In reading through emails from IFT Publications readers this past week, a common theme stood out to me. There were five separate emails that e…
This past month, my daughter had the privilege to experience the Iowa FFA convention in Des Moines. What a fabulous experience for the 3,000 y…
Last month’s column on my grandmother’s “Old Wives’ Tales” brought some fun discussion to my office.
My grandmother was a disciple of the Farmer’s Almanac. She was full of old wives’ tales. She could talk for hours on end about most anything. …
The credit for the invention of the boomerang goes to the Aborigines. Prehistoric man would throw stones or sticks at prey. Eventually, they r…
The very first column I ever wrote was about a retired U.S. Navy fighter pilot who was shot down over Vietnam at age 24. After 75 combat missi…
As farmers, we prepare for next season through the winter months. We prepare for tax season by deciding how much income to defer and discoveri…
Ben Franklin might just as well have been talking directly to today’s farmers when he famously said, “In this world, nothing can be said to be…
A client called this week with follow up questions on their estate and farm transition planning process. We decided together that their questi…
Electricity has always intrigued me, from the very first time an electric fence tickled my belly as a little boy to the present. I have learne…
Risk is second nature to farmers. Prices, interest rates, weather, input costs and land costs are at the top of the risk list for all of us. E…
We never know when and where something profound will happen to us. The trick is to either be on constant lookout or be lucky.
The year was 1984 and it still seems like yesterday. I was in the 8th grade in Kalona, Iowa (about 11 miles from our farm in Wellman).
In 1992, after four years of college, I came to the realization that our family farm was not big enough to support five families full time. I …
The SECURE Act of 2019 has changed IRA and retirement plan distributions for the year 2020 and beyond.
A musical note is a small unit of sound, similar to a syllable in spoken language. By themselves, music notes are simple and bland. However, w…
While watching the ball drop in New York City this New Year’s Eve, the television ran what seemed like 100 cuts in a row of Barbara Walters sa…
An exit strategy is a planned approach to terminating an effort in a way that will maximize benefit and minimize damage. Webster’s defines an …
The farm transition column in October discussing family communication sparked enough interest that, even during harvest, we received multiple …
Unfortunately, the early October rain pushed back the start of harvest that is already behind schedule.
My columns in each of the last four months have highlighted a paragraph of the FFA Creed as it relates to farm transition. Written in 1928 by …
I read a story once about a wealthy family. The father wanted to teach his 7-year-old son a lesson about how lucky they were to have wealth.
This week marked my 27th anniversary helping farm families transition their life’s work to the next generation. It started for me back in July…
Social media provides a platform to spread a massive quantity of information and sometimes misinformation about agriculture.
I was reminded last week of the importance of vocational agriculture and the FFA to the future sustainability of our communities.
In 2008, my wife agreed to run the New York City Marathon with me. She had finished 10 marathons, so I listened carefully to her. She expresse…
In 1992, I had the good fortune to meet my business mentor at my very first college interview. He told me that 10 years in the future, I would…