What's happening at Scythe & Spade

There is a lot of debate on whether carbon sequestered in the land should be considered real or personal property. In real estate, personal property is usually defined as being movable whereas real property includes the land, physical improvements, and rights of ownership commonly referred to as a “bundle of rights”. This bundle of rights includes the right of disposition, right of enjoyment, right to exclude others, right of possession, and right of control. However, an open question is should carbon stored in the soil be considered a natural resource for contractual and property rights consideration?

Usually when selling a farm, one discusses comparable values of other farms in the area, and as a result, most acreage is valued close to others in the region. However, when considering a sale, owners should ask themselves “Do we have a farm asset or a going concern (i.e., an operating business)?”

On March 15, 2021, the USDA announced a 45-day public comment period to gather input on its climate smart agriculture and forestry strategy. This is in response to a recent Executive Order which mentioned that farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners could play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestration and other sustainable practices such as producing biproducts and biofuels.

The dramatic increase in corn, soy and other grain & commodity prices driven by the drastic increase in Chinese purchases since late summer/fall of 2020 will almost certainly hold for most of those crops through to at least mid-2022. Why? Barring a complete crash in exports or record acres and yields for both corn and soybeans, it will take at least two crop cycles to rebuild US inventories for those two crops, and when stressed, they provide the price and income for which all others must compete for acres.

Ever sat in a meeting and wondered, "is this really worth my time?” Meetings are often characterized as one of the most painful events and yet they provide underestimated opportunities for efficiency gains in running a business.

The question here is can the load out infrastructure hold up to record through put. The author seems to frame the situation as an either or: either we hit the big export numbers or there's a big price drop. We may not hit the largest figures due to weather conditions or through put restrictions but that doesn't mean carryout increases dramatically. We would instead go from tight supplies to only somewhat-less tight. So long as China follows through on purchase commitments…

At Scythe & Spade we strive daily to “Simplify Complex Agribusiness Issues”. The purpose of our business is to facilitate strategic investments in agribusiness and implement efficient asset management systems.

As sports fans we see constant highlight reels displaying brilliant plays of our favorite players. It is easy to put them on a pedestal and tell ourselves that they are one in billion, oozing with talent. But, what if there is more?

USDA’s latest crop report released Tuesday January 12th held a surprise, confirmed a trend, and maybe cemented a longer-term shift in farm commodity prices when placed in context with other market information.

2020 was a year full of uncertainty and unpredictability – Serendipity was evident all around us if we have the eyes to see it.

Covid, or more specifically our reaction to it, has blown up supply chains, deepened public anxiety over where their food comes from and how it gets to them, and made those supply chains vulnerable to sudden change and those seeking to change them.

At Scythe & Spade one of our core value is simplifying complex agribusiness issues for our investor, producer, and vendor clients. This starts by assembling the right team of experts and then empowering them with best-in-class tools to serve our client’s needs. FarmBase is one of those tools.

How to get the most from your most valuable asset.

Here is a breakdown for Ag regarding the CARES act (covid-19 relief) passed last week. It doesn’t directly effect Scythe & Spade, but it supports commodity crops and markets which could have a stabilizing effect on those crop markets - particularly in the Midwest and southeast, thus some stability to land prices and farm bankruptcies.