Ag-Visors

This too shall pass is a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary. How true for production agriculture.

All I want is my fair share," declared a sister to her brother in a discussion recently during a joint request for mediation assistance...

I received information from our State Public Health Veterinarian for the state of Arkansas last week. It is very interesting that rabies is on the rise again. Last year we had a total of 152 cases that were confirmed positive. Of the 152 cases reported we had 118 skunks, 26 bats, 3 dogs, 3 cats, 1 cow and 1 horse.

In the last three or four weeks I have had several calls about sudden death in calves and cattle.  My first question in these cases is what is their vaccination status? The two common answers were, they had all their shots or they have not had anything yet. My next question was, “Does the skin feel bubbly and/or feel and sound like bubble wrap and/or rice krispies as you run your hand down the legs, back and neck areas?" I have also done postmortem exams on at least two of these cases.  The resulting diagnosis was blackleg.

LLC's for business at the farm?

Those of us in agriculture know the statistics: 1/3 of the nation’s farmers are age 65 or older, 50 percent of farmers are planning on retirement in the next decade, half of our nation’s farmland is controlled by farmers age 55 or older, and only 5 percent of our farming population consists of farmers younger than 35. Why this disparity? In discussions with several friends who are entering or have entered the industry, we came up with three top reasons: lack of financial resources, limited access to land and high-risk contributing to low motivation.

There are many websites and radio advertisements that offer services to help “compromise” IRS Tax Bills. Many of these offers make dubious claims, and can entail upfront costs that exceed the results produced. Some of these promoters advertise that they can settle your tax debt for “pennies on the dollar,” which is a false and misleading claim.

Congress amended the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1987 to establish the section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program because it recognized the need for greater federal leadership to help focus State and local nonpoint source efforts. Under section 319, State, Territories and Indian Tribes receive grant money which support a wide variety of activities including technical assistance, financial assistance, education, training, technology transfer, demonstration projects and monitoring to assess the success of specific nonpoint source implementation projects.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to plan much in the way of the future right now. This is particularly true when...

It’s the end of the year and we are in the midst of the holidays. Everyone’s mind is filled with thoughts of family, friends, food, gifts and parties. For the farmers and ranchers among us, those are joined by thoughts of harvest, winter planting, year-end stockyard sale days and new equipment discounts. We are making decisions on whether to sell the harvest now or later, to buy that new tractor or not, to cull that cow, to keep that heifer. Any and every decision we make, regardless of the time of year, has a lasting effect on our operations and the well-being of our families.