Ag-Visors

In the last few weeks we have seen an outbreak of Parvovirus in dogs. For those of you who are not familiar with this disease, it causes vomiting and diarrhea in your puppy. It will also suppress the immune system of the dog. This means it acts like HIV or AIDS. We normally vaccinate all dogs for this disease. But, some people think that one dose is enough. And it is not.

Ectoparasites are upon us and what are we going to do? These are those pesky fleas, ticks and flies. Let alone the mosquitoes, wasps, spiders and ants.

The Tax Court held that a married couple who engaged in a cattle and horse breeding activity were not engaged in a business, despite the full-time nature of the venture. The case was Garbini v. Commissioner IRS [T.C. Summary Opinion 2004-7]. Mr. Garbini, of Myrtle Creek, Ore., listed his occupation as a rancher, and his wife indicated she was a housewife. Both taxpayers were retired during the two taxable years in issue, and for Mr. Garbini this was a full time venture. They had a net loss of $127,341 in one year and $124,584 for a second year at issue.

The case was Garbini v. Commissioner IRS [T.C. Summary Opinion 2004-7]. Mr. Garbini, of Myrtle Creek, Ore., listed his occupation as a rancher, and his wife indicated she was a housewife. Both taxpayers were retired during the two taxable years in issue, and for Mr. Garbini this was a full time venture. They had a net loss of $127,341 in one year, and $124,584 for a second year at issue.

With the price of cattle staying high, even with another case of BSE or Mad Cow showing up in California, I have quite a few calls about bottle raising calves again.

When it comes to the sun, there are two potential problems: too little and too much.

Texas residents Anthony and Florence Jorgenson, owners of three cattle ranches and one farm, failed to persuade the Tax Court that their activity was a trade or business engaged in for profit [TC Memo 2000-038]. The Jorgensons, both of whom are full-time physicians with substantial wages from their medical practices, were audited in connection with their ranches, and then went to Tax Court.  

Today is a very exciting time to be in the medical field. We have started a new process to heal patients with conditions that we have never been able to heal before. It is called, “REGENERATIVE MEDICINE.” This is where we are able to heal ligaments, tendons, articular cartilage and bone. We are also looking into it being able to re-grow organs, and re-vasculize areas of the body.

As ag producers in today’s world we have so many resources available to us to obtain our goals. Those goals can vary widely from growing or changing your operation to reducing debt to a more efficient operation. All operations no matter what size need to have goals to measure progress.

Well, we are in the middle of spring calving. I have seen and delivered some very large calves. So far the biggest was approximately 180 pounds of a set of twins. Most of us put all of the responsibility of large calves on the bull. Now, it is true that bulls can change your herd very fast and improve your herd the fastest. But, half of the genetics in the calf comes from its mother.