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  • May 8, 2012
    blog

    Student Loan Dilemma

    The other day my road warrior travels took me to New England to a pre-wedding party for my son and his fiancée. After meeting everyone (boy, do they talk funny up there), a young man at the party struck up a conversation with me. He currently lives in New York City and graduated from a university three years ago....More
  • Apr. 24, 2012
    blog

    How Much Working Capital Do Farmers Need?

    The other day a producer asked me an interesting question. With all the emphasis on working capital and cash lately, how much should you keep on hand? First, we must ask some specific questions. In this case, the farmer indicated that he would need a $1 million operating line of credit to purchase inputs for his 1,400-acre farm. Next, discussion focused on the lender’s advance rate. In this case the lender would loan up to 70% of the value of the producer’s assets on inputs for the operation. The lender requires the borrower to come up with 30% to margin the loan....More
  • Apr. 17, 2012
    blog

    Interest Rates: What is Normal?

    At a recent Executive Producer Roundtable summit in Spokane, WA, participants asked Ed Seifried and I the question, “What is a normal level of interest rates?” Today's agricultural producers and businesses have been managing their businesses through an extended period of low interest rates. For example, the prime rate has remained at 3.5% for nearly four years. With the Federal Reserve's statement that they would keep rates low through 2014, this would be an unprecedented period of low interest rates....More
  • Apr. 10, 2012
    blog

    Perspectives on Financial Liquidity

    Over the years, many of you have heard me discuss the importance of financial liquidity. In the current times of extreme volatility and global uncertainty, the rules on liquidity have definitely changed. The other day during a videoconference with producers in six locations, Mike Hosterman, an AgChoice Farm Credit business consultant who has many years of experience working with ag customers, discussed a new twist on liquidity....More
  • Apr. 10, 2012
    Article

    Recommendations to Safeguard Customer Funds Following MF Global Bankruptcy

    The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) has issued its preliminary recommendations for safeguarding the sanctity of customer funds in the aftermath of the MF Global Inc. bankruptcy. "The demise of MF Global has shaken the confidence of many futures market participants concerning the safety of segregated customer funds," the NGFA said in recent letters to the Senate and House Agriculture Committees and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). "We believe these preliminary recommendations are essential to begin reestablishing confidence among futures market participants and to help safeguard customer funds."...More
  • Apr. 3, 2012
    blog

    Insight on Rise in Interest Rates

    The other day I was conducting a family business seminar for Farm Credit Services Southwest and American Ag Credit. A number of the participants were keen on understanding some of the early signals for a possible interest rate rise. Interest rates have been at a historical low for a long period of time. Not within my greatest imagination would I have predicted this economic trend five or 10 years ago. So what should we look for in a possible rise in rates?...More
  • Mar. 27, 2012
    blog

    The Curse of Wealth

    The “curse of wealth” is attention getting; however, it describes an issue that is starting to impact agriculture, particularly in the islands of prosperity fueled by the nine-year super cycle that has been building tremendous appreciation of assets and retained profits on farm balance sheets....More
  • Nov. 29, 2011
    Article

    Incomes More Sensitive To Price Declines On Cash Rent Farms

    Grain farms with a higher percentage of acres cash rented will have much lower incomes when commodity prices decline than farms with lower percentages cash rented, according to University of Illinois Agricultural Economist Gary Schnitkey....More
  • Oct. 18, 2011
    blog

    The Federal Reserve’s “Operation Twist”

    The U.S. Federal Reserve's latest method to stimulate the economy, called “Operation Twist,” has recently been in the news. The name for this strategy came about in the 1960s when Chubby Checker’s song, “The Twist,” was popular. The last time the Federal Reserve utilized this method of stimulus was after the late 1950s and early 1960s recession during the Kennedy administration....More
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