As a high school student I worked on a hog farm operated by a good family who was well respected throughout the community.
While in college I learned my previous employer had fallen into a deep depression, neglected feeding the animals and considered suicide as a way to cope with the low hog prices and […]
Most dairy farm businesses are not cash flowing. Some may be if they priced first half milk production using futures or options contracts when the early 2009 prices were trading considerably higher than they are now.
No sense in kicking yourself if you didn’t do that, just deal with what is.
Protecting your equity and […]
It’s the 1970s. An air-dried Polaroid shows your leisure suit and platform shoes, just before you hop into your pickup and check the CB for friends talking skip.
At home, you play a new video game called Pong but don’t know anything about computers. Radio Shack’s ad on the sports page says you need one. […]
If you have ever taken a small child to a roller skating party, sooner or later some energetic teenagers corral the troops and organize them into a long line to do the limbo.
While two kids hold onto either end of a long stick, each child tries to skate under the stick while bending backwards. […]
Newly updated Enterprise Budgets for 2009 have been completed and posted to the Farm Management Web site of the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics.
Web site
Updated Enterprise Budgets can be viewed and downloaded from http://aede.osu.edu/Programs/FarmManagement/Budgets/.
Recent changes in fertilizer costs and crop prices have changed the profitability outlook for field crops in Ohio.
Enterprise […]
A quick look at a few business-related topics this month.
The first of the year brought an increase in Ohio’s minimum wage rate. For most dairy businesses this will mean an increase for employees that were working at the previous rate of $7 per hour.
Adjust wages
Ohio employers need to adjust wages for hourly employees […]
By the time you read this column, the reality of the current dairy economics will be hitting you like a brick.
The January Class III price has been announced at $10.78/cwt, a drop of $4.50/cwt from the December 2008 prices. The blend price in Federal Order 33 in January will average about $14/cwt, depending your location.
Unless […]
No time like the present to talk about feeding calves in cold weather.
While the feeder puts on more clothes to help them stay warm, the “layers” of clothing our calves can put on to help them stay warm is nutritional.
Yes, a calf coat or blanket of some sort can help a calf maintain […]
Hello northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania dairy farmers.
The financial crisis has hit our country with a resounding thud. Sadly, it looks like a rough year is ahead for our dairy industry, as the projections for the upcoming year’s milk prices are bleak. It is no secret that 2009 will be a tight year — […]
Can’t put it off any longer … it’s year-end tax planning time.
“One’s tax management goal should be maximizing after-tax income or wealth over time, not minimizing taxes in any one year.” A sound piece of advice from Purdue University Extension Ag Economist George Patrick.
This can be a tough one that requires looking past a “big” […]
