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Top 10 Most-Viewed Ag Machinery Videos of 2013
Agriculture News Dec 6, 2013 | 00:00 am

In 2013, agricultural equipment manufacturers unveiled exciting innovations for farmers in the form of new machines. Meanwhile, timeless issues such as equipment safety and longstanding favorites such as classic tractors continued to catch AgWeb viewers’ eyes.
So what are you waiting for? Sit back, relax and enjoy the top 10 most-viewed machinery videos of the year.
No. 1: Watch How the Kinze Electric-Drive Vacuum Meter Works
No. 2: Up to the Axles: How to Un-Stick Your Equipment
No. 3: Tribine Introduced at 2013 Ag Connect
No. 4: John Deere Video Introduction of MY14 8R Tractor
No. 5: Avoid Tractor Crashes By Sharing Rural Roads
No. 6: Roll-Belt 560 Round Baler from New Holland
No. 7: Tractor Tales: 1949 Minneapolis Moline RTS
No. 8: Shatter Soil Shank-to-Shank with this Tillage System
No. 9: Hand Packing a Bearing
No. 10: Tractor Tales: 1950 Allis-Chalmers WD
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RELATED TOPICS: Machinery, Tractors, Planters, Fun
Manage Risk by Taking Control of Your Grain Marketing
Agriculture News Dec 5, 2013 | 15:45 pm
More than 220 women from across the U.S. are gathered at the Executive Women in Agriculture conference in Chicago this week.
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A risk manager advises Executive Women in Agriculture on how to plan for 2014 profit margins.
In the face of 2014’s "extraordinary risk" for grain farmers, better marketing is critical to maintaining profit margins, a senior risk manager told attendees Thursday at Top Producer's Executive Women in Agriculture conference in Chicago.
Kim Burton with Top Third Ag Marketing laid out basics and advice for farmers to become better marketers in her three standing-room-only "Guide to Risk Management" sessions.
"Too many farmers focus only on production and don’t pay enough attention to price," Burton said.
"The time of year does not and should not dictate when you market your grain," she added. "Some of your best marketing opportunities occur well before harvest."

Kim Burton with Top Third Ag Marketing urges grain farmers to be proactive, not reactive when it comes to marketing their crop.
Among Burton’s key points:
• Develop a marketing plan. "It doesn’t need to be elaborate," Burton said. "Know what your operation’s needs are." Previous tax returns are a good starting point to learn critical information about your farm’s finances.
• Combine effective crop insurance with your marketing plan. "Crop insurance is important and better than it used to be, but it basically protects ‘dead’ bushels," she said. "It’s not marketing."
• Use options and forward contracting to manage risk. Buy put options to protect unsold bushels. Buy call options on the grain that has been sold. "Never have puts and calls on the same bushel," Burton noted.
• Don’t become a speculator. "That means you’re guessing or hoping, not protecting your crop," said Burton.
Options can be used to manage risk and give advantages that other marketing techniques don’t. For example, the only money you have at risk is the option premium, commission and fees. Put options also protect your downside price risk but allow for upside potential. Call options allow you to sell cash grain but also keep your foot in the door to take advantage of price increases, she said.
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RELATED TOPICS: Business Management, Marketing, Risk Management, Executive Women in Agriculture
3 Great Tips from 3 Farm Women
Agriculture News Dec 5, 2013 | 10:49 am
Farmers Daphne Holterman from Watertown, Wis.; April Hemmes from Hampton, Iowa; and Michelle Stewart from Sheridan, Ill., share advice and their experiences during a panel at the 2013 Top Producer Executive Women in Agriculture conference.
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With grain prices sinking and margins tightening now is the time to hone in on business tips and solid advice from successful producers.
Three such farmers shared personal stories and advice from their farming careers today during a panel discussion at Top Producer’s Executive Women in Agriculture conference. Here are three tips any farmer should hear.
Network outside of the ag industry.
Daphne Holterman farms near Watertown, Wis., with her husband and two young unrelated partners. They have 900 dairy cows and farm 1,500 acres of alfalfa and corn silage.
She says while she loves people in the ag industry and attends many farm meetings she makes a point to meet successful people in industries beyond agriculture. "Sometimes I learn more from talking to my plumber and learning about his small business," she says.
Make marketing a priority and learn from others.
April Hemmes, of Rafter H. Farms, farms in Hampton, Iowa and was Monsanto America’s Farmers 2011 Farm Mom of the Year. She is the farmer in her family, not her husband.
As she got more involved in her operation, she knew her time was best spent focusing on marketing. "I had to teach my dad and grandpa that an hour spent going to a marketing meeting was more important than an hour in the tractor," she says.
Hemmes is a member of an all-women marketing club that meets once a month, from November through March. "We talk options, grain contracts and learn the different ways you can sell a crop," she says. "Learning what other people are doing is key."
Understand you can’t do it all.
With her husband, Michelle Stewart runs a manure spreading business and farms near Sheridan, Ill. They are both first generation farmers. "My husband had a small manure spreading operation and was farming 100 acres when I met him and I had a business degree," she says. "We combined our skills and have grown our operation. We are now farming 15,000 acres in Illinois and some in Mississippi."
In addition to their businesses, the couple has three young daughters. So, achieving that coveted work-life balance is difficult. Stewart’s advice is to recognize that some tensions will always be there.
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RELATED TOPICS: Executive Women in Agriculture
Peterson Points Out Drivers of Agriculture
Agriculture News Dec 5, 2013 | 10:05 am
Dana Peterson kicks off the Executive Women in Agriculture Conference talking about drivers of agriculture.
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Dana Peterson, the former CEO for the National Association of Wheat Growers, kicked off the Executive Women in Agriculture Conference today in Chicago. She highlighted three drivers of agriculture that attendees needed to keep in mind as they plan for the future.
Globalization and consumers, technology, and politics and government are the key drivers of agriculture, Peterson said.
With the population increasing and expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 and the rise in incomes, diets around the world are changing. This will continue to build demand for agricultural products, Peterson pointed out. Farmers must use technology to manage information and people, she says.
There’s information technology and production technology. As farmers and businessmen, we must take advantage of the technology we have access to, added the Smith Center, Kan., native.
In terms of politics, Peterson said the representatives being sent to Washington have an "objective to win...regardless." She asked attendees to examine how this attitude might affect business on the farm.
"The effects on agriculture are global as many developing countries see agriculture as a way up," she explained. "In the long-term, this means stiffer competition. Farmers need to think about what they do best and hone in on it."

