Don’t count your snowpack chickens yet…
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The outlook for Idaho surface water irrigation as of 3/1/23 is much improved along the Snake and Boise River systems for 2023 vs the previous two years due to above normal snowfall and precipitation in the current water year, however the central and panhandle regions of the state remain below normal.
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There has been much speculation as to how long these high appreciation rates will continue and when they might revert to the mean or possibly even decrease. We still don’t know the answer to that as year-on-year annualized returns remained near the peak of 10% for the fourth consecutive quarter.
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Over the past five or six years, much of my hunting has been centered around taking my sons and helping them gain the same appreciation that my Daddy passed to me. With this in mind, in addition to my own pursuit of becoming a better hunter, I’ve found that being prepared and gaining as much knowledge as possible are major factors in being successful.
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Scythe & Spade is proud to announce the addition of Gavin Doss as our new GIS Systems Analyst. Gavin will be supporting the GIS needs of Scythe & Spade clients both internal and external farmland acquisitions/dispositions real estate activities, due diligence studies and farm management services, as well as further developing Scythe & Spades vast proprietary FarmBase™ GIS, GPS, and relational databases and analytics system.
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The CAP or Capitalization rate for investment farmland is simply the cash rent or total income divided by the asset value. It is a simple measure of returns to investment that allows comparison not only between regions and farmland types, but also with other assets such as stocks or commercial property. It can also be a measure of perceived risk, with investors demanding a higher CAP rate for those assets perceived to be more risky. What we see in the chart below is a re-ordering and clustering of regional returns from the year 2000 up through Q3 2022.
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US farmland values have been on a tear for the last year and half, increasing at rates not seen since 2011 – 2012, when drought and short supplies drove agricultural commodity prices to new highs. The current run up in prices has numerous drivers, including drought last year in the EU and China, drought in the US and China this year, war in Ukraine disrupting grain shipments in the Black Sea, and, not least, monetary inflation hitting numbers not seen since the early 1980’s.
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The late rains moved the 2022 inventory from having the second lowest peak since the mid 1960’s to maintaining a higher daily inventory than the previous nine driest
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We are excited to announce the addition of our new Delta Regional Director, Addison Taylor, to the Scythe and Spade family.
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How is risk tied to compensation in the agricultural real estate and investment world? At Scythe and Spade, we like to develop long-lasting relationships with our clients that are built on experience, trust, and accountability. This enables us to partner with our clients under several alternative compensation approaches which share the risks and rewards, reveal and resolve issues up front, and ultimately speed up the entire process while achieving the clients selling or purchasing objectives.
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Addressing Climate Change may be necessary, but those charged with creating Policy must take into consideration all of the potential impacts, not only on the farmers and ranchers but also on the human population that relies on food, fiber, and fuel from them.
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The markets for farmland derived carbon credits is in its infancy with wildly varying contract terms, is a long way from consistency, and may not survive over the long term.
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Lower than average snowpack in the mountains of eastern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming following a drought year in 2021 means reduced water available for irrigation in central and eastern Idaho and parts of western Oregon.
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Lower than average snowpack in the mountains of eastern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming following a drought year in 2021 means reduced water available for irrigation in central and eastern Idaho and parts of western Oregon.
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At Scythe & Spade, Challenging the Status Quo is a differentiator, a disrupter. We are a small company, competing with much larger competitors. But we see that as a competitive advantage, allowing us to change faster than our competition, being on version 10.1 when everyone else is trying to figure out version 4.2.
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We are excited to announce the addition of our new West Coast Regional Manager, Brent Reed, to the Scythe and Spade family.
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As a grower or investor in farmland, your eyes may glaze over at the dizzying array of "smart" new technology products that claim to enhance your farming operation with better yields, less input costs and improved use of irrigation infrastructure. Each year a new company launches another satellite or a constellation of satellites that can be your eyes in the sky and can help you monitor your farming operation. You may have signed up with a current vendor and received imagery that show each of your fields. This type of service can be very helpful, but you may find yourself spending a lot of time pouring over daily or weekly digital snapshots of your fields.
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Idaho, along with the Pacific Northwest and most western states are currently suffering from drought. In an effort at Scythe & Spade to put the current severity of the drought in context, as well as understand the current and future implications of irrigation water availability on a district-by-district basis, we have begun a deep dive into a very rich historical data sets.
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Have you noticed that soy oil is trading at nearly twice the price of one year ago? The start of the runup in soybean prices in the fall of 2020 was mainly driven by higher demand for the soybeans and meal as purchases from China skyrocketed. Since spring, however, the continued rise in soy and other vegetable oils has been for the oil themselves.
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Idaho, along with the Pacific Northwest and most western states are currently suffering from drought. In an effort at Scythe & Spade to put the current severity of the drought in context, as well as understand the current and future implications of irrigation water availability on a district-by-district basis, we have begun a deep dive into a very rich historical data sets.
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