has increased since the 1970s, with the portion size of meals and beverages in several restaurants exceeding the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration recommendations. Portion size has continued to grow in parallel with increasing body weights and food waste. According to USDA, 35% of the US population suffers from obesity while 40 million people are food insecure. At the same time, about 1/3 of the US food supply goes unconsumed, with 2/3 of food waste occurring …

Insurance, Policy, And Education For Livestock Producers, Milan Chauhan, Bradley Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

Federal crop insurance programs have existed since the 1930s, but for livestock producers, federal insurance programs were virtually nonexistent until the past 20 years. Livestock producers may not face exactly the same production risks that crop producers face, but they do face similar production risks related to grazing capacity and forage production and of course face price risks just like crop producers do.

A Classical Fall Statistics Problem, Timothy L. Meyer

Cornhusker Economics

An evaluation of traditional baseball measures and suggestions for alternatives, centering on statistics related to the offensive quality of a player.

New Foods Produced With Genome-Editing Technique In The Global Marketplace, Stéphan Marette, Anne-Célia Disdier, John C. Beghin

Cornhusker Economics

This Cornhusker Economics article builds upon a previous Cornhusker Economics article of September 8, 2021, on the heterogenous willingness to pay (WTP) for genome edited (GenEd) apples in France and the US (Beghin, 2022). Using graphical illustration, this new article summarizes in layman's terms two related economic analyses by Marette et al. (2022) and (2023). These analyses investigate Research and Development (R&D) investment in food innovations based on New Plant Engineering Techniques (NPETs), such as GenEd and traditional hybridization methods, and then in the context of international trade. With trade, innovators compete globally with their food novelties in each other’s …

Remote Work Is Not Going Away: How Can Rural Communities Take Advantage Of This Opportunity?, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Since the COVID-19 pandemic as of 2020, are we looking at a national remote work “new normal” with a hybrid office and remote work combination as an additional option? This is an important question for rural areas. Discusses remote work trends and steps needed to leverage remote work in the rural context.

Seasons, Stress, Salience, And Support For Cooperative Groundwater Management, Jordan Suter, Todd Guilfoos, Karina Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

Background: Common property resources (CPR) are defined as resources where one person’s use affects what is available to others (either now or in the future). One example of a CPR is a shared aquifer, where multiple users have access to the groundwater. Economic researchers have shown that with a CPR, there are economic benefits to regulating the use of the resource, and that well-designed regulation increases the sustainability of agricultural-based economies that rely on CPRs. Many such regulations exist, and examples include allocation limits in some of Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts and Kansas’s Groundwater Management Districts, as well as …

2023 Cash Lease Adjustments For Irrigation Equipment On Cropland Rental Arrangements In Nebraska, Jim Jansen, Jeff Stokes

Cornhusker Economics

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey and Report 2022-2023 provides insight into recent trends in the market value of agricultural land and cash rental rates across the state. Each year, the special feature section covers topics on new or emerging issues related to the agricultural land industry in Nebraska. These topics reflect the interest expressed by panel members and readership of the Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Highlights Reports. The 2023 special feature section focuses on cash lease adjustments on irrigation equipment for cropland rental arrangements across Nebraska when the tenant provides a component of the …

Your Farm’S Financial Condition And Profitability Revisited, Matt Stockton, Shannon Sand

Cornhusker Economics

Looking at December futures contracts, corn prices may have reached a high and are tending to recede. If they stay higher, producers will likely have a good year. Still, if they tend to decline, which is possible given current carryover and supply projections, prices may stabilize or decline as we approach harvest. Those with multiperil crop insurance in areas with lower yields, e.g., droughtstricken areas with sufficiently high enough levels of coverage, will benefit from the February projected price of $5.91/bu. For the past two seasons, fall prices exceeded projected prices in the spring, making selling at harvest an attractive …

Assessing Determinants Of Participation In Conservation Programs In The U.S., Manita Ale, Simanti Banerjee, Taro Mieno, Karina Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

In order to generate ecosystem services (ES) from privately owned intensively managed agricultural land, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have implemented many conservation programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), to name a few. These programs provide financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers to adopt land management practices that generate ES.

