As a result of strong farm financial conditions, the Farm equipment-sales index climbed to 61.4, its highest level since June of last year, and up from 60.4 in December. The index has risen above growth neutral for 24 of the last 26 months.

After six straight months of below growth neutral readings, the Creighton University Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) climbed above the growth neutral threshold, 50.0, for a second consecutive month, according to the monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy.

“The Rural Mainstreet economy continues to experience improving, but slow, economic growth.Almost 85% of bankers ranked rising input prices as the top economic challenge or threat to farmers in their area,” said Ernie Goss, PhD, Jack A. MacAllister Chair in Regional Economics at Creighton University’s .

Banking: The January loan volume index declined to a still solid 58.0 from 72.1 in December. The checking-deposit index increased to 70.0 from December’s 48.1, while the index for certificates of deposit and other savings instruments soared to 72.0, a record high, from 51.9 in December. 

Joseph Anglin, Chief Financial Officer at Pioneer Bank & Trust in Rapid City, S.D., said, “One of the bigger challenges in many markets, much like Farm Credit, is the tax-exempt advantage of credit unions that don’t follow their federal mandate.” â€śHigher farm input costs, greater farm equipment sales and drought conditions in portions of the region supported strong borrowing from farmers. At the same time, higher interest rates encouraged greater CD purchases by farmers,” said Goss. 

Hiring: The new hiring index for January increased to 53.9 from December’s 49.1. Labor shortages continue to be a significant issue constraining growth for Rural Mainstreet businesses.

 Confidence: The slowing economy, higher borrowing costs and labor shortages continued to constrain the business confidence index to a weak 40.4 from 29.6 in December. “Over the past 10 months, the regional confidence index has fallen to levels indicating a very negative outlook,” said Goss.

The survey represents an early snapshot of the economy of rural agriculturally and energy-dependent portions of the nation. The Rural Mainstreet Index is a unique index covering 10 regional states, focusing on approximately 200 rural communities with an average population of 1,300. The index provides the most current real-time analysis of the rural economy. Goss and Bill McQuillan, former chairman of the Independent Community Banks of America, created the monthly economic survey and launched it in January 2006.

Does your organization have relevant news or interesting stories to share with the rest of the association’s 600 plus members and 1,800 Shortliner subscribers? We encourage you to send relevant article ideas, member profiles, press releases and industry trade publication coverage for potential inclusion in an upcoming edition of the Shortliner.

Has your organization recently accomplished something notable? Let us know. The Association would like to hear about it. We are committed to sharing association happenings and industry news, but also the many successes our members are having in the equipment manufacturing industry in the areas of supply chain management, workforce development/retention and sustainability.

Below are a couple of examples of member features we have shared in the past.
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Contact Gina Clark, Publications Editor at Gina@FarmEquip.org or 314-878-2304.

Lisa Ryan, who recently presented at the general session at the Marketing & Distribution Convention, offers strategies on how to enhance your employees connection and commitment to your organization.

For the last several years, we’ve heard that 87% of employees are open to exploring new job opportunities. These days, the conversations center around “quiet quitting” and “quiet firing.” What’s the difference?

Quiet quitting is an informal term for minimizing the work an employee commits to a job, such as by stopping completing any tasks not specifically listed in the job description. They stop going above and beyond and only do the work they are being paid to do. Employees don’t share this information, so it’s up to the manager to detect changes and see what they can do to rectify the situation.

Simply put, employees are burned out. The pandemic caused a lot of business disruption, leading to staff cutbacks so the business could survive financially. Staff members who were left to pick up the slack were willing because they believed it would be a temporary situation. However, as business leaders saw that they could get by with fewer employees, they’ve been slow to bring people back.

On the other hand, quiet firing is when managers avoid firing employees outright. Instead, they use a variety of passive-aggressive tactics that have the same result as the firing they desire. Examples include: routinely giving employees their least favorite duties, not including them in certain email threads, and excluding them from specific gatherings. It can also be due to overburdening someone with tasks that cause burnout.

Both of these concepts wreak havoc on employee culture. Employees leave their company when they don’t feel connected to their job and the people they work with. In many cases, employees aren’t quitting their job; they’re quitting the culture. Get the culture right, and you can turn things around.

Because people are the number one resource for every organization, engaging with them personally is critical. When company leaders pay attention to the “little things,” they maintain a higher retention rate, improved productivity, and increased engagement that organizations that ignore niceties that create a good culture.

Yes, creating an engaged culture at your workplace is essential, but how do you do it? Here are three ways to create a connected culture and keep your top talent from becoming someone else’s.

An Attitude of Accessibility. Trust is the foundation on which you build your culture. If there is no trust between leadership and employees, nothing else matters. However, by committing to your culture – and sticking with it, you can turn things around.

When leaders get to know their team members individually, show empathy for their challenges, share information openly and honestly, and let their employees get to know them, the employees are more likely to feel connected to the organization.

