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Nebraska Land Link
Producers thinking about the future of their operation have a resource to help with succession planning. Nebraska Extension Educator Emeritus Allan Vyhnalek says the Nebraska Land Link connects retiring landowners with beginning farmers, helping keep agricultural land in production while supporting the next generation of producers.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
The University of Nebraska Center for Ag Profitabilities, offering education, and practical applications to help landowners and land seekers protect the future of their operations, as well as helping aspiring farmers, find ways to start their ad careers.
Extension educator emeritus, Alan Vyhnalek says, current landowners can protect their legacy by using this valuable tool.
[Allan Vyhnalek, Nebraska Extension Educator Emeritus]
And so, you know, we're really we're really taking care of a couple of problems.
One problem is there's some land seekers that don't have access to land.
The other problem is, in many cases, many of your cases as landowners, you have land and you have nowhere to give to get to land you because if you have children, your children are no longer interested.
The point is, before you put your land on the land link makes me make sure if you have children, that you check with them one last time.
Is there any chance that you're interested in coming back to the farm?
We'd love to have you or ranch?
We love to have you.
If there's not, then fine. Lets just go on.
So you can apply for the land link and here's some tips so you can do that application very efficiently and well.
So before applying, just know that you're going to be asked a bunch of personal questions, but you're also going to be asked, how many acres do you have?
What's the breakdown of those acres by crop?
Once you break down to the acres by pasture and crop ground.
How what livestock do you have?
What's the breakdown in your livestock?
Your machinery inventory, that's going to take a little time.
You're just entering the tractors and the cultivators and the planters and the combines and trucks and that's going to take a bunch of time to get that entered in because that'll all need to be entered.
And then they're also going to want to know about what buildings you have, what your building inventory looks like and what can be done with it in terms of future use for this other operator that might be coming to your operation.
And the other question you'd be thinking about before you apply is, would you be willing to rent out a smaller number of acres separately for some other scale of production, especially if you live closer to one of the major towns in Nebraska, you may want to consider renting out 5, 10, 15, 30, 80 up to 80 acres for a small operator to do like a truck vegetable operation for farm to market thing.
Don't expect quick results.
I don't know what the processing time will be yet, but it's going to take me some time to sort through applications as they start coming in and interviewing people, setting up interviews, interviewing people as you'd be coming in.
We'll do a preliminary interview based on the application received.
You can't flunt the interview, that won't happen.
I'm trying to get a field for the landowners.
I want to know what you're most proud of.
I would like I would like to know if you really want to keep this operation in business or not, if you want just want the operation to go away.
I would like to know how you'd like to transition operation in the future.
What do you have for children if you have children and what's your obligation to those children?
Do you have any obligation to children?
What do your children expect?
What are you willing to give?
I mean, those kind of things have to be kind of thought about as you enter into this thing.
And what is your commitment to the land seeker?
Do you really want to keep this operation going?
So let's let's think about that and have that conversation before you even think about applying.
Let's think about that, have that conversation when I interview you too.
I'll be doing we'll be doing both.
Just kind of be thinking a little bit about what is your future use of the ground going to be, what do you want to have happen to that operation?
Um, I expect that you're going to have 20 to 30 land seekers apply for every landowner to you will get.
Like I said, in a previous slide, you're going to have some period of time between the listing date and the date you receive potential land seekers.
Your information from your land is only coming to my office and me only.
I'm not sharing now with the land seekers.
But I will be sharing their applications with you as the landowner, and I expect 2345.
I don't know.
I have to see how many qualify, how many people get applications done to me that are complete.
And I'll be interviewing them too, so I want to know what did they think?
I want to try and set up a good match as I can, especially after I maybe want to try and interview you first.
And also know that we'll be having land seekers that are looking for land in specific corners of the state or specific parts of the state.
And if your land is not there, then you may not have seekers right away, although I'm, I'm anticipating it, a lot of, a lot of land seekers say, hey, we'll go anywhere.
So then I can use them to look at your operation and that sort of thing.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion taken from the Farmcast podcast offered by UNL Center for Ag Profitability.
To hear the entire program, go to cap.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Limit Feeding Cows with Soy Hulls and Low-Quality Hay
Low-quality hay doesn't have to mean poor cattle performance. Recent research shows supplementing low-quality hay with soybean hulls can help maintain cow condition during drought. Auburn University Assistant Professor Brandon Smith explains what producers can expect when using soy hulls as a forage supplement.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
As drought conditions persist, cattle producers should consider feed resources that can complement low quality forage.
