Regardless of how long you’ve been farming, your key goals include long-term financial success and stability. Achieving these goals will be easier if you create a comprehensive budget that enables you to plan your finances, manage risk and track profitability.

The first three quarters of 2024 saw over 300,000 agricultural workers enter the country through the H-2A program, which provides temporary visas for foreign workers to perform seasonal agricultural jobs. It is an important source of labor in the West, with California and Washington ranking third and fourth in the nation, respectively, for H-2A workers.

Many large corporations have made goals to become carbon neutral. To reach those goals, companies must lessen their emissions, purchase offsets or a combination of the two. This has led to a voluntary market for carbon credits in the U.S. where carbon, verified as sequestered, can be sold, thus providing opportunities for agricultural producers.

Did you know that every entity registered with any state secretary of state must complete an additional Beneficial Owner Information report or face a $500-per-day late filing penalty? I hope you knew that, but I bet this got your attention if you didn’t know.

One of the most difficult decisions to make on the farm is whether or not to build a space for equipment and machinery storage and what type of space to build.

As harvest season approaches, you should have a good sense of your expected yields and the financial investments required to achieve them. To best prepare for next season, utilize this information with updated data on expenses and markets to calculate your true break-even point – defined as the value per unit where all expenses for the crop are covered by its revenue.

Many agricultural information meetings are planned for the purpose of sharing the latest (hopefully unbiased) research information. However, these meetings have the potential to offer more than just technical data.

Collecting and organizing data is crucial for preparing and planning for the next crop year. For example, data on acreage, yield and expected prices can help estimate gross returns. This information is valuable when negotiating with a banker for a new loan or refinancing an existing one. It’s also useful for setting lease terms with a landlord for the upcoming year.

It’s pretty common for clients to consider buying equipment at year's end in order to write it off for tax purposes. Bottom line: We need to think about depreciation timing for when the tax deduction will help the most.