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Finances
Adding a family member or employee to a farm is a long-term financial decision. These slides and self-assessment tools help evaluate financial feasibility, strategic risk, and business resilience before expanding labor.
Read MoreThe Farm Finance Lab tool helps producers use Schedule F tax data and balance sheets to quickly generate financial ratios measuring profitability, liquidity, solvency, and financial efficiency. Users can upload documents or enter values manually, explore interactive gauges, and test scenario changes to better understand financial performance. The tool is free to use and does not store any user data.
Read MoreMichael Langemeier presented at the Fort Wayne Farm Show on January 14, 2026, on crop net returns prospects and the farmland market.
Read MoreIn December, the Center for Commercial Agriculture launched Trends in the U.S. Farm Balance Sheet, a new interactive data visualization built on USDA Economic Research Service farm income and wealth statistics. The tool highlights long-run trends in farm assets, debt, and equity—allowing users to explore changes by asset type, debt category, and lender, while also tracking key financial ratios over time. State-level farm real estate values are mapped, and every chart and dataset can be downloaded for further analysis. As balance sheet conditions continue to evolve, this tool provides a clear, data-driven way to monitor financial strength across U.S. agriculture.
Read MoreTight margins often trigger cost-cutting decisions, but not all cuts improve profitability. This article explains how marginal analysis can help producers evaluate fertilizer, seed, and seeding rate decisions to protect returns when prices are low.
Read MoreMachinery investment benchmarks from 2007–2024 show that large crop farms hold a sizable cost advantage. Operations over 2,000 acres consistently invest less per acre—both in machinery ownership and net annual equipment spending—highlighting meaningful economies of scale. Understanding where your farm fits can help guide machinery planning and long-term cost management.
Read MoreBenchmark machinery costs for corn and soybean farms and see how expenses differ by farm size and net return category. The article also reviews long-term machinery cost trends from 2007–2024 to help producers assess scale efficiencies and compare their own costs to industry benchmarks.
Read MoreThe Fall 2025 Indiana Farm Income Outlook, published by the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center (RaFF), provides updated projections for Indiana farm profitability through 2026.
Read MoreThe 2026 Purdue Crop Cost and Return Guide provides estimated costs and net returns for planting, growing, and harvesting corn, soybeans, and wheat in the upcoming year. Cost and return information presents information for low, average, and high productivity soils. Early projections point to slightly higher breakeven prices.
Read MoreFor a state such as Indiana, which is heavily reliant on corn and soybean receipts, the latest USDA-ERS net farm income forecast seems counter-intuitive. After two strong net farm income years in 2021 and 2022, net farm income has been below average for crop farms. Current projections for 2025 and 2026 suggest that net farm income will remain below average through at least 2026.
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