Brandon Smith, assistant professor at Auburn University, talks about how soybean holes should be a consideration for producers.
[Brandon Smith, Auburn University Assistant Professor]
So soy holes in particular fit that system because at the time, very affordable, and, you know, feed markets go up and down over the year.
So, if we listen to this podcast next year, then this, this may be totally out of the realm of possibility, but that as we go away, so this byproduct feeds, what I really like about soy holes is you get a moderate level of protein.
So the protein, you know, we're not talking about the type of protein that's going to be a soybean meal, of course.
You know, we're not taking the end of sperm out of that.
We're dealing with the outer seed coat.
So I would call it moderate protein, but you're also getting digestible fiber.
And the combination of those 2 mean that you're really not shifting a nutrition program away from that forage and fiber-based system.
And that's where sometimes in our supplementation of feeding programs we can get in trouble when you take something that's very dense and starch or very dense and protein, you shift the Roman ecology over and it's almost a shock to the system.
Soy hills in particular, and I would put those in the same category as something like the stiller's grains or some of the cotton bike products, really work in that system because they don't shift that room in ecology away from its natural state.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Brandon explains what soy holes are and where they come from.
[Brandon Smith, Auburn University Assistant Professor]
So the soy hole itself is going to be the outer layer, the the, um, seed coat or almost shell, if you will, of the soy bean.
So it's not the shell as in the pod, just the outer coating of the bean itself.
And we get this from processing soy beans for oil.
So the main product out of the soybean is going to be the soybean oil, from that we have soybean meal, which is the dry remaining portions.
The hull.
So seat code is going to come from that, and then the amount of soy hulls that are generated are going to depend on what type of soybean meal was being produced.
So you can adjust the standardized protein and soybean meal by how much hull is added back into that system.
Um, soy hulls themselves then come off, you can have them loose or in the past 10 years or so.
I've seen more use of them as pelleted.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Brandon also points out what kind of energy is being supplied by the soy halls.
[Brandon Smith, Auburn University Assistant Professor]
On a TDM base, the soy holes were going to be in that 70 to 75% range somewhere thereabouts.
So to put that in perspective, we generally look at, hey, now this, of course, hey, is going to be all over the board, but hey, we generally think of as that 50 to 55% range being the floor of what you need for maintenance.
So we're looking at something that I would call halfway between a forage, so hay versus a concentrate, like if you were feeding cracked corn or something like that.
You know, not even that, but as we look at these soy holes, you know, all fiber is not created equal, if they're on a pasture-based system or hay system, they're getting plenty of the physically effective fiber, you know, the scratch factor, long stem type fiber, soy holes offer us that unique aspect of digestible fiber.
So it's chemical fiber, it, as chemically makes up fiber, but the digestibility is higher, which is where you get that higher TDN.
That's what really benefits the system and where you were going with the using a fiber-based energy source over something like a starch base.
It meshes very well.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension to hear the entire program.
Go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills, Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans.
Go to extension.unl.edu.
Harnessing the Power of Decision Trees
Good decisions start with good planning. Nebraska Extension Farm and Ranch Management Specialist Jay Parsons says decision trees can help producers evaluate options, prepare for uncertainty, and make sound business choices for the future of their farm or ranch.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Ag producers face a very challenging decision making environment full of risk and uncertainty.
Complex solutions take time and research to keep the operation successful.
Extension specialist, Jay Parsons, talks about a decision tree or decision flow process designed to help operators make good decisions using this valuable tool.
[Jay Parsons, Nebraska Extension Specialist]
I mean, it gets its name, obviously, because it looks like a tree where you have different nodes of decisions or uncertainties and then outcomes from each of those.
So it branches out and gets get fairly complex, fairly fast, depending upon how many different types of outcomes there are from the uncertainties and how many different choices you're considering.
Um, the way it differs from a lot of the other ways that we do or look at decision making in an ag is it forces you to think of the sequence of events, of how things happen, um, and how information is revealed.
So, in that regard, it's a really useful tool.
So rather than just sitting there at a point in time and thinking of all of the things.
You kind of think of the sequence in which they happen and just kind of big buckets and directions things can go.
I looked at a corn producer's marketing decision, and, you know, to begin with, I mapped out that, you know, prior to that, there's planting decisions, planting conditions that would contribute to that, and so on.
