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.

(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.

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.

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.”

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