Farm Financial Standards Council

01/21/2025

Updated Guidelines Document Released

The 2025 edition of the Financial Guidelines for Agriculture updates benchmark data that compares the variability in financial standards measures as net farm income is divided into five categories. It also shows variability in financial standards measures as gross farm income by size of operation as measured in acres. These benchmark data are illustrative of the type of comparative information that is possible by following the recommendations of the Farm Financial Standards Council as outlined in Financial Guidelines for Agriculture. The benchmark data are provided courtesy of the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota.

The Financial Guidelines for Agriculture document is available for free to members or may be purchased from the FFSC website here:
https://www.ffsc.org/guidelines.php

02/07/2023

Van Nurden Addresses Boot Camp

Council veteran Pauline Van Nurden, an Extension economist with the Center for Farm Financial Management with the University of Minnesota, addresses the audience at the Farm Futures Boot Camp program in Coralville, IA on January 18. Her topic was How to measure your farm’s financial performance with the newly released Financial Guidelines for Agriculture. Other Council members on the program were Paul Neifer, a farm CPA and independent business advisor, and Curt Covington, senior director of institutional lending with AgAmerica Lending. The two have worked as a tag-team in speaking to the Boot Camp for a number of years. Among other Council members in the audience were Kathy and Ken Reinhardt, and Mark Compton. Kathy is current FFSC president.

01/13/2023

Council Updates Financial Guidelines Documents



Menomonee Falls, WI. January 12, 2023 – The Farm Financial Standards Council (Council) has released an updated version of the Financial Guidelines for Agriculture (Guidelines). A revised edition of the corresponding Implementation Guide has also been published.



The 2023 edition of the Guidelines updates and clarifies the discussion of depreciation, emphasizing book depreciation as the recommended approach for financial analysis, but also acknowledging that tax depreciation and market value-based depreciation approaches continue to be used in agriculture for specific purposes.



According to Todd Doehring, Centrec Consulting, Savoy, IL, a co-chair of the organization’s Technical Committee, minor changes were made to the computation of the repayment and replacement capacity schedule, and to clarify the concept of unfunded capital expenditures which relate to replacement of depreciable capital assets.



The updated document is available for free to members or may be purchased as a pdf download from the FFSC website ffsc.org.



The group also released an updated edition to An Implementation Guide for Non-Accountants. The 2023 version includes the addition of a graphic illustrating how financial recordkeeping may progress from a producer’s current practices to implementation of the recommendations of the Council. The Implementation Guide is designed to be a supplement for non-accounting individuals in applying the various ratios, statements and other elements of both the Financial Guidelines and the Management Accounting Guidelines.



The Implementation Guide also provides a short introduction to the work of the FFSC and is available for free as a pdf download at https://ffsc.org/order-the-guidelines/



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

01/05/2023

Use code FFSC to save on the 2023 Ag Finance Boot Camp registration!

11/08/2022

Jeff Bushey representing FFSC at the American Bankers Association Agricultural Bankers Conference

04/26/2022

Farmers may experience delays in shipment of nitrogen fertilizer this spring, according to Michigan Farm news.

Union Pacific informed CFI, without advance notice, that it was mandating approximately 30 shippers, including CFI, to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad effective immediately. CFI was told to reduce its shipments by nearly 20%.

04/13/2022

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04/13/2022

Agriculture Focused Financial Planning through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Curriculum AFFP Curriculum The AFFP curriculum covers these seven content sections: Process and Fundamentals of PlanningAgricultural Economics ConceptsCommunicationFarming, Family, and OperationsLand and LeverageLegacyIncome Strategies The AFFP curriculum was developed through focus group meetings w...

03/11/2022

The University of Missouri is offering an agricultural lenders school that may be of interest to some members, and we have details.

Registration is open for the University of Missouri Agricultural Lenders School – a unique opportunity for early career agricultural lenders. The Agricultural Lenders School is developed to provide in-depth training in agricultural finance for lenders seeking to make good loan decisions in today.....

03/11/2022

Registration is open for the University of Missouri Agricultural Lenders School.

https://web.cvent.com/event/06bcc05d-cacd-4db7-901b-5037995fae97/summary

02/21/2022

There is growing worry about the declining number of attorneys, accountants, bankers, veterinarians and other agriculture-related professionals.

12/20/2021

Mark your calendars for the annual FFSC conference! We'll be in Annapolis, Maryland, this year. We hope you will join us!

Mark your calendars for the annual FFSC conference! This year the event will be held in Annapolis, Maryland July 27th through the 29th. We hope to see you there!