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Order Now – Updated 2021 Guidelines Available!

January 4, 2021 by David 1 Comment

A new year means new revisions to the FFSC Financial Guidelines for Agriculture. Stay up to date by ordering the 2021 edition of our guidelines document.

The Financial Guidelines for Agricultural Production provides recommended standards for format and content of financial reports, recommended financial measures common to all sectors of agriculture, and example statements and measures.

You can order the guidelines here.

What’s new in 2021?

  • Formatting consistency (fonts, ToC, layouts, etc.) between Financial and Management Accounting documents. (Formatting updates are only relevant changes to MA documents so there is no need to order a new copy of that document. Basic information remains the same)
  • Changes to Appendixes A & B. The objective with this change was to separate deferred income taxes from estimated income taxes associated with gains on real estate appreciation (i.e., estate income taxes). This change allows for a higher level of detail in the market balance sheet. Deferred taxes impact net income while estimated income taxes do not. Accordingly, they are used in differing ways by users of the financial statements. By separating these two items on the market balance sheet, users can see the subtotal before and after including estimated income taxes, allowing for a more accurate reflection of financial position.

 

  • Changes to some of the numbers in Appendix A, mainly related to deferred income taxes, and these changes had a ripple effect for other calculations to other financial statements in Appendix A and to the financial ratios and measures computed in Appendix C.

Filed Under: Featured, News

Duckworth Presidency Highlights Leadership Changes

August 12, 2020 by David Leave a Comment

(Menomonee Falls, WI, August 11, 2020) Brenda Duckworth, CPA, controller at High Choice Feeders, headquartered in Scott City, KS, has been elected president of the Farm Financial Standards Council, based here.
The election came during the organization’s virtual annual business meeting held recently.

Other officers elected to the FFSC leadership team are: Vice President, William ‘Bill’ Rutter, vice president and chief credit officer with MidAtlantic Farm Credit, Westminster, MD; Secretary/Treasurer, Kathy Reinhardt, CPA, an accountant and farmer from Seaton, IL. Immediate past president is Keith Raynor, a partner with TRP Sumner LLC, Dunn, NC.

New directors named to three-year terms are: Russell Morgan, principle at Morgan Agricultural Consulting Services, LLC, Portland, TN, and Jonathan Shepherd, Extension Specialist with the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.

Duckworth had previously served as vice president and secretary/treasurer of the Council as well as a number of committee chair positions. She is an agricultural economics graduate of Texas A & M University, and a Certified Public Accountant.

The FFSC was formed in 1989 and tasked with developing agricultural finance standards for adoption by farmers and ranchers and their financial advisors across the United States. The goal of the organization is uniformity in finance reporting for determining the financial health of an agricultural operation. This includes the ‘Sweet 16″ financial ratios, which have been developed for the measurement of critical financial benchmarks. The Council today is a nationwide network that includes financial advisors, academics, farmers and ranchers, software developers and agricultural lenders. All its officers and members serve on a voluntary basis.

Filed Under: Featured, News

Ag Officials: Don’t Plant Strange Seeds

July 27, 2020 by David Leave a Comment

Seeds

People in seven states have reported receiving mysterious seed packages in the mail, and agriculture officials are asking residents not to plant them. The strange story comes from Successful Farming, which reports that some officials fear the seeds may be invasive species that would harm local plant life.

The packages are often labeled as jewelry and have Chinese writing on the outside, according to the article. The Kansas Department of Agriculture issued a news release that included the above photo.

“Unsolicited seeds could be invasive species, could introduce diseases to local plants, or could be harmful to livestock. Invasive species wreak havoc on the environment, displace or destroy native plants and insects and severely damage crops. KDA works to prevent the introduction of invasive species and protect Kansas agriculture,” the release said.

Filed Under: Featured, News

2020 Annual Conference Canceled

July 2, 2020 by David Leave a Comment

The leadership of the Farm Financial Standards Council has postponed the meeting scheduled for Amarillo in late July and is rescheduling the event until July 28-30, 2021. The meeting will be held at that time in Amarillo.

“The Council has been meeting annually since 1993, and this is the first time we’ve had to take action such as this,” says Keith Raynor, CPA, current Council president. “However, the actions of Texas’ governor over this past weekend effectively shut down the hospitality industry in Texas, which made it impossible to pursue the meeting there this year.

“The group considered a number of options and decided to move forward with the postponement until the same timeframe in 2021. We will use the same hotel property, just a year later.”

