Markets
How to read USDA crop reports without overreacting
Tanya Brooks · August 26, 2026
Strategy
Strategy covers commitments made a season or more in advance: crop rotation and acreage allocation, forward contracts and storage, hedging decisions, land rental and purchase, and diversification into new enterprises. Each analysis works through the assumptions on cost and price that the decision depends on, and what happens when those assumptions fail.
Strategy
How prevented planting payments are calculated under crop insurance
The federal program pays a share of a crop's guarantee when planting deadlines pass unmet. The percentage, the dates, and the acreage minimum are set in the policy well before a wet spring makes them relevant.
Tanya Brooks · August 21, 2026
Markets
What basis means for the price your elevator actually pays
Tanya Brooks · August 19, 2026
Strategy
Ranking farm capital expenditures when cash is scarce
With USDA ERS forecasting 2026 net farm income at $153.4 billion, most operations face a capital queue — a documented ranking method beats first-come-first-served spending.
Tanya Brooks · July 27, 2026
Strategy
A three-year regenerative transition, sequenced and costed
Cover crops occupied just under 18 million acres in the 2022 Census — a transition plan that works budgets each practice, each year, before committing the whole farm.
Isabel Duarte · July 5, 2026