Carbon Programs for Woodland Owners in Kentucky

By Jordan Shockley | Associate Extension Professor
Published on Sep. 29, 2022

As carbon programs continue to evolve and expand throughout the country, many programs focus on agriculture, specifically sequestering carbon in row crop production. Why agriculture?

Farm Employee Retention

By Suzy Martin | KFBM Area Extension Specialist
Published on Sep. 29, 2022

Hiring and managing employees is one of the least liked tasks a farm operator faces. Questions about the cost of hiring employees are an often-asked question of Kentucky Farm Business Management Program (KFBM) specialists.

Fall 2022 Wheat Planting Decision

By Greg Halich | Associate Extension Professor
Published on Sep. 29, 2022

Corn harvest is now underway and Kentucky grain farmers will soon decide if and how much wheat they will plant this fall.  Compared to last year there are significant increases in wheat and soybean prices, major increases in all fertilizer prices, and fuel prices that have almost doubled.  The following analysis quantifies these relative changes

Relating Farm Financial Terms to Real Life

By Kayla Brashears | KFBM Area Extension Specialist
Published on Aug. 30, 2022

A producer that works with any type of lending institution may hear their lender use words like liquidity, solvency, and profitability. Their banker may tell them their Term Debt Coverage Ratio is less than 1:1, so the new farm purchase is off the table. A producer may know that their Debt-to-Worth is good or their Current Ratio is bad.

Optimism for Burley???

By Will Snell | Extension Professor
Published on Aug. 30, 2022

For those of you who have gotten past the title, it is not a typo. Yes, the Kentucky burley sector has lost over 70% of its market over the past couple of decades, while the number of farms growing burley in the Commonwealth has dwindled by more than 90%.

USDA-FSA’s Livestock Indemnity Program

By Kenny Burdine | Extension Professor
Published on Aug. 9, 2022

USDA’s Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) is administered by the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and is intended to help compensate producers for greater than normal levels of livestock deaths from adverse weather, disease outbreaks, and predator attacks. The program can also partially compensate producers for lost value resulting from injury.

Mid-Year Cattle Report Continues to Show Decreasing Cattle Inventory

By Kenny Burdine | Extension Professor
Published on Aug. 3, 2022

In late July, USDA-NASS released their mid-year estimates of U.S. cattle inventory. As expected, the report showed lower inventory across most all cattle types. All cattle and calves were estimated to be down by just under 2%, while beef cow inventory was estimated down by 2.4%.

I Have This Farm, Now What?

By Michael Forsythe | KFBM Area Extension Specialist
Published on Jul. 29, 2022

What do I do with the farm I just bought?  Although this sounds like a question that should be asked before you buy the farm, there may be circumstances that cause you to acquire a farm before deciding what to do with it.  You may decide you want to move your family out of the city to a rural area so you buy a house and a small farm.  You might

Consumer Covid Crisis Edges Back – A Little

By Azita Varziri | Postdoctoral Scholar and Tim Woods | Extension Professor
Published on Jul. 29, 2022

Covid represented a significant shock in 2020 to the U.S.

Hay Production Cost Increases in 2022 and Management Implications

By Greg Halich | Associate Extension Professor
Published on Jul. 29, 2022

Costs for hay production have skyrocketed in 2022.  Fertilizer is driving the bulk of the overall increase, followed by fuel, and then general cost increases for other categories (what could be considered “general inflation”).  While we can debate the exact causes of all these increases (i.e.