Creating a vision for your farm is a process that takes purposeful steps, and something that's important to the future.  David Dam, Director of Training for Water Street Solutions, talks about this with Dewey Nelson from KRVN.  Success on Your Farm - How is it Defined - Dam AUDIO

For the text of the interview, click here: Success on Your Farm - How is it Defined?

What would success look like on your farm?  We each have our own definition of success - and what it will take to get there.  Darren Frye, President and CEO of Water Street Solutions, talks about how to create a road map to success by setting goals for your farming operation in this week's Finance First post on www.farmfutures.com.  Read the article HERE.

As a general rule, crop insurance indemnities are included in your income for the year you receive the indemnities. However, you can choose to defer reporting your indemnities if you can show that you normally defer your crop revenue into the next calendar year. That means you'll need to be prepared to show that you typically sell more than half of your bushels for that particular crop in the year after you raise the crop.

If you are eligible for and choose to defer a crop insurance indemnity, you have to defer the entire payment. You can't defer only half of an insurance payment on your corn, for instance. Indemnities from county-basis group insurance cannot be deferred because there is no relationship between that indemnity and a producer's yield.

Indemnities cannot be reported as income before you receive them. An indemnity received in 2013 for 2012 crop is reported as income in 2013 - regardless of when you normally sell that crop. It's important to consult your ag risk advisor and your tax advisor with any questions about how you'll manage revenue from crop insurance indemnity payments.

A key part to running a good business is understanding when you need help, and asking for it.  David Dam is Director of Training at Water Street Solutions, and this week he talked to Dewey Nelson from KRVN about the importance of being open with people, in order to find the help you need.  Be Open with Your Advisors Dam AUDIO

For the text of the interview, click here: Be Open with Your Advisors

Is there anything about your farm business that's keeping you up at night? Sharing what's on your mind can lead to even greater success on the farm. Darren Frye, President and CEO of Water Street Solutions, talks about how sharing what we need help with can open up possibilities in this week's Finance First post on www.farmfutures.com.  Read the article HERE.

This time of year, we start spending a lot of time with family.  But if you farm with family, you don't just see them at the holidays - you work with them every day.  That can bring up a lot of emotions, especially when you start thinking about the process of passing the farm to the next generation.  This month in Money Matters in Illinois AgriNews, Darren Frye, President and CEO of Water Street Solutions, asks farmers to consider the greatest gift they can give their families - a legacy plan for the farm.  ILAgrinews_2012_November_Take charge of the farm's future by planning today

People problems are becoming a bigger part of your life on the farm, aren't they?  Learn how to improve communication with your employees and build morale, even among employees who are very different from each other, from Ag Edge speaker Laurie Richards.  You'll also learn what can create conflict in your operation and how you can neutralize that by having the tough but necessary conversations.

Learn more about this winter's Ag Edge seminars by clicking HERE.  Find out which seminar is closest to you.  Register online today to take your farm business to the next level.

It's possible that you took crop insurance this year and still didn't get the full benefit of what's available.  One of the key differences this year came between those who took the Harvest Price Option vs. the Harvest Price Exclusion.  Deb Etheridge, Vice President of Insurance at Water Street Solutions, explains in this discussion with Dewey Nelson from KRVN.  The Harvest Price Option Etheridge AUDIO

For the text of the interview, click here: The Benefit of the Harvest Price Option

The harvest prices for corn and soybeans were officially announced earlier this month. If you selected the Harvest Price Option on your crop insurance policy, you'll receive a larger overall payout on your guaranteed bushels this year. Darren Frye, President and CEO of Water Street Solutions, talks about the difference that choice will make for many farming operations in this week's Finance First post on www.farmfutures.com.  Read the article HERE.

Before starting to plan for next year, many of the best farmers take time to reflect on what happened in the past year and to learn from it.  Bringing in some outside perspectives to help take a wider view of your situation can lead to more success in the future.  This month, Dean Heffta, Senior Director of Development at Water Street Solutions, talks about that in his PROFITS column in Corn and Soybean Digest.  Read it HERE.