(USDA.gov via Flickr)

USDA sees corn acres, stocks above expectations, record soy seedings

Washington | Reuters — U.S. farmers were seen cutting their corn plantings by less than expected in 2015 even as supplies ballooned to the highest since 1987, U.S. government data showed on Tuesday. The U.S. Agriculture Department, in its closely watched prospective plantings report, also predicted that farmers would devote a record 84.635 million acres […] Read more

Making the best of inflation

Government taxes what it creates. Here are some strategies for making the best of it

Making capital gains is the essence of investing. Yet many gains are nothing of the sort. They are only the illusory repricing of goods and incomes. Government drives inflation, then taxes stocks and bonds, incomes, house prices and even farms that are part of the repricing. If you think that this is unjust, you’re right. […] Read more


paperwork on a desk

Protect your off-farm investments

The bull market we’ve been living with could be nearing its end. 
Keep your capital intact through the downturn

It is a principle of finance that people will pay almost anything for what they don’t know. Stocks with dubious futures can soar in price when investors, fearful of being left out, jump on the bandwagon. Voices of caution are few and far between. Yet now they are being heard. In New York, where you […] Read more

Farm financial planning: Trusts can increase family trust

Trust avoids family infighting for retiring Manitoba couple aiming to keep 
their land in the family, but also keep their kids still talking to each other

In south central Manitoba a couple we’ll call Harry and Ella, both 64, face the challenge of transferring their 3,500 acre mixed grain and 400 cow operation to their three children. The problem is that two of the children, each in the 30s, don’t want to farm. It’s a good business worth about $4 million. […] Read more


Guarding Wealth: Buying risk, paying for liquidity

Guarding Wealth: Buying risk, paying for liquidity

Price-earnings ratios are a useful way to analyze your investment decisions

What do you get when you invest in capital markets? You might say stocks or bonds, mutual funds or units in real estate investment trusts. That answer is both true and false. You do get ownership of those things, but in a more analytical sense, what you are really getting is risk — any stock […] Read more