But the example I gave was really kind of disappointed time, you know, Midsummer, you're looking at marketing decisions, you still don't know exactly how your crop is going to turn out.
You don't know how markets are going to turn out in the fall.
So I just mapped it out as kind of a simple thing where you're trying to decide whether to forward price half your crop or not, and you know what the current contract price is that's being offered by the local elevator for the fall.
And you still need to determine what your actual yields are going to be and you need to determine what how prices are going to turn out.
So I just did a simple thing where yields could go up or down 10%, so 3 different outcomes here or turn out normal.
And then same thing on the prices that they could go up or down 10% or turn out normal.
So you map all that out and you get like 9 different outcomes for each decision, whether you leave it cash open or for price half of it, given the current price that's offered to you.
From there, you just got a bunch of numbers that you can calculate, expected values and do different things that look at different outcomes that could possibly turn out.
Well, the challenges are definitely the complexity, because even the example I put in there, even though it's very simple, and not nowhere near capturing everything that could possibly happen for a producer, because reality is you got a spectrum of yields.
You got a spectrum of prices.
So the complexity is there.
Uh, you know, no matter what decision it is, it gets complex really fast.
So that's a challenge, but the thing that's a real advantage is it forces you to think through, just, like I said, kind of big buckets, you know, going up, going down.
You know that there's probably a spectrum in between there.
And once you have that template built of the things that can happen, you can reuse it.
So, you know, the, the, uh, decision I describe would be like you're in the midsummer, but another 2 months from now, you know, a little bit more about the market conditions that could happen in the fall, you know, a little bit more about your production conditions, which your yields might be, and you have that template there.
If you're making another marketing decision at that point, let's just say you're looking at maybe forward pricing a quarter of your crop at that point.
You can just, you know, repopulate that same tree with the new numbers and take another look at the decision that you're considering.
Expected value, you know, mathematically is just a weighted average of what could happen to you.
And it's not so much that, you know, you're going to make a big deal about, say, a $100 difference or something like that.
It's it's what you're looking for, there are some bigger differences where you definitely prefer one or the other.
And then sometimes when the expected values are close.
You might look at the distribution of the possibility, say the best case, worst case scenario and kind of how those are distributed.
And in that regard, pick one of the choices as being much preferred to the other choice.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion taken from a recent farmcast podcast offered by UNL Center for Ag Profitability.
There are many more key details from this interview, which can be heard in its entirety by going to cap.unl.edu or downloading from Apple Podcasts.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Summer Pneumonia in Calves and What to Do About It
Summer pneumonia can be a serious threat to young calves. Dr. Halden Clark with the Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center says recognizing the early signs and treating affected calves quickly can improve recovery and reduce losses.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
The stress of calving season might be behind cattle producers now, but Nebraska veterinarian Holden Clark encourages producers to remain vigilant.
He says summer pneumonia and other illnesses can be treated.
[Halden Clark, UNL DVM]
If symptoms are spotted early enough.
Typically, nursing pneumonia, which is kind of a perennial problem is going to be noticed by producers as a listless, weak, half with no obvious diarrhea, but ears are droopy, seems to lack energy, may lack abdominal feel, meaning he hasn't been eating or drinking very much at all, laying around too much.
Those kinds of things, if they catch that calf, typically they're going to have a high fever, well over 103, maybe a 104, 105, 106 somewhere in there.
So that's usually what a producer will notice.
Somewhere around a 5th of beef operations in our plains states are going to deal with cases of summer pneumonia in their calves in a typical year.
And then maybe somewhere around half of those operations will actually lose a calf to pneumonia while the calves are in the pre-weaning phase.
So it tends to be a disease that responds well to treatment, and uh, working with your veterinarian to get a plan made for what to treat calves that look like that with, should you encounter cases of of nursing calf pneumonia like this is really important.
And then in addition to a treatment plan, about uh, 87% of vets recommend uh, pre-weeding calf vaccinations to address this nationwide.
So those 2 things can be addressed by the herd veterinarian and uh, you know, plan can be made.
Typically treatment doesn't take the capture and restraint of the animal is usually a bigger part of the cost of treatment than the drugs themselves.
It's typically not a huge burden economically to purchase the treatment drugs, but the labor and time to get these calves treated can be even a bigger piece of the puzzle than that.
So that's a little bit about the basics of what this looks like.
There have been a couple studies that have looked at a number of different risk factors.