Intertemporal Preferences Or (In)Attention To Future Costs: Identifying Factors Influencing Variation In Health Behaviors, Christopher Gustafson

Cornhusker Economics

When you have the urge to buy a fancy coffee drink at your favorite coffee place, do you think about alternative future uses of the money that you would spend on the drink? If, in the end, you decide to forego buying the drink to save money, you have, by definition, considered what you are giving up now—the drink—in order to have the money later, but many people may not consider the future opportunities they forego when they make decisions now. Research suggests that this asymmetric attention to immediate versus future opportunity costs— the benefits that we give up when …

Nebraska Extension: Supporting The Well-Being Of Farmers And Ranchers, Jessica Groskopf

Cornhusker Economics

Nebraska Extension is a proud member of the North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center. A regional center funded by USDA NIFA, it delivers farm and ranch stress and mental health resources and services in 12 states, including Nebraska.

Since 2021, several programs delivered by Nebraska Extension and its partners have been supported with these funds. This article will review the key programs supported in Nebraska.

Tas Orders, Innovations And Challenges In Futures Markets, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

Futures contracts and futures exchanges were developed a long time ago in the process of evolution of commodity trading. They were created with the purpose of facilitating the buying and selling of commodities. Despite challenges along the way, they helped make commodity trading faster, easier, and more efficient for many buyers and sellers. Still today, futures exchanges are constantly looking for new ways to adjust to new developments in commodity markets and further facilitate trading. After all, as we have previously discussed in this space, futures exchanges provide a service to buyers and sellers, i.e., the marketplace to trade futures …

Crop-Livestock Diversification And Efficiency In Agriculture, Jay Parsons, Maroua Afi

Cornhusker Economics

Diversification is a familiar strategy for managing risk in agriculture. It can take several forms including growing more than one crop or operating a farm with both crop and livestock enterprises. As with other strategies for managing risk, diversification comes with a unique set of costs. Managing a farm with multiple enterprises creates additional overhead as well as additional demands on management, labor, land, capital, and other resources. Diversification adds complexity to an operation and too much complexity can lead to inefficiencies.

Could The Epa Cause The Next Farm Financial Crisis?, Jeff Stokes, Jim Jansen

Cornhusker Economics

The inflation that crept into the economy in 2022 surprised many since it had not been seen for about 40 years. What has also not been seen for about 40 years is the type of farm-level financial stress causing some quarter of a million farms lost, the devastation of whole rural communities, and a compromised community banking sector and Farm Credit System (FCS). In 1981, as the Federal Reserve’s tighter monetary policy began to take effect, U.S. farmland value nominally peaked at about $785b. By 1985, it had fallen by about 31% from the peak resulting in a sector debt-to-asset …

Utilizing Nebraska Case Farms To Analyze Farm-Level Income And Policy Changes, Tatum R. Brunkow, Brad Lubben, Glennis Mcmclure

Cornhusker Economics

Agricultural producers, professionals, and policymakers often look to long-run projections for the agricultural industry as they make business and policy decisions. They can look to three different baseline projections that are produced by the United States Department of Agriculture, the Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). These baselines provide a 10-year outlook for the agricultural industry from prices and inventories for crops and livestock to international markets and income and expenditures. While this information provides insight into what direction agriculture may move, it can be hard to see the impact at the state …

The History Of Emission Trading Programs And The Future Of Agricultural Sequestration Carbon Offsets, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Agricultural carbon credits based on sequestering (i.e. storing) additional soil carbon are a relatively recent phenomenon in the effort to address global warming. Businesses have purchased ag sequestration carbon credits to help meet their greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction pledges. Ag sequestration carbon credits are difficult and expensive to accurately measure and usually represent only temporary GHG reductions, not permanent ones. A major USDA study is underway to examine the advantages and disadvantages of ag sequestration carbon credits and their use in achieving voluntary business GHG reduction plans. This paper takes a quick look at (1) the development of the acid …

Rural Development Hubs, A Possibility For Nebraska?, Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

