News

K-State precision agriculture economist Terry Griffin talks about farmer use of precision agriculture apps on their mobile devices, which is the subject of a new analysis he has authored. He says that increasing farmer reliance on such apps accents the need for improved internet access in rural areas.

K-State agricultural economist Mykel Taylor offers an updated view of agricultural land value trends in Kansas, and if those have been affected by the economic disruptions from the pandemic. She also addresses some of the changes in how farm and ranch land purchases take place, and who is buying land. She presented this information at the recent K-State Agricultural Lenders Conference.

The senior economist with the IGP Institute at K-State, Guy Allen, offers an in-depth view of current international grain trade, and where U.S. grain sales stand in that global market. He considers the new USDA world grain supply and demand numbers which were released last Friday, and couples those with his own observations on developments abroad from his extensive contacts around the world, as he talks about the outlook for U.S. sales of corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and wheat.

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.