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Farminar Jan-10 on Tax Preparation tips for farmers

January 12th, 2012 @ 11:55 am by Luke

On Tuesday January 10, 2012, the 2012 Winter Farminar Series began. 41 folks tuned in live to learn from farmer Jerry Peckumn and his accountant Leo Brooker, both of Jefferson, IA.

Attendees learned the potential tax savings of filing with a knowledgeable adviser to help take advantage of all the tax credits and techniques available to legally reduce tax liabilities for farmers.

Good recordkeeping was also stressed by Jerry including using a bookkeeping service if you don’t enjoy doing it yourself. Use cost accounting and cash to accrual conversions annually to really know how much the farm is making by looking at net worth overtime. Know how much you have in inventory from year to year and what the value lost from depreciating assets. Avoiding the temptation to make large capital expenditures and depreciate the full value of the asset in the first year was also encouraged as this might not lead the business to the best outcome over time.

Watch the complete recording of this session online now by clicking on this link!

Farminars continue to draw 25% of attendees from outside of Iowa and they have a committed, eager audience from around Iowa and as far away as Homer, Alaska!

Please join us next week for “Scale and Profit: a financial snapshot of three CSAs” Tuesday January 17, 2012.

 

 

Supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843

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Land Contract Sales

December 13th, 2011 @ 2:27 pm by Luke

Are you looking to buy land on contract from a friend or relative? Do you want to buy land, but find that in your area landowners say that its too risky to sell to a beginner?

Consider utilizing a new government program to support sales of land on contract called the Land Contract Guarantee Program offered by the Farm Service Agency.

The Land Contract Guarantee Program by the Farm Service Agency will guarantee prompt payments to the land seller if you fall behind on payments for whatever reason for the first three years of the sale. A second option, instead, is a 90% guarantee on the principal of the loan from the federal government. These are favorable terms and we encourage you to use this program when negotiating land purchases with a retiring neighbor farmer, or a family member. The perceived “risk” of selling to a beginner is reduced with this program.

To apply or ask detailed questions, go to your local USDA Service Center/FSA office. Find Your Local FSA Office

Portrait of beginning farmer who used a sale on contract to purchase land.

Mark, a beginning farmer, purchased his farm from his mother by sale on contract.

 

For more resources on financing or business planning, go to the PFI Next Generation webpage and scroll to the bottom of the screen under the Resources heading.

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Pasture walk and more at the Wheelers

November 30th, 2011 @ 12:34 pm by Kevin

It was advertised as a pasture walk – but it was so much more! On Saturday, November 19th, eleven people gathered at Jake and Amber Wheeler’s farm to discuss winter grazing, cattle genetics, cedar tree removal, farm profitability, farm enterprises, marketing, time management and more.

The Wheeler Family

To begin, we brainstormed all the farm enterprises we could think of – that might remotely fit into the Wheelers’ system and be consistent with their values. We had quite a list (which I left with the Wheelers). Most of those enterprises the Wheelers will not start on their farm, but hopefully gave them some ideas of all the possibilities out there.

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Practical Farmers of Iowa Receives $128,800 Grant for Beginning Farmer Program

November 3rd, 2011 @ 4:58 pm by Ann

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 3, 2011

Contact:
Ann Seuferer | Practical Farmers of Iowa | 515.232.5661 | ann@practicalfarmers.org
Sally Worley | Practical Farmers of Iowa | 515.232.5661 |sally@practicalfarmers.org

AMES, IOWA – Practical Farmers of Iowa has been awarded a $128,800 Assets for Independence (AFI) grant by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Services within the Department of Health and Human Services. With the addition of the AFI grant, Practical Farmers has now raised more than $290,000 from more than 100 individuals and businesses for the Savings Incentive Program, which is $40,000 above its goal of $250,000.

These funds will help the 27-year-old nonprofit, sustainable-agriculture organization to implement a program designed to assist beginning farmers to make a living on the land. The Savings Incentive Program works by encouraging beginning farmers to save approximately $100 each month for two years. After two years and completing all program requirements, beginning farmers’ savings will be matched by Practical Farmers of Iowa so that each beginner could have up to $4800 to put toward a farm asset such as land, machinery or livestock. During the two-year period, enrollees will create or fine tune a business plan and participate in programming to help them create a successful farm business.

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Building Wholesale Relationships – selling your products to local grocers

October 18th, 2011 @ 11:46 am by Luke

A new season of online seminars on farming topics is around the corner – but that doesn’t mean you need to wait to start learning from farmers. Thirty-six recordings of previous Practical Farmers of Iowa Farminars are available now so you can learn from the wisdom of folks who are actually farming!

This blog spotlights the recording from March 8, 2011 with New Pioneer Cooperative Grocery staff member Mike Krough and horticulture farmer Derek Roller. View the complete recording at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p73337156.

Topics discussed in this Farminar:

  • How to approach new customers
  • Pricing
  • Order and delivery
  • Contracts
  • Maintain a steady supply

Derek Roller has an annual meeting in December with his grocery store buyer and sets prices for the next growing season. Derek works with the New Pioneer Co-Op because they have a goal to purchase food produced locally, not just the cheapest product from anywhere in the world. They reflect on the previous year, how the price before worked out for the business, if there is flexibility to raise the price, need to lower the price, or need to keep the prices the same. They also strategize ways to increase sales by offering the products in different manners – by the bunch, by the pound, or another method.

View the complete recording at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p73337156.

 

To see other Farminars, and to register for the upcoming events, go to www.practicalfarmers.org/farminar

Beginning Farmer, Derek Roller at the PFI annual conference 2011

Derek Roller grows fruits and vegetables near Iowa City, IA

A grant from the Ceres Foundation made it possible for this Farminar to be recorded, and pay the farmers for their time taken to share their knowledge.

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A humbling lesson about bloat

October 4th, 2011 @ 10:24 am by Kevin

This past weekend I lost a heifer to bloat. My first reaction was to keep this to myself, as this was a painful and embarrassing experience, especially considering that my professional title is “Grazing Coordinator” and I sometimes even get called “Grazing Specialist”. But after further reflection, I decided to share my experiences, in the hope that someone else can learn from my bad experience, or that I might get some good advice from others.

I only have seven animals, all heifers of various breeds and crosses, what I hope will be the start of my milking herd. I keep these animals on a pasture at my in-laws’ farm, about a fifteen-minute drive from our house.

Svanhild and Kevin this September

The heifer who died was named Svanhild. I bought her, along with her half sister Gunnhild last year when they were about six months old. I am currently in the process of having them bred; Svanhild was due to come into heat this coming Friday. She was raised on a nurse cow, so she was always on the wild side, but had just learned to enjoy some scratching in the last few weeks.

I started grazing them on alfalfa last Monday. I knew this was potentially risky, but I had grazed the same field of alfalfa last year, and I was easing them into it slowly. I wanted to graze the alfalfa now while it is still good quality forage, saving my remaining grass pastures for grazing later in the fall or hopefully even into winter. I started by giving them a strip that was only about 20% alfalfa, since a lot of it drowned out in 2008. They still had access to a portion of the perennial grass pasture as well. I gave them a new strip of the alfalfa every day, with the percentage of alfalfa in the strips gradually increasing. By Friday, the new strip they got was probably over 90% alfalfa (Actually, on Friday they got out of the fence minutes before I arrived in the morning, and I fenced around them so they were no longer “out”. Polywire and step-in posts are great!).

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