Farmers and others working in agriculture are notorious for complaining about weather. You may have noticed from previous newsletters, farm managers can be guilty of this too. However, it was hard to complain this year. Crops experienced little stress from planting to harvest. After a cool, wet May, temperatures and rainfall were close to average all growing season. August rainfall was able to finish out the crops.
With year-end approaching, you are either already or will soon be planning for taxes. Here are a few items for your consideration, courtesy of Ohio State University Extension. Landowners may report farm rental income on Schedule F (Farm Income and Expenses), Form 4835 (Farm Rental Income and Expenses), or Schedule E. You may have a need to use more than one of these reporting forms. That depends on your “material participation,” which means the extent to which you are involved with the management and operation of the farm.
The farmland market seems to have found some footing lately after sliding back for the past year or more. Great crop yields around the area will certainly not hurt as we enter the late fall and winter “land selling season.” Recent land value surveys have included the September 1 edition of the Realtors Land Institute survey and the quarterly survey of bankers by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The RLI survey shows west-central Iowa land to be down by 1.9% since March 1, while the northwest district was down by 2.5% and north-central down by 5.4%. While still drifting lower from March to September, the decline was considerably less than was experienced the previous six months and seemed to stabilize as we neared late summer. In fact, this was the most positive survey result since September 2013.
If you have looked through a farm magazine in the last couple years, there is a good chance it included an article about cover crops. Cover crops are a non-cash crop that provides ground cover and actively growing roots after the cash crop has been harvested.
On October 9th, USDA reduced harvested acres for both corn and soybeans, lowered soybean exports for the 15-16 year, and raised corn and soybean yield estimates. A large forecasted supply of corn and soybeans is the biggest factor for current prices. However, other factors are at play and include currencies, the world economy, and a downtrend in all commodities.