Nick Streff, director of the USDA NASS Northern Plains Regional Field Office, and Elliott Dennis, assistant professor of livestock marketing in UNL's Department of Agricultural Economics, recap their April 29, 2021, webinar on USDA NASS Cattle Reports and how producers can put them to use. 

View the full webinar at https://farm.unl.edu/webinars.

Becky Vogt is the survey research manager for the Nebraska Rural Poll at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

She discusses findings of the 2020 rural poll, which asked rural Nebraskans to evaluate the resilience of their communities, and how that relates to individual well-being. 

Jay Parsons is a professor and farm and ranch management specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

For agricultural producers, decision-making plays an important and everyday role in the operation. Making decisions in such a dynamic industry that includes uncertainties such as weather, government policies, and competing short- and long-term objectives, illustrates the benefits for farmers and ranchers to develop proactive, consistent decision-making skills designed to produce the desired outcomes.

Wheat is just emerging from dormancy and growers are getting their first look at how the crop faired through the winter months. Wheat fields planted behind fallow emerged in the fall and have established well. Depleted soil water and dry conditions have slowed wheat emergence in fields that have been continuously cropped. 

With: Dave Petersen, Area Claims Manager, Rural Community Insurance Services Katherine Frels, Assistant Professor, UNL Agronomy & Horticulture Cory Walters, Associate Professor and Grain Economist, UNL Agricultural Economics.

Glennis McClure is an extension educator and farm and ranch management analyst in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

Commodity prices have risen over the last several months, and so have major input expenses, such as fuel, fertilizer, and even the price of pesticides. When crop prices rise, profits do not always follow incrementally.  The whole enterprise picture must be brought into focus, accounting for input price and expense adjustments that may offset gains on the revenue side of the budgets. Staying current with cost of production and breakeven estimates using enterprise budgeting provides information that is useful when making management decisions such as input selection, production considerations or marketing the crop. 

Daniela Mattos is an assistant professor of practice here the Department of Agricultural Economics, and the chair of the Rural Economic and Community Vitality Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

An opportunity for rural community leaders, professionals and citizens alike to learn about economic and community development tools and strategies is now available here in UNL’s Department of Agricultural Economics. The Rural Economic and Community Vitality graduate certificate is an online, 12 credit hour program that works to equip its students with the knowledge to understand rural communities and the issues they are facing, while preparing them to participate in constructive community affairs.

Austin Duerfeldt is an extension educator and agricultural economist based in the southeast region of the state. 

While it’s not practical or possible for every farm to purchase more ground or rent additional acres, it is possible for every operation to look at ways to be more efficient with what they currently have. Many times, increases in efficiency will lead to greater profitability and more opportunity for growth. But where should you start looking for places to become more efficient? Working to reduce waste is a great place to start. 

Enterprise budget templates were recently updated for producers’ use to estimate sheep and goat revenue and expenses and consider projected breakeven scenarios. Using a west central Nebraska representative sheep flock with 250 ewes and a 70 head meat goat herd, the budgets are prepared for producers to use as guides when entering their own information using an Excel spreadsheet format.  

Extension educators Glennis McClure and Randy Saner discuss how the budgets came together and why they are useful for producers. 

Jim Jansen is an agricultural economist with Nebraska Extension, and co-author of the annual Nebraska Farm Real Estate Report. 

Nebraska contains over 45 million acres of agricultural land used as cropland, grazing land, hayland and more. About 56% of that ag land in the state is owned by farmers and rancher, while absentee landowners own the remaining 46%, which equates to nearly 20 million acres that are leased out. A new report from the USDA’s Economic Research Service shows that, nationally, the majority of these absentee landowners who are non-operators — who typically cash rent their land to operators — live within about 50 miles of their land. Jansen discusses more about the characteristics of landownership in Nebraska and across the country, and why understanding them is important to both owners and operators. 

Dr. Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel is a Nebraska Extension educator with Rural Prosperity Nebraska. 

One byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the growth of remote work. And, for the people that can work anywhere, that also may mean they can live anywhere. For rural communities, where population loss is often an issue, this may present an opportunity to attract new residents – that is if these communities can effectively market their potential.