ASFMRA and 21 Other Organizations Respond to Waiver of Appraisals Request
TriStar, a Tennessee Community Bank, submitted a request to the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) for a temporary waiver of appraisal for 2018. The waiver would apply to all property types. The request is based on a reported shortage of appraisers resulting in increased fees and reduced turn times on appraisals.
See the TriStar Letter.
ASFMRA in conjunction with 21 other professional appraisal organizations signed a letter urging the ASC to gather market participant information as well as to be transparent in regards to the waiver request. The letter notes that TriStar’s request included anecdotal information as opposed to a description of all of the significant issues being encountered by TriStar including the nature of the scarcity, the full extent of delays and their experience in obtaining the services of appraisers. The waiver request did not provide any “supporting documentation” and does not appear to satisfy the requirements for an ASC received request. Read the letter to the ASC.
Read the Response Letter
Provide your thoughts to the Appraisal Subcommittee
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Frequently Asked Question: How Much are Cash Rents for Farmland?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions I receive is how much are cash rents in Ellis County for dryland cultivated and pasture farmland?
Because of the frequency of this question throughout the state, our K-State Research & Extension Agricultural Economics department has worked hard to provide answers to those questions. Extension agents even have sent out anonymous questionnaires or surveys to landowners and tenants asking what they are receiving or paying for cash rents. Unfortunately when I have done this in years past, the return rate was low, and thus I have not sent out a survey in several years.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) does send out surveys to landowners and tenants asking this question. So that information is available to anyone, and as mentioned, the K-State Ag Economics department has compiled information as well. All of this information can be found on their website at www.agmanager.info hold your cursor on the “Land & Leasing” tab and then click onto “Land Rental Rates.”
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The Grocery Game Changer
Since 2006, the media and analysts have been saying “data is the new oil.” Coined by UK mathematician Clive Humbly and used widely over recent years, the phrase attempts to explain the complexities of how data is being used to generate revenue. In a 2006 blog, Michael Palmer says, “Data is just like crude. It’s valuable, but if unrefined, it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc. to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity. So must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have value.”
We are using a commodity from the 18th century to understand a new kind of 21st-century business that, too, is transforming how we live our lives and do our work. But data is not the new oil. It’s far more important than that. It will drive the future of nearly every business and will force radical changes in traditional engines of the economy like agriculture.
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7 Highlights from Ag Economist Michael Swanson
One might think an agricultural economist would leave the audience with numbers to remember following a keynote address. However, Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo ag economist and senior vice president, says people don’t remember the numbers, they remember the stories.
“I have a different approach to economics,” Swanson said in his presentation before the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council annual meeting Nov. 9 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. “I’m not here to overwhelm you with the numbers. I don’t think the numbers are always that important. I want to talk about the connections, because I really think one of the things that we fail to do in economics and do well in a lot of analysis is think about the systems. Systems are about how things interact.”
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Geopolitical Analyst Opinions on U.S. Politics, Trade and NAFTA
The election of 2016 may have been the beginning of a political shakeout that could last a decade and that will have implications for trade and agriculture.
“The two-party system that runs this country is currently off-line,” said Peter Zeihan, founder of Zeihan on Geopolitics, speaking at the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council annual meeting in November in Minneapolis. “Now this is normal, healthy even. Technology changes. The balance between the states evolves. Demography shifts. Politics moves with all that . . . on a delay.”
The last time the political parties faced this upheaval was during the 1930s and 1940s, he said. It took 12 years for the political parties to settle into what they’ve been known as. Before the Great Depression, the Republicans were the party of big government.
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Despite Lawmakers' Warnings, Few Iowa Farmers Face Estate Tax
If the tax reform packages that have now passed the U.S. House and Senate become law, at least one thing appears likely: The federal estate tax will be slashed and perhaps eliminated altogether.
That will represent a victory for Republicans in Iowa’s congressional delegation, who have consistently opposed the tax and argued it unfairly lumps in the state’s farmers with some of the country’s richest families.
But a review of federal tax data and nonpartisan research on the subject shows that family farmers and small business owners represent a tiny share of estate tax payers, and that the taxes they owe rarely force them to sell land or quit farming.
