If you work in the Business of Agriculture, you likely know of a dysfunctional family farming operation. Contrary to the pastoral vision of farming portrayed in children’s books, many farms are stress-filled places to work with family members in conflict, run by narcissistic owners. So says Andy ...

Farmland values have been on a tear the last couple years. Who’s buying America's farms and why are they doing so? Is it true that institutional investors are keeping farmers from expanding ownership? Will interest rate hikes cause farm ground prices to plummet? Are foreigners buying the property...

Drone technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Will we see a future where unmanned aerial vehicles replace the traditional crop duster? Likely not for a number of practical reasons as well as the technology advancements being made in manned agricultural aviation. A more likely scenario is where dr...

“Our industry is going to require 60,000 4-year college graduates and we’re around 38,000 students graduating from the Ag curriculum currently.” So says Dr. Tom Paulson, department head at Morningside U’s Applied Agricultural and Food Studies. Dr. Paulson is joined by Tom Moss and Liz Zoebel, two...

Have you noticed steaks and chicken breasts are considerably larger than they were just a couple decades ago? Switching to pork, have you noticed your chops are less flavorful (maybe that explains the popularity of bacon)? Todd Thurman and Nevil Speer join Damian to discuss the meat production mo...

Every five years congress hashes out, argues about, and then releases a new and revised Farm Bill. At least that is what’s supposed to happen, although it may not happen for the 2023 version. Paul Neiffer, the Farm CPA, joins Damian to explain the current Farm Bill, predict what’s in the new vers...

Fact: There will be fewer American farmers ten years from now than there are today. In no way is this meant to be fatalistic or negative, it’s just reality. “Peak farm” occurred in 1935 with 6.8 million farming operations in the U.S. The number has been declining ever since to two million farming...

When you think of buying a piece of farm ground, you probably think of the very real possibility that the soil is depleted. But what if it’s got more than enough fertility and what if you can actually use that banked fertility to lower your taxes? Turns out, per IRS Section 180, you can depreciat...

Much of American Agriculture is predicted to have a prosperous 2023. But there are concerns. Commodity prices are high but so are inputs. Exports set a record last year but geopolitical strife is simmering on the verge of boiling over. What’s the future hold for Ag? Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodit...

The Amazon effect is coming to Agriculture. In fact, it’s already here. If you need something on your farm, chances are you can order it up on your smart phone and have it by the end of the week. Even chemicals, seed, and fertilizer. But will Ag retail go away? Not likely, given the proximity, re...

All indications are, money is going to be blowing into Agriculture from a myriad of sources over the next year, largely in the form of environmentalism. Is this trend for real? Will the funds come from a new Farm Bill? Are corporate players truly investing in Ag or just covering their tales in th...

If you’ve worked in the Business of Agriculture for one year or the past 50 years, all you’ve known is increased globalization of our industry. That’s changing and the pace of change will likely accelerate during the next decade. Todd Thurman, co-host of The Business of Ag Success Group discusses...

North American Agriculture has benefited greatly by China’s rise during the last couple decades. But, as you’ve heard, all good things must come to an end and in this case, the end might not end well. Tensions between China and the west — particularly the United States — have ramped up. And frank...

American Agriculture often times suffers from a disorder I’ve termed Acute Commodity Mindset. Symptoms of this disorder include thinking customers should purchase what we produce — regardless of what they actually want — and resisting opportunities to up-sell higher profit margin products. We saw...

A few years ago, it seemed that capital was on every corner looking for a place to invest. But even in those cash-rich days, not a lot of investors looked at Agriculture as an investment objective — aside from biological crop inputs and technology. Then there is Open Prairie, an Illinois-based pr...

Luke Roush was just a kid when I met him, now he’s managing a diversified Indiana farming operation with his father. We talk about skill sets, strengths, weaknesses, employee management, growth, money, the future, and more. What does Luke see from his perspective? Where are the challenges, and wh...

A shovel full of soil contains billions of microbes, thousands of bacteria, and a biological complexity we’re only beginning to understand. With the advent of soil sampling, we’ve generally tossed out macronutrients in large quantities and started to look at micronutrients. But we’ve not done muc...

More than half the states in the U.S. are considering “right-to-repair” laws according to a recent article. Legislation at the federal level is being pushed by Montana senator Jon Tester. Pushers of “right-to-repair” regulation position themselves as victims of big equipment companies. Big equipm...

I’ve been hearing the complaint, “it’s hard / impossible for a young person to start out in farming these days” for decades. Recently, an interviewer went down this road about the struggle of young people to get into farming and blamed the phenomenon on “corporate-ization.” You’ve no doubt heard ...

Kelly Garrett is an entrepreneurial farmer from western Iowa. His business interests include farming, trucking, plant food distribution, ag retail, and now: direct to consumer beef. Kelly joins me to discuss the motivation behind creating GLC Beef and the opportunities for increasing profit margi...

We’ve been hearing about carbon credits for several years in Agriculture. Finally, the vagueness of the ecosystem marketplace is becoming more clear. In this episode we learn how farmers enroll their acres to get compensation for carbon sequestration and nitrogen reduction. Who pays for these env...

The Business of Agriculture trades commodities. We produce them, buy them, sell them, and process them to make products for our end users. But who does all this trading and who ultimately, uses the goods we make? Dave Smoldt and Kyle Schrad with StoneX Financial give us a behind the scenes look a...

U.S. net farm income set a record in 2022, up 14% from 2021 to $160.5 billion. To put it mildly, things in Ag are good financially speaking. 2022’s farm income number is double what it was just 3 years ago during the China - U.S. trade spat. What does this mean for those of us who earn our living...

Agriculture has a lot of battles to fight beyond the daily challenges of producing our food, fuel, and fiber. Causes against production Ag have turned into religious movements as well as full-blown business models. Call it what it is, it’s “the conflict industry” and in places like Holland, farms...