For More Information
See full coverage of Top Producer's 2013 Executive Women in Agriculture event. Follow the event on Twitter: #EWA13.
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RELATED TOPICS: Executive Women in Agriculture
Fed’s Lockhart Calls for Setting Timetable for Tapering QE
Agriculture News Dec 5, 2013 | 10:00 am
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(Updates with labor market forecast in seventh paragraph.)
Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart, a backer of record stimulus, said any decision to taper bond purchases should be accompanied by a limit on the size of the program or a timetable for ending it.
"If and when the FOMC arrives at a decision to wind down asset purchases, it’s my view that it will be helpful to the transition process to provide as much certainty as possible about how this will be done," said Lockhart, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee, in a speech in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He doesn’t vote on policy this year.
The FOMC will consider scaling back $85 billion in monthly bond buying in coming months based on expected gains in the labor market, according to minutes from the committee’s October meeting. The panel is scheduled to meet Dec. 17-18.
The U.S. economy probably added 185,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent, according to median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists before a government report tomorrow.
Lockhart said he is among FOMC participants who favor announcing a "total size of remaining purchases or a timetable for winding down the program." He spoke to Broward Workshop, a local business group.
"I am among those who see merit in this approach as long as the economy follows roughly the path we expect," he said. "Once the decision is made, I favor providing the public as much clarity and certainty as possible about how the change will be executed."
Fed Target
Lockhart predicted the labor market will improve, with inflation rising toward the Fed’s target. "My outlook for 2014 calls for some firming in economic activity," he said.
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Watch Interest Rates as Economy Improves
Agriculture News Dec 5, 2013 | 09:30 am

Watch the latest agribusiness analysis courtesy of AgDay Television, and listen to audio market updates from AgWeb Radio.

<< Return to Power Hour.

Top 10 Most-Viewed Ag Machinery Videos of 2013

No. 1: Watch How the Kinze Electric-Drive Vacuum Meter Works

No. 2: Up to the Axles: How to Un-Stick Your Equipment

No. 3: Tribine Introduced at 2013 Ag Connect

No. 4: John Deere Video Introduction of MY14 8R Tractor

No. 5: Avoid Tractor Crashes By Sharing Rural Roads

No. 6: Roll-Belt 560 Round Baler from New Holland

No. 7: Tractor Tales: 1949 Minneapolis Moline RTS

No. 8: Shatter Soil Shank-to-Shank with this Tillage System

No. 9: Hand Packing a Bearing

No. 10: Tractor Tales: 1950 Allis-Chalmers WD

Manage Risk by Taking Control of Your Grain Marketing

Related Stories

A risk manager advises Executive Women in Agriculture on how to plan for 2014 profit margins.

3 Great Tips from 3 Farm Women

Related Stories

Network outside of the ag industry.

Make marketing a priority and learn from others.

Understand you can’t do it all.

Peterson Points Out Drivers of Agriculture

Related Stories

Fed’s Lockhart Calls for Setting Timetable for Tapering QE

Related Stories

Watch Interest Rates as Economy Improves

Watch the latest agribusiness analysis courtesy of AgDay Television, and listen to audio market updates from AgWeb Radio.

<< Return to Power Hour.