News

From the Department of Agricultural Economics at K-State, Robin Reid and LaVell Windsor talk about a new series of K-State financial workshops for women in agriculture that will be taking place at 31 sites around the state in early 2020...they'll go over what this first-of-its-kind series will cover, encouraging potential participants to register for the session closest to them as soon as possible.

The director of the Arthur Capper Cooperative Center at K-State, Brian Briggeman, talks about the financial state of agricultural cooperatives in Kansas as another crop production season winds down. He says that co-ops are facing their own economic obstacles, much as producers are.

K-State agricultural economists Kevin Herbel and Hannah Shear share highlights from their new study of the returns to cow-calf production in Kansas, based on Kansas Farm Management Association data complemented by a new survey of cow-calf producers on their management practices...they linked those practices to cow-calf economic performance and discovered several interesting trends.

K-State livestock economist Glynn Tonsor returns to comment on the cattle and beef market behavior immediately following the Tyson beef plant fire in August. He has reviewed all the market-driving factors involved in the immediate drop in fed cattle prices, while at the same time, boxed beef prices rose significantly, saying that those shouldn't be ignored as that situation is further investigated.

K-State agricultural economist Robin Reid talks about the opportunity for crop producers to update their USDA commodity program payment yields as they enroll in either the ARC or PLC programs in the months ahead. She has put together a new spreadsheet that producers can use to calculate their new program yields.

K-State agricultural economist Nathan Hendricks and graduate researcher Whitney Bowman talk about their new analysis of the volatility of Kansas farm incomes over time, based on information from the Kansas Farm Management Association. They explain why understanding those volatility trends can be helpful in farm financial management.

K-State agricultural economists Robin Reid and Mykel Taylor talk about the series of 2018 Farm Bill meetings that K-State will host for producers over the next two weeks at 10 sites around Kansas...at those meetings, producers will learn about a tool that will help them make the most beneficial decision on ARC and PLC program participation.

Glynn Tonsor and James Mitchell talk about their research on cattle producers' and buyers' willingness to adopt cattle traceability:  they sought out the economic factors that most greatly influence that decision, for consideration as traceability policy is developed...this work will be presented at the K-State Risk and Profit Conference on the campus next week.