News

K-State agricultural economists Mykel Taylor and Art Barnaby offer their latest takes on some of the likely points of debate in the 2018 Farm Bill, which will be addressed in the series of Farm Bill Forums being conducted over the next two weeks in Kansas and Nebraska, co-hosted by K-State and the University of Nebraska.

K-State risk management specialist Art Barnaby comments on the administration-proposed cuts to the crop insurance program and the ensuing impact on coverage and he talks about why crop insurance premiums on corn and soybeans may be lower this year for farmers in lower-risk counties.

K-State livestock economist Glynn Tonsor summarizes the research findings that he reported at the national cattle producers' conference last week on the determinants of beef demand. This was a beef checkoff-funded study of the factors that are currently influencing demand, and the results revealed that factors other than retail price have a greater impact on consumer beef demand.

K-State agricultural economist Allen Featherstone looks at Kansas farm profitability trends over the last few years, based on Kansas Farm Management Association numbers, as a harbinger of what that profitability may look like here in 2018...the main difference-maker in that profitability remains a producer's ability to effectively manage costs of production. 

K-State agricultural economist Mykel Taylor shares the information she and colleagues at K-State have gathered on the performance of the crop "safety net" provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill, and how that may influence the commodity title content of the 2018 Farm Bill:  she looks at the various issues associated with the ARC and PLC payment set-up, and what changes might be considered there. In the second segment, she stresses the importance of preserving the current crop insurance program as a key component of the safety net. 

K-State livestock economist Dustin Pendell summarizes a new report he co-authored that analyzed high, medium and low-income cow-calf operations...he talks about the dramatic differences in revenue across operations, and points to the one factor that drives those differences more than anything else, saying that it would be a good starting point for improving cow-calf profitability. 

The director of the Arthur Capper Cooperative Center at K-State, Brian Briggeman, talks about a new K-State study of what allows agricultural cooperatives to attain a sustainable growth rate...and how cooperative boards and managers can use that information to analyze their cooperatives' economic status and plan for growth.

The dean of the College of Agriculture at K-State, John Floros, offers his review of the college's activities and achievements in 2017:  he discusses the areas of research that K-State continues to lead on a national and international level and the great success the college continues to have in career placement of graduates. He also talks about the ability of the Cooperative Extension Service in Kansas to remain viable as Extension in other parts of the country has struggled, and he offers an outlook for the college's opportunities and challenges in 2018.