Risk and Compensation; A different way of looking at Ag Real Estate Transactions
How is risk tied to compensation in the agricultural real estate and investment world? At Scythe and Spade, we like to develop long-lasting relationships with our clients that are built on experience, trust, and accountability. This enables us to partner with our clients under several alternative compensation approaches which share the risks and rewards, reveal and resolve issues up front, and ultimately speed up the entire process while achieving the clients selling or purchasing objectives.
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The Difficult Balance Between Climate Policy and an Abundant Food Supply
Addressing Climate Change may be necessary, but those charged with creating Policy must take into consideration all of the potential impacts, not only on the farmers and ranchers but also on the human population that relies on food, fiber, and fuel from them.
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Agricultural Carbon Markets Have a Long Way to Go
The markets for farmland derived carbon credits is in its infancy with wildly varying contract terms, is a long way from consistency, and may not survive over the long term.
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Caveat Emptor; Dual Agency in Real Estate Transactions
Lower than average snowpack in the mountains of eastern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming following a drought year in 2021 means reduced water available for irrigation in central and eastern Idaho and parts of western Oregon.
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An in depth look at water availability in the upper Snake River in 2022 | Part III
Lower than average snowpack in the mountains of eastern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming following a drought year in 2021 means reduced water available for irrigation in central and eastern Idaho and parts of western Oregon.
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Our "Why": Challenge the Status Quo, Always
At Scythe & Spade, Challenging the Status Quo is a differentiator, a disrupter. We are a small company, competing with much larger competitors. But we see that as a competitive advantage, allowing us to change faster than our competition, being on version 10.1 when everyone else is trying to figure out version 4.2.
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Scythe & Spade Hires West Coast Regional Manager
We are excited to announce the addition of our new West Coast Regional Manager, Brent Reed, to the Scythe and Spade family.
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Less Data and More Decisions
As a grower or investor in farmland, your eyes may glaze over at the dizzying array of "smart" new technology products that claim to enhance your farming operation with better yields, less input costs and improved use of irrigation infrastructure. Each year a new company launches another satellite or a constellation of satellites that can be your eyes in the sky and can help you monitor your farming operation. You may have signed up with a current vendor and received imagery that show each of your fields. This type of service can be very helpful, but you may find yourself spending a lot of time pouring over daily or weekly digital snapshots of your fields.
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Idaho’s Current Irrigation Water Supply; A Deep Dive into Idaho Irrigation Supply | Part II
Idaho, along with the Pacific Northwest and most western states are currently suffering from drought. In an effort at Scythe & Spade to put the current severity of the drought in context, as well as understand the current and future implications of irrigation water availability on a district-by-district basis, we have begun a deep dive into a very rich historical data sets.
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Diesel Crush: Renewable Diesel Could Increase Soybean Acres by More Than 60%
Have you noticed that soy oil is trading at nearly twice the price of one year ago? The start of the runup in soybean prices in the fall of 2020 was mainly driven by higher demand for the soybeans and meal as purchases from China skyrocketed. Since spring, however, the continued rise in soy and other vegetable oils has been for the oil themselves.
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Idaho’s Current Irrigation Water Supply; A Deep Dive Into the Numbers | Part I
Idaho, along with the Pacific Northwest and most western states are currently suffering from drought. In an effort at Scythe & Spade to put the current severity of the drought in context, as well as understand the current and future implications of irrigation water availability on a district-by-district basis, we have begun a deep dive into a very rich historical data sets.
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Scythe & Spade Hires New Executive Assistant Manager
Our entire leadership team is very excited to continue to build and grow in a way that elevates the experience of our clients. In response to our growth, we are pleased to announce a new member to our team.
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Who owns the rights to your farmland’s carbon credits?
There is a lot of debate on whether carbon sequestered in the land should be considered real or personal property. In real estate, personal property is usually defined as being movable whereas real property includes the land, physical improvements, and rights of ownership commonly referred to as a “bundle of rights”. This bundle of rights includes the right of disposition, right of enjoyment, right to exclude others, right of possession, and right of control. However, an open question is should carbon stored in the soil be considered a natural resource for contractual and property rights consideration?
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Selling a Farm; An Asset or a Going Concern? The Distinction Has Very Different Value and Marketing Implications
Usually when selling a farm, one discusses comparable values of other farms in the area, and as a result, most acreage is valued close to others in the region. However, when considering a sale, owners should ask themselves “Do we have a farm asset or a going concern (i.e., an operating business)?”
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Farm Carbon Markets 2.0
On March 15, 2021, the USDA announced a 45-day public comment period to gather input on its climate smart agriculture and forestry strategy. This is in response to a recent Executive Order which mentioned that farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners could play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestration and other sustainable practices such as producing biproducts and biofuels.
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Elevated Grain Prices and Farm Income Seem Likely to Hold Through Mid-2022
The dramatic increase in corn, soy and other grain & commodity prices driven by the drastic increase in Chinese purchases since late summer/fall of 2020 will almost certainly hold for most of those crops through to at least mid-2022. Why? Barring a complete crash in exports or record acres and yields for both corn and soybeans, it will take at least two crop cycles to rebuild US inventories for those two crops, and when stressed, they provide the price and income for which all others must compete for acres.
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Time Bandits
Ever sat in a meeting and wondered, "is this really worth my time?” Meetings are often characterized as one of the most painful events and yet they provide underestimated opportunities for efficiency gains in running a business.
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China May Import 40% More Corn Than In The Last 60 Years Combined | AgWeb
The question here is can the load out infrastructure hold up to record through put. The author seems to frame the situation as an either or: either we hit the big export numbers or there's a big price drop. We may not hit the largest figures due to weather conditions or through put restrictions but that doesn't mean carryout increases dramatically. We would instead go from tight supplies to only somewhat-less tight. So long as China follows through on purchase commitments…
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Support vs Agreement with Conflict: Healthy Debate with the Client’s Best Interests in Mind
At Scythe & Spade we strive daily to “Simplify Complex Agribusiness Issues”. The purpose of our business is to facilitate strategic investments in agribusiness and implement efficient asset management systems.
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Predictions and Performance
As sports fans we see constant highlight reels displaying brilliant plays of our favorite players. It is easy to put them on a pedestal and tell ourselves that they are one in billion, oozing with talent. But, what if there is more?
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