News

Agricultural law professor Roger McEowen of the Washburn University School of Law comments on another recent court decision involving a family dispute over a farm estate. This time, the handling of a trust's assets by the designated trustee was brought into question, and the ruling demonstrated that a trustee must practice fiduciary care in administering a trust which involves others.

K-State livestock economist Glynn Tonsor is featured on this week's cattle market segment:  in addition to reviewing last week's cattle price trends, he passes along findings from his new survey of beef consumers on the advent of a COVID vaccine being available, and how that would likely impact their dining activity at restaurants. He also offers his latest thoughts on country-of-origin beef labeling, as that has re-emerged as a subject of discussion in the industry.

On the latest edition of FSA Coffee Talk, farm program specialist Todd Barrows of the Farm Service Agency relays some of the finer details of the USDA's Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, phase 2...especially with regard to program eligibility and payment limitation rules. He also talks about changes in the commodities that qualify for CFAP 2 benefits.

Also, Robin Reid follows up with a preview of a special webinar from K-State on October 8, in collaboration with the Kansas FSA, which will provide participants even more in-depth information on CFAP 2. She also talks about the now-finalized farm program payments levels for 2019 crop production from the Price Loss Coverage program option, as those payments are now being distributed to enrolled producers.

K-State agricultural economist Jisang Yu and Ed Perry talk about their recent study, which linked increases in growing-season temperature to yield risk for corn and soybeans, and then tied that to the potential impact on crop insurance premium rates...they used local crop insurance "cause of loss" data to arrive at their findings.

K-State agricultural economist Terry Griffin talks about a new tool that he has developed for estimating farmland value for a given year using the current value of that land...using annual value indexes for every year since 1950, the user can determine the tax liability of farmland transactions.

K-State agricultural economist Gregg Ibendahl and Terry Griffin talk about a new online tool that farmers can use to calculate farm machinery costs...as input for making machinery purchase decisions, as a basis for comparing lease vs. purchase options, or for weighing the choice of custom hiring an operation instead of investing in equipment...they say it's an easy-to-use tool that can provide very useful information.

K-State agricultural policy specialist Jenny Ifft talks about current trends in non-traditional agricultural financing...an aspect of agricultural lending that she says deserves greater attention in the farm management arena. She spoke on this topic at the recent K-State Risk and Profit Conference.

K-State agricultural economist Gregg Ibendahl reviews his new outlook on Kansas net farm income for 2020 and 2021, as presented at K-State's Risk and Profit Conference last week...he talks about changes in farm revenue and expenses this year, compared to the 2019 Kansas Farm Management Association numbers, and he outlines why 2021 could be a better year for farm income in the state.