Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Jodi Henke Farmers are discovering the benefits of organizing their farms as a limited liability company, or LLC. It’s suitable for any size and type of farm enterprise, and offers many benefits that a sole proprietorship doesn’t have. John Schwarz is a third-generation farmer and the owner of Schwarz Law Firm in Hudson, Indiana. […]

By: Debra Prinzing What happens when an architect and a former Walt Disney imagineer start farming? If they’re Andrea and Lou Gagnon, they can’t help but make art – even in the fields. When the couple returned to the family farm to raise their children and establish a new way of life on 10 acres […]

By: Rob Sharkey Selling farm ground is one of those taboo topics, that no one in agriculture likes to talk about. However, it’s also one of those topics that everyone seems to have an opinion on. I’m not gonna hide the fact that this article was inspired by the TV show, Yellowstone. In a nutshell, […]

By: Laurie Bedord Whether it’s pulling a field cultivator, a vertical-tillage tool, or a high-speed planter, the tractor is an integral part of getting the work done on D-Dowson Farms. It’s also a seat that has become harder to fill. “Finding labor has been a big issue,” says Steve Moffitt, who farms with his father-in-law, […]

By: Myron Friesen We have a big family with seven children. My husband and I have owned much of our farmland for over 50 years. Unfortunately, much of it ended up in a C corporation that was eventually converted to an S corporation. Several times over the last 20 years, we were advised to give […]

By: Jodi Henke Perhaps the property lines of the multi-generation family farm you live on were originally laid out with a big oak tree on one side and a giant rock on the other. But the old oak tree isn’t there anymore. Do you fight about the exact boundary line with your neighbor or work […]

By: Jodi Henke Your neighbor could be buying more land every year to farm, but bigger doesn’t always mean better. Greg Ibendahl is an associate professor of ag economics at Kansas State University. He and another researcher reviewed 10-years of data from the Kansas Farm Management Association to develop a ranking of several hundred farms […]

By: Raylene Nickel In 2006, Randy Roecker expanded his dairy near Loganville, Wisconsin, to 300 cows. But a few years later, the price of milk plunged, throwing the family operation – Roecker’s Rolling Acres, LLC – into a financial tailspin. As Roecker sought ways to stabilize the business and find new revenue streams, he stumbled […]

By: Mitch Kezar When Gary and Amy Cammack looked out over the open prairie near Union Center, South Dakota, several decades ago, they thought how nice it would be to have a big woods to create a break in the open and endless prairie landscape. That forest seemed a bit of a stretch, but they […]

By: Jodi Henke If you want a unique insight into your farm business, sit everyone down for a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Lynn Kime is a senior Extension associate at Penn State University. He says the session should include family members, business partners, employees, and anyone else who can […]