One that comes up over and over is if the calves had scours go through if a number of cabs were treated for diarrhea in that critical 1st month of age, which is the danger zone for scours.
If a lot of scours occurred during that time frame, then there's a higher likelihood that those calves are going to fight pneumonia as well.
And we believe that is an indicator that those calves were faced with a number of things that could lead to higher disease, incidents such as poor quality colostrum intake, environmental stressors, management factors, like extended calving seasons, and greater commingling, especially of different age cohorts of calves, those kinds of things that lead to greater health rests can impact pneumonia rates as well.
Treatment early in the course of disease is really important for these.
So my recommendation would be working with your veterinarian to either be able to treat these for you very promptly or to have a protocol, basically a plan, a written, maybe a written plan even with what the veterinarian recommends as far as treatment drugs, and this can be based on postmortem analysis of any calves that may have died, and sample submission and results, that's possibility, or the veterinarian's clinical impression of what appears to be the animicrobial choice in that region.
Those are important things.
Availability, product availability comes into play.
If the drug that your vet recommends for summer calf pneumonia has not been discussed in the last few years, it might be good to to consult with them again.
There are a lot of new generics on the market at a much lower price point than previously.
So that could potentially be a time to benefit from your relationship with your vet and to find a good option that may come at a lower cost than in years past.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion taken from a recent beef watch podcast to hear the entire interview. Go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts for Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Ideas for Estate and Transition Planning: Gifting Ownership
Planning ahead can make passing the farm to the next generation easier. Nebraska Extension Agricultural Economist Jessica Groskopf says gradually gifting ownership over time is one estate planning strategy that can help ease the transition while keeping the operation in the family.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
For many farm families, bringing children, or even grandchildren into the operation, is the ultimate goal.
Nebraska extension agoconomist Jessica Groskoff talks about one strategy that might make sense when it comes to turning over an operation to family members.
[Jessica Groskopf, Nebraska Extension Ag Economist]
So this is a really interesting strategy, but the most important thing is that you have to have an entity structure that allows for the transfer of shares or changes in the percentage of ownership.
So we're looking at farms and ranches that are set up as partnerships, LLCs or corporations.
And this is really a cool tool because you can use basically that entity as a gift to the lower generation.
So as an older generation, which we're going to call the donor, I can gift that to my heirs, which we call the donor.
So it's a really interesting plan.
If I have the right entity structure in place.
And honestly, it is actually fairly easy, but I do need to emphasize this is not something you just decide to do.
You do need a team of professionals behind you, and at the top of that list is a very talented attorney and a very knowledgeable tax professional who can help you know and understand what you need to be able to to implement this strategy.
So this is a really interesting strategy because to some extent it provides not just ownership, but potentially management decisions and income to that younger generation, in a, in a gradual ways, and giving them that opportunity to learn the ropes while I'm still alive.
It also creates that shift of income between the owner and the heir as well, right?
So, as that owner gets a little bit older, maybe they have some other assets that they can tap into and really allows that younger generation to grow, that farmer, that ranch business gradually over time.
So 1st of all, if you're going to tackle or think about this type of transfer, you need to work with your financial team.
You need to determine the liabilities associated with that business, the asset basis and then the value of those shares or that percentage of the business.
We can use 2 exclusions as we work through this.
That's the annual gift tax exclusion and the lifetime gifting exclusion to make this transfer.
So as we think about, Both sides.
Um, during life, there's there's a few things we need to consider.
First is the management of that business.
So how much of that management is being transferred with those shares, and that comes down to that decision making.
If that donor, that older generation still wants control or more control, we need to make sure that this isn't a large transfer all at once, because that might also be transferring that decision making power.
So we need to think about, really, is this a small progressive gift?
We're gifting a little bit each year, maybe a percent, or half a percent every year, or is it that large shift?
And that depends on the farm of the ranch business.
Along with that is the consideration of the transfer of income.
So as that ownership, Percent, and its changes or that that ownership of shares change, that's going to ripple through the business.
So we really need to make sure that both, The owners and the heirs maintain a viable standard of living.
It's very, very important as we work through the transition process that both parties still have that viable standard of living.
And so, We have to think about, is that transfer of shares or ownership also transferring that income, and where is that comfortable mix?
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion taken from a recent Farmcast podcast offered by UNL Center for Ag Profitability.
To hear the entire interview, go to cap.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts.
For Nebraska extension almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans.
Go to extension.unl.edu.