Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Mark McLaughlin Problem: Our off-farm children want to inherit land and rent it to our farming son; do we really need farm succession planning? Our son farms with us and has grown our operation. Our other three children say they will keep their share of the land and just rent it back to him. […]

By: Myron Friesen PROBLEM In our current plan, we give our farming child an option to buy out their three siblings for 80% of fair market value on a contract. Our 800 acres were worth about $8,000 an acre when we did that, and now they are $15,000 per acre. The terms of the contract […]

By: Laurie Bedord From an early age, Grant Hilbert was determined to one day become a farmer. He also thought it would take decades to raise the capital necessary to realize that dream. Playing video games on YouTube would help the Iowa native achieve that goal much sooner than he anticipated. “Today, the cost to […]

By: Mark McLaughlin My parents are in their 70s and own 1,200 acres. I have two off-farm siblings. Every time I talk about farm succession, Mom says, “I’m sure everyone will just get along.” Dad jokes, “Just let ’em fight it out!” Dad suffered a heart attack last spring, and we’re not laughing anymore. Our […]

By: Myron Friesen My parents, especially my dad, always tell me that their plan will “take care of me,” but I have no idea what they mean by that. Unfortunately, in the past I have had other people say, “Trust me,” and then they did not keep their word and it cost me. The stakes […]

By: Successful Farming Staff The land market momentum that began in late 2021 accelerated into 2022 and was driven by competition for high quality cropland, resulting in record sales and overall increases in land values across the country, according to Farmers National Company. In most cases, landowners selling property experienced values never-before-seen for their farmland. […]

By: Laurie Bedord Established in 1908, Granstrom Farms was originally a conventional row crop and cow- calf operation. However, the Granstroms have always tended to swim upstream. The Nebraska family’s latest move is a shift to raising only organically certified crops and experimenting with autonomous machinery. “One of my and my dad’s character flaws is […]

By: Alex Gray Verdant Robotics has raised $46.5 million in funding to scale its robotics and to accelerate wide use of its regenerative and precision ag technology. Verdant’s primary product, “Robotics-As-A-Service” (RaaS), is currently being used on a wide variety of specialty crops across thousands of acres, with orders pending for tens of thousands more, […]

By: Laurie Bedord Like many rural Americans, the Leffler family dealt with a broadband connection fraught with problems. For years, they relied on DSL to help them run their Americus, Kansas, row crop and cattle operation. Short for digital subscriber line, DSL was introduced in the late 1980s and uses existing phone lines, making it […]

By: Laurie Bedord Tillage has come a long way since John Deere invented the self-scouring steel plow in 1837. Once a basic tool for turning the soil, the implement is being developed into a machine that gives producers the ability to vary tillage settings based on changing soil types, field conditions, conservation practices, and topography. […]