The Council will proceed with video-conferencing of its various working committees on the morning of July 29 and will conduct its annual business meeting that same afternoon. The agenda for that video-conferenced event will include the election of officers and action on committee recommendations moving forward.

“As is usual for the Council, all its activities are open to anyone who has an interest in participating,” Raynor clarified. He suggested they watch the Web site for details on the committee sessions as well as the annual business meeting.

Filed Under: Conferences, Featured, News

Neiffer and Covington Address Boot Camp Program

January 22, 2020 by David Leave a Comment

Paul Neiffer, left, and Curt Covington address the 200 in attendance at the Farm Futures Boot Camp being held January 23 in Coralville, IA. The two opened the all-day program with a session focusing on the evolution of the Financial Guidelines and how producers can best use them for preparing financial statements. Both are scheduled to give other presentations during the day addressing subjects such as ‘How to sound smart with your lender” and “Cash versus Accrual Accounting.”

Filed Under: Featured, News

Board Notes

November 11, 2019 by David Leave a Comment

Is it REALLY Going to be 2020?

It seems almost impossible that the next calendar year will be 2020! Why, it was just a few short months ago when everyone was concerned about Y2K and what it was going to mean ot the world…computers were going to stop computing…airplanes were going to quit flying…the world was going to end because nothing was programmed to NOT INCLUDE 19 as the century on calendars and dates.

But somehow we have all made it through and in the blink of an eye we are into the second decade of this new century.

Welcome New Members….

We have one new member since the last directory was published, so to save you time looking him up, his information is shown below. Austin is also listed in the new directory which is being released at the same time as this Board Notes. These are members who have come on the Council Team since September. You might drop him a note or give a call if you have the time to do so.

White, Austin
Accounting
Wipflie
777 East Main, Suite 201
Bozeman, MT 59715
406-586-2386
austin.white@wipfli.com

 Farm Futures Ag Finance Boot Camp 2020

This will be held at the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Iowa City, IA on January 22. It directly precedes the Business Summit which will be held the two days after. Our own Paul Neiffer and Curt Covington will be carrying the brunt of the day-long event and if you’ve not been to a Boot Camp before, I encourage you to attend the January edition. Here are some links to go to for the program, agenda and registration information. Note that if you register before the END OF NOVEMBER you can save on your registration fees.

Find out more here.

Get the schedule/agenda here.

Register here.

New Guidelines Out January 1

The Technical Committee has announced that it will have revisions made to the Financial Guidelines document and will be releasing a revised edition as of January 1. As a member of the Council you will automatically be sent a pdf of the new document when it is released. There will also be a shorter document outlining what is changed and that will accompany the new Guidelines.

Are We Missing Your Picture?

Being sent to all members at the same time as this Board Notes is the latest membership directory. Please look through it and see if you have any colleagues near where you are. You should notice that the breadth of the Council is expanding as we grow more diverse in the geographic area we cover.

But are we missing your photo in the roster? It’s always nice to put a picture along side a name, especially in a group as intimate as we are in size. If we don’t have a photo of you, please send me a jpg or other photo so we can add it to the next directory, which will likely come out after the first of the year. Please, though…make it a high-rez shot of at least 200 dpi so we have something to work with that will show you as the good looking person that you are!! Please….NO 72 dpi screen captures downloaded from a web site!!

Congratulations to Council President Keith Raynor and his organization

TRP CPAs, PLLC is joining forces with McFadyen & Sumner, CPAs PA by combining the two firms into one. They chose to combine the firms to create a truly next-generation accounting firm. The new firm name will be TRP Sumner, PLLC once the merger becomes effective on January 1, 2020 and will make them one of the 500 largest CPA firms in the nation.

Add Cowboy Boots to your Christmas List…

Start planning now to come to the 2020 FFSC Annual Conference which will be held July 26- 31 in Amarillo, Texas!

That wraps it up for now. Happy Thanksgiving.

Carroll Merry
Administrator, FFSC
cmerry@countryside-marketing.com
262-253-6902

Filed Under: Featured, News

Annual Conference Photo Summary

August 9, 2019 by David Leave a Comment

As the rains and high humidity gave way on Tuesday, drier and much more comfortable air settled in over the Raleigh/Durham area July 24th and stayed the rest of the week making the climate for the 2019 FFSC Annual Conference downright comfortable.

Want to know what you missed? Just take a look at our summary of the event (with lots of photos, too) right here.

And here’s more of what some attendees had to say…

My husband attended with me and he was very impressed with everything. Thanks for including the guests.”

 

Met a lot of people committed to improving farm health.”

 

I was pleased to see the engagement by the attendees with the speakers.”