The Aspen Institute, Community Strategies Group conducted an analysis of 43 Rural Development Hubs from across the country to discover their strategies, organizational structures, regional roles, and practices. Their aim was to learn how rural regions can help investors, policymakers and other local and regional decision-makers better serve their regions. The following provides an overview of their findings detailed in the report: Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America’s Rural Innovation Infrastructure. The report provides an opportunity for further discussion on the potential role of Rural Development Hubs in Nebraska. Rural Development Hubs are defined as a “place-rooted organization working hand-in -glove …

They Shrank The Futures Contracts! Mini Futures Contracts: What They Are And How To Use Them, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

Mini futures contracts (or e-mini, since they are traded electronically) were first developed in the late 1990s based on futures contracts that already existed. The main characteristic of mini contracts is that they represent a fraction of standard-size contracts. For example, the first mini contract was launched in 1997 and based on the S&P500 futures contract. The size of the standard futures contract is $250 times the value of the S&P500 index, while the size of the mini futures contract is $50 times the value of the S&P500 index. If the index is at 4,200 points, the total value of …

Nebraska National Agri-Marketing Association (Nama) Is Back On Track, Ashton Humphreys, Rosalee A. Swartz

Cornhusker Economics

UNL’s National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) student organization is one of more than thirty student chapters across the U.S. and Canada. NAMA’s objective is to make students aware of the many career opportunities in agricultural marketing. Building strong connections between students and professionals in marketing, advertising, communications, promotion, sales, and public relations is the key to this objective. NAMA members also have opportunities to develop leadership and team-building skills through club activities and involvement. Two years of COVID created a leadership and experience gap for UNL NAMA. Officers from 2018-2019 had graduated. Monthly meetings were suspended for some time, followed by …

Depreciation Changes Ahead, Tina N. Barrett

Cornhusker Economics

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed in 2018, a lot of time and focus was placed on all the things that were changing quickly and the things that were 5-6 years out became back burner problems. Amazingly enough, we are now at the stage of the bill where things are starting to phase out. These changes will start to impact tax returns starting in 2023 and will continue increasing taxable income through 2025. The first change is the phase out of the Bonus depreciation. This law has been on the books since 2001 (there was no …

North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center Helps Producers Manage Risks, Christine Lockert, Sheila Aikanathan Johnson, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

The Extension Risk Management Education (ERME) program, funded by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, provides training to help producers learn new strategies to manage complex and growing agricultural risks. ERME strives to achieve this goal by encouraging and funding innovative programs across the country and helping programs focus on tangible results. Four regional grant-making ERME Centers are located across the country at the University of Delaware (Northeast), the University of Arkansas (South), Washington State University (West) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (North Central) along with a Digital Center at the University of Minnesota to help administer online application, …

The Unintended Consequences Of China’S One-Child Policy, Wesley Peterson

Cornhusker Economics

In 1968, Paul Ehrlich published a book entitled The Population Bomb in which he argued that rapid population growth would overwhelm the world’s capacity to feed, house, and otherwise care for the coming millions of people. At that time, the world population was about 3.5 billion growing at an average annual rate of 2.06 percent (World Bank 2023). At that rate of growth, the world’s population would have been expected to double to 7.0 billion by 2001. In fact, population growth rates fell after the 1960s and world population reached only 6.2 billion in that year. Fears of a population …

Producer Long-Term Marketing Opportunities With Ethanol Plants, Austin Harthoorn, Logan Lloyd, Cory Walters, Kate Brooks

Cornhusker Economics

Commodity marketing operates in a complex decision environment with constant information flow, which can conceal long-run financially profitable marketing opportunities for producers. In the corn marketing space, the competitive role of ethanol plants throughout the state may provide producers with long-run financial gains by strategically approaching marketing decisions. In this article, we characterize whether producers can gain financially from strategically marketing corn to ethanol plants. For example, do ethanol plants provide a better long-run return from pre-harvest hedging, spring sale, or harvest sale?

We investigate three important contracting times--forward contract for harvest delivery (called pre-harvest hereafter), harvest delivery, and spring …