Top Farmer Conference: January 10, 2025

As one of the most successful and longest-running management programs specifically crafted for farmers, the Purdue Top Farmer Conference is a one-day event for agricultural producers and agribusiness professionals looking to navigate the complexities of today's agricultural landscape. Participants will have the opportunity to network with peers and hear from farm management experts and agricultural economists from Purdue, Farm Credit Services of America, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Acres, a land value data analytics company.

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Livestock

Mini-Boom Ahead for the Livestock Industry

The U.S. livestock industry has entered a new era of much higher product prices, lower costs of production, and favorable margins for producers and their input suppliers. This new era is a reversal of what took place starting in about 2007 through mid-2013 when margins were often negative, producer balance sheets were eroding, and lenders anxiety about the health of their livestock accounts was growing continuously.

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Farm Building Rental Rate Survey

Farm buildings and livestock facilities often outlast their owner’s need for them, but can still provide usable service. Farm operators and livestock producers may be able to make use of certain types of farm buildings but are not in a position to invest in new facilities.

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Livestock Disaster Programs

This article briefly discusses the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Related Fish (ELAP) disaster programs. The discussion will focus on the provisions of the disaster programs that are most applicable to farmers in the Midwest.

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Determining a Value for Corn Silage

Pricing silage crops can be much more challenging than pricing grains, since they are not sold as routinely and, therefore, do not have a readily known market price. The following is a brief discussion of some methods for determining prices for various types of silage.

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Rental Agreements for Farm Buildings and Livestock Facilities

Farm buildings and livestock facilities often outlast their owner’s need for them, but are still usable. Other operators want the services of certain types of farm buildings but are not in a position to invest in new facilities. Both parties can benefit by developing a lease arrangement.

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Beef Cow Rental Arrangements for Your Farm

Managing risk is required for many farm enterprises to be profitable and sustainable. Leasing assets, rather than purchasing them, is a form of risk management as it typically requires less capital. Leasing or sharing arrangements between farm operators and property owners have long been used to acquire control of land.

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Drought, Livestock, and Income Taxes

Many Midwestern livestock producers have been adversely affected by weather conditions in 2012. Because of reduced feed supplies, some livestock producers have reduced their herd size through larger than normal sales of livestock in 2012.

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How Carbon Dioxide Offsets and Other Policies Impact the Financial Feasibility for Anaerobic Digestion Systems on US Dairy Farms

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of livestock waste presents a potential technological solution to the challenges of renewable energy production, greenhouse gas mitigation, and livestock waste management. While AD systems have been commercially available for many years, they have not been widely adopted on U.S. livestock operations.

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Pasture Rental Arrangements

The purpose of this publication is to help tenants and landlords make sound decisions and develop workable pasture rental arrangements. The publication demonstrates how to determine the landowner and livestock owner contributions to livestock production and how to use that to arrive at agreeable leasing arrangements.

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Carbon Dioxide Offsets from Anaerobic Digestion of Diary Waste

Anaerobic digestion allows farmers to create renewable energy and significantly reduce manure methane emissions. Methane emission reductions have the potential to be an important source of carbon dioxide offsets under cap and trade climate legislation.

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