Upcoming Events - "Income Tax Management for Farmers" Webinar

Each year, Purdue Extension and the Purdue Agricultural Economics Department offers Income Tax Management for Farmers, a program covering recent tax law changes and their implications for farmers, farm families, and farm businesses.  As in recent years, the program will be offered as a webinar and will be accessible from anywhere with a high-speed internet connection.  The program is free-of-charge and will be held on December 6 from 8:00-10:00 AM CST.

To view the program remotely, go to https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/tax approximately 5-10 minutes prior to the start time and sign in as "Guest".  If you are unable to view the program live, it will be recorded and archived for later viewing.  The link to the recorded program will be posted on the Gazette as soon as it is available.  You may also email me at nheld@purdue.edu for the archived link.  

You Might be an Entomologist If....

Stand up comic and TV personality Jeff Foxworthy made a name for himself with a series of "you might be a redneck" one-liners. You know, things like you might be a redneck if you think a stock tip is advice on worming your hogs.

Like many previous good ideas, nearly everyone and his brother have adapted this one for other uses. Such a joke can be used to describe localities: You might be from a small town if you know all your neighbors and their dogs by name. Or you might be from New England if your Dairy Queen is closed from September through May. <Read More> 

Weekly Outlook - Corn and Soybean Demand and Acreage Prospects for 2012

Corn and soybean prices have declined sharply since the release of the USDA’s November Crop Production report that contained smaller forecasts of the size of the 2011 harvest for both crops.  In addition, the historically strong corn basis has begun to weaken in many markets.

The recent price behavior suggests that the market believes that the combination of very high prices in the late summer and early fall and weaker demand prospects have been sufficient to ration the relatively small crops.  Weaker export demand prospects stem from a combination of increased competition from other exporters and concerns about world economic and financial conditions.  For corn, the competition is from the large corn and wheat crops in 2011 while soybean export demand is being influenced by prospects of another large South American harvest in 2012.  While world financial conditions are deteriorating, the impact on world grain consumption may be over stated.  The record large exports of U.S. pork and beef in the face of record high prices provide evidence that world demand for food remains very strong.  Foreign crop production prospects will dominate the outlook for U.S. crop exports. <Read More>