Considerable public attention has recently focused on agrosecurity, especially from the perspective of national security and aggregate production. This article reviews a series of biosecurity breaches stemming from criminal activity affecting a Minnesota dairy. Present and future economic losses...

Farm financial performance measures are evaluated for producers across five age groups. The debt-to-asset ratio is highest for farmers in the lessthan- 30 age group, 45.5 percent, and decreases across age groups. Repayment capacity is strongest for farmers in the less-than-30 age group, 2.1:1,...

Succession planning is a component of a household’s risk management strategy for its farm business in as much as it is aimed at continuity of the business' management team. The family farm sector relies heavily on intergenerational succession. Succession and retirement are inter-linked...

This paper discusses a farm financial analysis program, along with four features of the program that have facilitated its use by farm managers. The four features that appear to increase farm manager interest in the program are Performancebased, Accrual-adjusted income statement, System of...

Identifying the least-cost strategy of obtaining a technology is important. This study determined the break-even cropped area necessary to economically justify the purchase of Precision Agriculture (PA) equipment versus the custom hiring of the PA services. The results suggest that a commercial...

This paper examined sustained competitive advantage for a sample of 377 Kansas Farm Management Association farms with continuous data from 1988-2007. Technical, allocative, scale and overall efficiency indices were calculated for each farm and year. Approximately 30 percent of the farms...

A case study is presented about the financing arrangements, contract terms, and business relationships of a set of contract hog producers whose loans from community banks have been guaranteed by the Illinois Farm Development Authority. The results reflect the maturity and stability of contract...

At least 30 states have some type of grain insurance fund to protect the owners of stored grain against bankruptcies. This article provides some historical perspective on how the legislation originated and how it still provides protection for those who contract storage in licensed facilities in...

Statewide agricultural land values from 3,243 arms-length market sales in North Dakota between 2001 and 2004 were 6 percent higher than estimates derived from the June Agricultural Survey (JAS) of National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and 9 percent higher than values from the North...

Agribusinesses, producers and farm managers rely heavily on forecasts made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other government agencies in forming expectations that drive management decisions. While agency forecasts are a valuable and low cost source of forecast information, it is...