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Articles by Rusty Rumley
The European Deforestation Regulation and the Impact on Southern Agriculture
Farms.com Home › News By Rusty Rumley The European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) has been postponed once again for another calendar year, but effects of the regulation are already being seen with Southern agricultural and timber lands. Forestland owners in the south are being told they may need to sign an attestation stating they will not convert their timberland to pasture or row crop production after timber is harvested.
Why Succession Planning Is Essential in Modern Agriculture
“Failure to plan is planning to fail,” Benjamin Franklin once said. Agricultural succession planning is critical to ensure that the next generation has a chance of success in these difficult financial times. As Franklin also wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” It is a sobering but accurate statement, even more than 200 years later. Where should farmers start?
Analyzing the Need for Agricultural Succession Planning
“Failure to plan is planning to fail,” Benjamin Franklin once said. Agricultural succession planning is critical to ensure that the next generation has a chance of success in these difficult financial times. As Franklin also wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” It is a sobering but accurate statement, even more than 200 later. Where should farmers start?
Farm estate tax relief in new federal legislation
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” On July 3, the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made several changes to federal spending that directly impact U.S. agriculture, including a permanent increase to the unified credit to $15 million per individual starting in 2026, indexed to inflation moving forward. Why does this matter to U.S. agriculture?
6 tips to consider before leasing land for hunting
Before opening your land for recreation like hunting or fishing, there are some important tips to consider.Courtney Sacco As fall approaches, so does hunting season. As hunters scout for the best locations, landowners may be searching for opportunities to generate additional revenue from agricultural and forested property.
Wheat shipments notch new marketing-year high
Typically in USDA’s weekly export sales reports, either corn or soybeans tend to take center stage. But in the most recent recap, out Thursday morning and covering the week through September 21, wheat turned in the strongest performance after posting better-than-expected sales and the largest shipments yet in the current marketing year. Corn and soybean sales were rangebound but fairly pedestrian, in contrast. Corn export sales reached 33.7 million bushels last week.
Eye in the sky spies on vineyard diseases
Imagine spotting bad stuff in the vineyard — before it became visible to the human eye. Early stages of using an airborne science instrument to detect grapevine leafroll disease in cabernet sauvignon show a promising future in that area where mold, bacteria, viruses, and other plant pathogens can now destroy major portions of harvests before on-the-ground workers can discover and remove them.
California Wine Month a success
Just because we’re about to wrap up the month of September --- and the myriad celebrations honoring California Wine Month — doesn’t mean you can’t hoist a glass or two in the months ahead and keep that party going. September this year represented the 19th annual celebration festivities honoring the state’s wine industry during which the people, regions, wines, and experiences throughout the state’s wine industry were honored.
Accolades to a dot-on-the-map winery
Grapes, according to federal government agricultural statistics, are the highest value fruit crop in the U.S. with over a million acres of grape-bearing land (with California topping those stats). There are the biggies that display mile after mile of trellis, but many are smaller, boutique-type plots.
Tight supplies, yield uncertainty make soybeans the market to watch in October
Trying to grasp potential soybean price movement for the month of October may prove challenging as early U.S. soybean yield results are coming in extremely variable due to the dramatic weather most of the Midwest saw this summer. Intense heat, missed rains for portions of the Midwest, and timely rains for other portions of the Midwest make understanding the size and total supply of the U.S. soybean crop hard to get a handle on.
'People are losing their mind over carbon right now'
Where does agriculture fit in the global discussion over climate change and carbon sequestration? We asked Derek Azevedo to weigh in on a host of challenges farmers face in a wide-ranging series that runs all week. Azevedo is executive vice president and COO at Bowles Farming Co., a respected 11,900-acre specialty crop farm near Los Banos, CA. In recent years the mass media has widely adopted the view that climate change is an existential threat to our future. Do you agree?
Farm Progress America, September 28, 2023
Mike Pearson tells us about the state of the farm economy as a result of a survey. As the combine begin to roll in the upper Midwest, bankers are not hiding they are uneasy about the economy. A recent survey from Creighton University shows most bankers expect the economy to soften soon. The Rural Mainstreet Index which is combined of bank executives in 10 states that depend on agriculture and energy in the upper Midwest confirmed the results.
Weak links in the Business IQ
Does your farm business have a transition plan?Dilok Klaisataporn/Getty Images One of my signature accomplishments in recent years has been the development of the business IQ. This assessment is 15 questions to provide an objective measurement tool to size up the “management factor.” Each question requires written proof other than overall attitude. Businesses and producers then determine three components they want to continue and three to improve.
A Look at Right to Farm Bills in the South
States in the South are in their legislative sessions, and several are looking to amend their right to farm statutes. A right to farm statute is a state law intended to protect qualifying agricultural operations from nuisance lawsuits brought by neighbors for noise, dust, odor, or other actions that interfere with the neighbors’ use and enjoyment of their property.
How Right-to-Farm Laws Operate to Protect Ag Practices Used by Producers
Right-to-farm laws provide agricultural producers, forestry operations, and aquaculture producers a defense in a nuisance lawsuit under certain circumstances. A 2022 Supreme Court of Mississippi decision highlights how the right-to-farm defense can protect agricultural operations. In this case, two producers began using propane cannon scare guns to prevent deer from eating their cotton and soybean crops during summer.
What Are Right-to-Farm Laws?
Agricultural operations often cause dust and odors which could impact neighbors and bring nuisance claims. All 50 states have a right-to-farm law on the books, providing a nuisance defense for agricultural operations. This defense varies from state to state, but each state’s law operates to provide a defense in situations when a party is claiming the farm is a nuisance. What is a nuisance? A nuisance is a condition or situation impacting another person’s use and enjoyment of property.
Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land in the United States
Congress enacted the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA) to establish a nationwide scheme for collecting information on foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land. Under AFIDA, certain foreign investors are required to disclose their acquisitions and holdings in farm, ranch, and forestland to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Fence laws and agriculture
Getty Images/iStockphoto All 50 states have passed laws relating to fences and livestock, but there are substantial differences across the country. Rusty Rumley | Feb 26, 2020 The oft quoted saying by Robert Frost that “good fences make good neighbors” can be especially true for farmers. But what is a good fence? All 50 states have passed laws relating to fences and livestock, but there are substantial differences across the country and sometimes even within the same state.
Do you know your state's right-to-farm statute?
Getty Images Right-to-farm statutes. What are they? What do they do? How do they affect my case? Rusty Rumley | Apr 22, 2019 One issue that we receive frequent questions on at the National Ag Law Center involves “right-to-farm” statutes. What are they? What do they do? How do they affect my case? To start out, the very name of the statutes is a misnomer! They are not intended to guarantee your right to farm in any circumstance. Instead they provide protection in one narrow area, nuisance.
14 ag law stories that could change the way you farm
Since 2015, there have been a number of legal developments for the agricultural sector. Many of these issues will continue to play out over the next year and will impact agriculture throughout the Mid-South and other regions of the country. In particular, there were important developments in environmental regulation of agriculture, food safety regulation, and use of drones in agriculture.
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