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GOP Tax Bill Lifts Burden From Farmers And Ranchers
The GOP tax reform bill passed last week, continuing the debate among Democrats and Republicans on the feasibility of the tax overhaul. For a small population in America, the tax bill is beneficial.
Farmers and ranchers in America don’t earn high incomes, but many of them are taxed as multi-million dollar businesses. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, farmers and ranchers earned a median annual income of nearly $61,000 in 2010. The top 10 percent of earners in the field made about $107,000 a year, while the bottom 10 percent made less than $30,000.
So why are people who work in the agricultural industry taxed so much?
When you take assets into consideration, farmers are worth a lot, but they’re still different than most businesses. According to Ruby Ward, an expert on taxes for rural communities, most of the value comes from the land the farm or ranch uses to make a profit.
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Reduce Right Costs to Improve Profitability
Farmers and ranchers are facing economic adversity. Continued low commodity prices have stressed balance sheets and forced producers to make changes to their operations that will improve profits.
When prices fall, the subsequent investment in a commodity tends to go down. Producers either fertilize less, reduce tillage, negotiate lower rents or reduce equipment cost. How can you reduce costs without decreasing productivity?
To keep revenue constant when prices fall, a producer must attempt to increase yields. How that is accomplished will depend on the resources available to the producer. Take wheat, for example. An accepted standard is that it requires two pounds of nitrogen fertilizer to produce one bushel of wheat. Therefore, reducing nitrogen fertility will directly reduce yields. A producer thinking about the production of wheat as a marginal investment should conclude that fertility must be maximized given a fixed amount of moisture. At current prices, the nitrogen to produce a bushel of wheat costs 68 cents and the price of wheat is $3.66 per bushel. The easiest way to increase revenue is to maximize the amount of commodity sold.
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Continued Low Prices Have Some Corn and Soybean Growers Trying to Figure Out How to Hang On
Farmers clean up their equipment after harvest each year. This year, some are also polishing their résumés.
The situation facing corn and soybean growers has southeast Nebraska farmer Steve Sugden looking for an off-farm job to help support his family. That includes his wife, a schoolteacher; his daughter, a University of Nebraska junior; and twin sons, freshmen in high school.
The low prices farmers are fetching for their crops don’t cover business costs at many operations. Average monthly prices for corn have been below $3.50 a bushel for over a year now; farmers received over $7 and in some cases over $8 in 2012 and 2013.
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Fannie and Freddie: Should they Stay or Should they Go?
WASHINGTON — Two steps forward and one step back.
That appears to be the current state of play regarding the effort to revamp the housing finance system.
On the one hand, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling made significant concessions this week in an effort to strike a bipartisan and bicameral deal, agreeing to include a government guarantee of the mortgage market and affordable housing measures.
Yet just as he moved closer to Senate lawmakers working on their own, they moved further away from him. The current plan is to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alive in a new system, a break from the Senate’s last effort. That sets up a new potential disagreement with Hensarling, who made it clear the two government-sponsored enterprises should be wound down.
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Farm Managers of the Year: Plans To Succeed And For Succession
Continuity during change is a goal at Hatley/Cobb Farmland Management. That’s true for both their business and their clients.
“We are on the third generation with some of our clients, and over time, we’ve wanted every one of them to know that we are rooted in agriculture, and we want to take care of their needs in the future,” says Allen Hatley.
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Update Your Profile
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new website. It is important that your contact information is up-to-date so that you can receive members updates, referrals and be contacted by potential clients.
ASFMRA Members fill critical positions with The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) and the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB)
Read more about the leadership roles that Ronny Johnson, Dick Edmunds, ARA, AAC; Tom Boyer, AFM, ARA, AAC; Mark Lewis, ARA, RPRA and Brad Swinney will be filling.
Read the Press Release
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Appraisal Foundation (TAF) Accepting Applications for USPAP Instructors
The Instructor Certification Course (ICC) is classroom course given by The Appraisal Foundation once every two years to certify individuals to teach the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) courses. The intent of the course is to ensure that individuals teaching USPAP have in-depth knowledge and understanding of USPAP. Our next AQB Certified USPAP Instructor Certification Course will be offered on March 8-11, 2018 in Indianapolis, IN. We are now accepting applications to the program.
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