Mike McCann - Broker - Nebraska Land For Sale - Farmland - 308-627-3700

Farmers...Here is another great link to the 2012 Nebraska Crop Budget forms.

There is a ton of information in this 59 page report and it will be well worth your time to spend a few hours studying these forms and picking and choosing what can help you and your farm operation.

Virtually every fee, type of input cost, and expense you can think of is detailed in this report from insecticide to seed cost to Kilowatt per hour cost to the cost of twine. It is all there!!

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/ec872/build/ec872.pdf

This pdf covers 13 various crops and 50 different cropping systems.

Good Luck and enjoy using this dynamite set of forms... Farming is hard...tracking it shouldn't be!!

Time after time...I ask the same double question when a Landowner says he/she/they want to sell the farm.

Only ten words long but oh so powerful: "Is it rented and do you have a written lease?"

At least 50% of the time the seller states it is a gentlemans agreement...a handshake lease...nothing in writing.

In Nebraska and many farm states...there is no state law that says you must have a written lease to rent your farm ground.

However...in Nebraska, there is a law that protects the tenant if there isn't a written lease.

While the written lease should have specific dates and terms of the lease, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that if there is no written lease...then the current lease expires on March 1 of the following year IF the owner/landlord notified the tenant of the lease being cancelled prior to September 1 of the current crop year.

What this means is: If the landlord did not notify the tenant by September 1 that the unwritten aggreement expires after the crop season...the same terms are in effect for next year...including rent amount and terms.

Conversely...if the landlord did notify the tenant...then the tenant is out after the crop season whether they want to be or not. The owner is free to sell the property, to rent it to someone else, or to rent it to the current tenant at a higher rate.

This is huge in todays markets where prices are skyrocketing both in value and rent per acre value.

The Nebraska crop season runs from March 1 to the following February 28/29th. The verbal lease change notification must be given to the tenant by September 1 of the current crop season. I recommend to put that in writing and if possible...get the tenants signature as proof they received it.

My best recommendation is to get into a written lease with definitve terms protecting both parties.

If you are thinking about selling...make sure you understand how the lease can impact the sale price.

I have seen this impact estates as well and not always in a positive light.

Estates can be tricky if there is no lease. Understand this...If there is no lease and the owner passes away...the tenant is only protected until the above dates...they are not entitiled to any more or any less.

They can't tell you they get it for years to come and you can't boot them off in the middle of the season or after Sept 1 for the following crop season.

example: Owner dies in October while the tenant is starting harvest and there is NO written lease. The tenant gets to farm next summer too at the same rate.

If you have family who do own farm land and you know it is possible that you may be an heir or executor of the estate...ask the owner if they have a written lease for the farm ground and make sure you know their wishes...and recommend they get it in writing.

I can guarantee you that someone will say it is different if there is not a written lease. So best to be prepared!!

The USDA Farm Service Agency is now taking appointments and signing up the 2012 DCP/ACRE Farm Program participants.

Check with your local FSA office and expect to have set up an appointment to complete the sign up.

FSA will work to have the majority of farmers and landowners signed up prior to spring field work...which may come early this year. Sign up must end by June 1 unless the federal government offers an extension.

This is the last year of the 2008 Farm Bill and there will not be any advance payments. FInal direct payments are scheduled to be in October of this year.

2011 crop evidence must be brought in no later than July 15 of 2012.

If you are a producer and had at least a 10% crop loss in 2010...you are eleigible to make application for the SURE program by June 1.

Please call your local FSA office for more info...but don't wait...June 1 will here very quickly!!

Central Nebraska is closing in on being the warmest on record. Today's high of 55 and tomorrows projected high of 60 will seal the deal. What is going on?

In a nutshell...the jetstream...that high ridge of air that flows from west to east across the US has shifted farther north this year. That shift occurred in very early December.

The one side of me is loving it!! Late March weather in January.

The other side is remembering the old Farmer's warning...(my 85 year old Father in Law)...Warm, dry winters mean hot, dry summers.

I hope he is wrong there...but right now January has been way warmer than November or December were and I did not see anything to indicate February will be colder.

We have only had 3 days in January of 2012 that the high temp was below freezing...but we had 20 days that the high was over 40! The average high for January here is 36.8.

Last year we barely got above 0 (zero) for 2 weeks... What a difference!!

Oh...did I mention that I am not complaining?

Forget football...forget sleeping in late...forget the others chores...Jake wants to go spend the day in the country.

Picked him up from his apartment over by the college at 7am and we spent the day out playing in the country...just the two of us...just like when he was a youngster and we would come back to where we now live from Colorado on hunting trips. See the photo from 2001 below.

He thinks we were hunting today...but me? I was making another memory.

The hunting was mostly a bust...the weather was way too nice for what we were hunting.

But I got so much more out of the day than just a mere wall hanger or meal in the freezer.

I got to spend precious hours alone with my son...hours that are harder to come by as he grows into a life of his own.

10 years ago we would have spent 4 or 5 days together on a hunting trip...a trip that now lasts less than a full day as he had to go to work at his part time college job at 4pm.

But before he had to leave for his scheduled shift..he was all mine...just like the old days...if only for 7 hours.

The weather was in the mid 50's with sunshine...no wind...and no other distractions...no other people...and the only worry he had was if we were going to get stuck in the creek bottom...(I have driven through it hundreds of times...and no we did not). Although he will point out that a large snowdrift did capture us a few years ago and that is why he is leary.

I let Jake know how much I loved those trips years ago and the one last Sunday and this Sunday together and how much I loved him. And how proud I am at what he has accomplished in his 3+ years of college and how proud we are that he is an intern this semester for U.S. Senator Johanns and that he made the Deans list.

Yes, we had a very successful hunting trip! All we found today was a deer skull from the past, however...

I got the memory I was hoping for...

And I hope he got one as well!

Writers note: No animals were harmed in making this family memory!