The pace of farm lending at commercial banks in the third quarter largely was unchanged from a year ago. Survey data indicate the volume of non-real estate farm loans originated in the third quarter increased about 2 percent from the previous year. The slight increase followed a similar year-over-year increase in the second quarter after sharp declines in lending activity the previous two quarters.
Leasing or renting pasture or forage is commonplace for many livestock producers across the West and is often an integral part of an operation. While there are many types of arrangements used, establishing a fair and equitable agreement for both parties involved can be a challenge at times. The Forage Risk Analyzer (FRA) tool, from RightRisk.org, is a spreadsheet-based tool designed to help a single or multiple parties (up to six) understand the full value of everything involved in a potential lease and formulate a more fair and equitable agreement. The tool divides contributions into six resource categories including: land, livestock, housing, stored feed, labor, and machinery. The user can allocate estimated costs and returns for up to six lease participants, after entering the basic information into the tool; the tool generates an allocation summary and performs net return and risk analysis based on the information submitted.
Machinery and equipment is often one of the largest expense categories for a farm or ranch operation. Many producers do not know their machinery and equipment cost for a given activity.The Machine Risk Calculator (MRC) from RightRisk.org can help producers estimate rates for custom filed operations and individual machinery costs. The tool will also estimate the risk sensitivity of those costs to changes in various factors. The MRC uses a comprehensive list of related expenses to calculate an overall cost, including expected life (years), repairs, depreciation, housing, insurance, taxes, and annual use (hours).
Barley is an important crop in Wyoming that may be raised as animal feed or for malting. Different varieties are typically used for feed barley and malt barley and malting barley yields are generally lower than feed barley yields. Some farmers may choose to raise organic barley to serve the needs of niche markets. Insurance products offered by the USDA Risk Management Agency are available for feed barley, malting barley (through a malting barley endorsement), and organic barley. These products are the focus of this briefing paper.
Farm sector profitability measures forecast for 2017 range from nearly flat to declining. Net cash farm income, one measure of profitability, is forecast at $93.5 billion ($82.2 billion after adjusting for inflation) for 2017, up 1.8 percent compared to the 2016 forecast. Net farm income, a broader measure of profitability because it includes noncash values such as inventory flows and economic depreciation, is forecast at $62.3 billion ($54.8 billion after adjusting for inflation) for 2017, down 8.7 percent compared to 2016.
The Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts. It characterizes regional economic conditions and prospects based on a variety of mostly qualitative information, gathered directly from District sources.
The most recent Beige Book provides a brief summary of the Agriculture Sector in Western States.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the availability of a streamlined version of USDA guaranteed loans, which are tailored for smaller scale farms and urban producers. The program, called EZ Guarantee Loans, uses a simplified application process to help beginning, small, underserved and family farmers and ranchers apply for loans of up to $100,000 from USDA-approved lenders to purchase farmland or finance agricultural operations.
The Multi-Temporal Risk Analyzer (MTRA) Tool was designed to provide economic analysis of multi-year management strategies and decisions involving risk. Examples include investment decisions, changes in production practices, adding and subtracting enterprises, and other decisions that involve multiple years to come to fruition or a multi-year commitment in order to see a positive economic return.
The MTRA tool is unique in that it is specifically designed to analyze risk and uncertainty over a number of years. This is usually accomplished for these types of investment decisions or decisions involving significant management changes by adjusting the time value of money (i.e. interest rate) to include risk or by using conservative estimates for expected returns to account for uncertainty. However, in many cases, these are difficult tasks to accomplish with accuracy or appropriately given the true nature of the uncertainty.
The MTRA tool allows the user to input the decision or proposed change in a partial budget template, where expected positive inflows (increased returns and/or decreased costs) are netted-out against expected negative outflows (decreased returns and/or additional costs). These individual inflows and outflows can be turned on and off over the course of 20 years to reflect long term expectations.
USDA organic regulations describe organic agriculture as the application of a set of cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that support the recycling of on-farm resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity.
These practices include maintaining and enhancing soil and water quality; conserving wetlands and wildlife; and avoiding use of synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering.
The major focus of this bulletin is on crops and livestock, in the category of organic products for which USDA Risk Management Agency insurance products and USDA Farm Service Agency programs may be available to address production, price and revenue risks and losses from natural catastrophic disasters.
Two questions are central to understanding producer options for risk management and other government programs related to specialty crops and specialty livestock operations. First: what is a specialty crop? Second: what is a specialty livestock operation?
Each of these terms has a legal or administrative definition and a common usage definition.
This bulletin focuses on the management of production, price, and revenue risks for specialty crops and specialty livestock and the farms and ranches that have incorporated such enterprises into their overall enterprise mix. To be inclusive as possible, the terms specialty crops and specialty livestock operations, are given their broadest and most encompassing interpretations.
