The Business of Agriculture Podcast

Is your farm actually profitable, or are paid-off assets hiding the true cost of doing business? Damian Mason continues his "Farmer Math" series with a new guest, Chris Barron, to break down three financial fundamentals every farm operator should understand: land, equipment, and return to management. A million dollars of paid-off equipment can still represent roughly $150,000 per year in economic cost. Depreciation, inflation, replacement costs, and capital tied up in machinery do not disappear simply because the equipment has no loan payment. Damian and Chris also discuss how farmers should value labor, management, and their own time. Is labor a cost or an investment? If you tracked every hour you invested in your operation for an entire year, would you be satisfied with what those hours ultimately earned? The conversation then turns to where Agriculture is headed: tighter money, higher interest costs, less government backstop, and greater pressure on margins. In that environment, understanding farm profitability, equipment utilization, return on assets, and return to management becomes increasingly important. 
The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:
Heads Up Plant Protectants
Tidal Grow Agriscience
Nano-Yield 
Good Agriculture
Also, make sure to check out my new show Uprooted, DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary. 
 
 
This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Why does agriculture treat farmland and equipment differently than virtually every other business treats its assets? Illinois farmer and businessman Mark Severson joins Damian Mason to examine "farmer math" — the financial thinking that can distort how producers evaluate assets, capital, depreciation, opportunity cost, and return on investment. A paid-for tractor is not free to operate simply because there is no loan payment. Farmland is not automatically a good investment simply because it has appreciated. And dividing a farm equally among heirs does not necessarily produce a fair or successful farm succession plan. Damian and Mark discuss why agriculture often separates wealth from profitability, how substantial farm net worth can mask poor returns on capital, and why emotional attachment to land and equipment can influence business decisions that should be evaluated financially. They also explore one of agriculture's most difficult financial issues: farm succession planning. The commonly repeated idea that "equal is fair" can create conflict between farming and non-farming heirs while jeopardizing the future viability of the operation. This episode of The Business of Agriculture is a practical conversation about farm finances, farmland values, equipment depreciation, opportunity cost, return on assets, farm profitability, and generational farm succession. If you own or manage agricultural assets, the numbers behind your operation deserve the same scrutiny as the acres you farm.
 
The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:
Heads Up Plant Protectants
Tidal Grow Agriscience
Nano-Yield 
Good Agriculture
Also, make sure to check out my new show Uprooted, DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary. 
 
 
This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Beginning September 1 and continuing for 90 days, 300,000 metric tons of lean trim beef will be imported into the U.S. at zero tariff. The policy, recently announced by the Trump administration, is intended to tackle the "affordability" issue facing American consumers. Will it? International Ag consultant Todd Thurman joins Damian to discuss - and dismantle - this policy move. Is cheap food now an American entitlement? Why does Agriculture feel the brunt of "affordability" when cars, fuel, homeowners insurance, and so many other consumer products have inflated in price as much or more than beef? Did Brazilian "Big Beef" influence this decision to sell more meat? More importantly, why was this action even taken — beef consumption was increasing even amid record prices, defying the "protein trade down effect." All those questions and more are answered in this meaty episode of The Business of Agriculture!
The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:
Heads Up Plant Protectants
Tidal Grow Agriscience
Nano-Yield 
Good Agriculture
Also, make sure to check out my new show Uprooted, DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary. 
 
 
This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

American agriculture is not simply working through another commodity cycle. It may be confronting a structural shift in how global agricultural markets, trade, technology, energy, and food demand function.
Geopolitical analyst Jacob Shapiro joins Damian Mason to examine four forces that could reshape the future of U.S. agriculture: the erosion of unquestioned American global dominance, an energy transition that could ultimately reduce input costs, artificial intelligence that may narrow some advantages of scale, and global population decline that challenges the long-held assumption of continually expanding food demand.
The discussion explores why agricultural exports may no longer provide the growth strategy the industry has historically relied upon. Jacob explains how China increasingly views food production and agricultural supply chains through the lens of national security, why greater Chinese self-sufficiency could affect U.S. commodity demand, and what changing global demographics mean for farmers and agribusinesses built around expanding export markets.
Damian and Jacob also examine U.S. ethanol policy more than two decades after the Renewable Fuel Standard emerged, the implications of AI for large and small agricultural operations, and how cheaper energy could alter farm economics.
The outlook is disruptive, but it is not pessimistic. Jacob argues that American agriculture has substantial opportunities if producers, agribusiness leaders, and policymakers recognize that the economic assumptions of the past may not define agriculture's future.
The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:
Heads Up Plant Protectants
Tidal Grow Agriscience
Nano-Yield 
Good Agriculture
Also, make sure to check out my new show Uprooted, DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary. 
 
 
This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Is America really experiencing a K-shaped economy, or has the economic divide become more complicated?
Kansas State University agricultural economist Dr. Brian Briggeman joins Damian Mason to explain why he believes the familiar K-shaped economy may have evolved into something closer to an "E-shaped economy," with three distinct tiers of consumer spending. With the top 10 percent of U.S. households accounting for roughly half of consumer expenditures, the growing separation between high-income consumers and everyone else has important implications for agriculture, food businesses, rural America, and the broader U.S. economy.
Briggeman explains why interest rates are a greater economic concern than the shape used to describe consumer behavior. He and Damian examine agricultural real estate, farm income pressures, federal debt, government support payments, and the financial resilience of farmland during previous economic downturns.
They also address a question increasingly important across agriculture: Could current economic conditions push rural America toward another farm financial crisis resembling the 1980s, or are today's circumstances fundamentally different?
For agribusiness leaders, farmers, lenders, and anyone tracking the U.S. agricultural economy, this discussion provides perspective on consumer spending, interest rates, farmland values, farm finances, and the economic forces shaping agriculture.
The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:
Heads Up Plant Protectants
Tidal Grow Agriscience
Nano-Yield 
Good Agriculture
Also, make sure to check out my new show Uprooted, DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary. 
 
 
This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.