 

The speaker on hemp had a lot more boots on the ground knowledge than I expected.”

 

Had more opportunities to interact one-on-one with some FFSC members I did not know well before.”

 

I like that FFSC moves this around the country and highlights regional ag in the region that is hosting the conference.”

 

Enjoy sitting in on the various committees. I’ve attended three conferences and this was the best conference yet.. largely due to the slate of general session presentations.”

Filed Under: Conferences, Featured, News

Raynor Heads Farm Financial Standards Council

July 30, 2019 by David Leave a Comment

Keith Raynor, CPA, a partner with TRP CPAs, Dunn, NC, seated, is elected new president of the Farm Financial Standards Council. He is surrounded by the new leadership team at the Council. Standing, from left, are: Brenda Duckworth, CPA, FFSC Vice President; Todd Doehring, Immediate Past President; and Bill Rutter, Secretary/Treasurer. Duckworth is controller at AgriVision Farm Management in Hartley, TX. Doehring is a director at Centrec Consulting, Savoy, IL, and Rutter is senior vice president and Chief Credit Officer for MidAtlantic Farm Credit, Westminster, MD.

The team was elected at the Council’s annual meeting held in Raleigh. NC July 26.

You can read about committee director realignments that happened at the meeting here.

Filed Under: Council Activities, Featured, News

Committee / Director Realignments for Council

July 30, 2019 by David Leave a Comment

With the change in leadership at the Farm Financial Standards Council there have also been realignments in some committee chair activities.

Shane Eloe, Dickinson & Clark CPAs, moves into the co-chair position for the Marketing Committee, a position he will share withDavid Olsen, Compeer Financial. Eloe replaces Brenda Duckworth, CPA, AgriVision Farm Management, who is now vice president of the Council.

Joe Kessie, Lake City Bank, is named co-chair of the FFSC Finance Committee, sharing responsibilities with Mark Compton, Compton Accounting. Kessie replaces Scotty Elston, Ag Texas Farm Credit Services, who retires from the position after many years of service.

The Technical Committee will continue under the leadership of Jeff Bushey, Nietzke and Faupel, PC and Alan Miller, retired Purdue University professor.

Responsibilities for the Membership Committee will continue to be shared by Grace Richardson, Freed Maxick CPAs and Thomas Groppel, a farmer from Jerseyville, IL.

Pauline Van Nurden, Center for Farm Financial Management, St. Paul, MN is elected to a 3-year term as a Director with the Council. She replaces Bill Rutter, MidAtlantic Farm Credit who is elected Secretary/Treasurer. Rutter will continue as the Farm Credit System representative on the leadership team. Angela Chesley, Van Bruggen/Vande Vegte, PC, is elected to a second 3-year term as a Director.

Filed Under: Council Activities, Featured, News

FFSC Conference: Nothing Could Be Finer

June 19, 2019 by David Leave a Comment

Join us July 24-26 in Raleigh, North Carolina, for our annual conference!

Nothing Could Be Finer than to be in Carolina in the Morning

The words of Gus Kahn in a song first published in 1922 as “Carolina in the Morning” will serve as our mantra for the 2019 Farm Financial Standards Council Conference.

The Farm Financial Standards Council will take a closeup and intimate look at some of the influencers affecting the ag industry and ag financial reporting, both locally and nationally, when it gathers in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Not only is Raleigh-Durham home of North Carolina State University with its ag financial training and education center, it is also the site of the Research Triangle Park, the largest research park in the United States with the 3 points of the RTP being the research university North Carolina State University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As well, the Triangle, as its more loosely known, is home to the world’s best college basketball and the annual World of Blue Grass Conference each September, the International Bluegrass Music Associations annual showcase and awards show.

Here are some highlights:

  • Wednesday Committee Meetings (always open to anyone interested in joining in)
  • An overview of regional agriculture and some of the extreme pressures being felt
  • Land is Your Legacy…..the challenges in transitioning farm ownership
  • Lease Accounting – taking a deep dive into a difficult subject
  • The Hemp revolution….it’s not just ditch weed anymore
  • Agriculture under attack …. It’s happening HERE!
  • The 2018 Farm Bill…did anything really change?
  • Mixing Fin Tech with Ag Tech…..Oil and Water?
  • Great Opportunities for Networking
  • Unique free time entertainment that can ONLY BE FOUND in Carolina…

Get more information by downloading this file. (If you prefer to register via mail instead of online, there’s a registration form included in the downloadable document.)

Filed Under: Conferences, Featured, News

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