Another great strategy to improve accessibility is the “stay interview.” Set up times to meet with your people one-on-one. Ask them what they like about their job, what would cause them to leave and what resources they need. Go into these conversations with a “thank you for sharing” attitude, act on the suggestions made, and give credit where credit is due.

Level Up the Learning. Help your team become better tomorrow than they are today. This means providing continuing education and professional development opportunities to help them grow themselves. Be creative in your programming and get member feedback on what THEY would find most beneficial.

You’ll find that when you invest in your employees, you’ll see many benefits. Your people will not only work harder for you, but they will also feel that you value them and their contributions.

Rock Your Recognition. Catch your team in the act of doing things well. In other words, find ways to acknowledge, appreciate, and applaud the efforts of your team members.

Mother Teresa once said, “We are more starved for appreciation than bread.”

When you give positive feedback, don’t just say, “Great job!” Be specific. Look for ways to recognize your employees in the way that they like to be acknowledged. Written notes are a terrific way to connect. When you tell someone you appreciate them, you create a wonderful memory.

To get started, sit down with your leadership team and determine the type of culture you want to create. When you have your plan, choose one or two of the top long-term ideas. Then do it.

Lisa Ryan, CSP, is the Founder of Grategy and is an award-winning speaker and best-selling author of eleven books, including “Manufacturing Engagement: 98 Proven Strategies to Attract and Retain Your Industry’s Top Talent.” Learn more at .

Since bottoming out this summer, the ag economy has rebounded sharply and the dramatic improvement in sentiment mirrors the turnaround in the farm income picture. The late summer/early fall rally in commodity prices combined with government program payments arising from the second round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP 2) provided a boost to many producers’ farm income and the sharp rise in sentiment among producers reflects that improvement. Corn and soybean prices continued to rally even though U.S. corn yields are expected to set a record high and USDA projects soybean yields to be the fourth highest on record. The combination of good yields, a rally in crop prices and CFAP 2 payments set the stage for an all-time-high in the Ag Economy Barometer.

Comparing their farm’s financial condition today to one-year ago, 25% of survey respondents said their farm was better off financially now than at the same time last year. This was the most positive response from producers to this question in the history of the barometer survey. The Farm Capital Investment Index also hit an all-time high in October, up 9 points from September to a reading of 82. The percentage of producers expecting to increase their purchases of machinery in the upcoming year rose to 14 percent from 11 percent a month earlier, and up from just 4 percent back in May. Even more importantly, the percentage of respondents who plan to reduce their purchases in the next year was 33 percent, down from 40 percent in September.

Ag Economy Barometer Rises to Record High On Improving Financial ConditionsFarmers short-run outlook toward farmland values also improved. Respondents expecting land values to rise over the next 12 months rose to 27 percent, up from 23 percent in September. The percentage expecting lower farmland values declined to nine from 12 percent. There was also a big shift in sentiment in the October survey regarding 2021 cash rental rates for farmland. Nearly four out of ten (38%) respondents said they expect cash rental rates to increase in 2021. In September, just 8 percent of producers said they expected to see higher cash rental rates for farmland in 2021.

Producers also became more optimistic about trade with China this month. Nearly six out of 10 respondents (59%), said they expect to see China fulfill the food and agricultural import requirements outlined in the Phase One trade agreement with the U.S., compared with just 47 percent in September. When asked for their overall perspective on U.S. ag exports, the percentage of producers expecting exports to rise over the next five years increased to 65 percent in October, up from 58 percent in September.

Read the full Ag Economy Barometer report at . The site also offers additional resources – such as past reports, charts and survey methodology – and a form to sign up for monthly barometer email updates and webinars.
Each month, the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture provides a short video analysis of the barometer results, available at , and for even more information, check out the Purdue Commercial AgCast podcast. It includes a detailed breakdown of each month’s barometer, in addition to a discussion of recent agriculture news that impacts farmers. Available now at .

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has issued the  used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on January 1, 2020, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

• 57.5 cents per mile driven for business use, down one half of a cent from the rate for 2019,
• 17 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, down three cents from the rate for 2019, and
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations.

The business mileage rate decreased one half of a cent for business travel driven and three cents for medical and certain moving expense from the rates for 2019. The charitable rate is set by statute and remains unchanged.

It is important to note that under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, taxpayers cannot claim a miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee travel expenses. Taxpayers also cannot claim a deduction for moving expenses, except members of the Armed Forces on active duty moving under orders to a permanent change of station. For more details, see .

The standard mileage rate for business use is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs.

Taxpayers always have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after using any depreciation method under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) or after claiming a Section 179 deduction for that vehicle. In addition, the business standard mileage rate cannot be used for more than five vehicles used simultaneously. These and other limitations are described in section 4.05 of .

, posted today on IRS.gov, contains the standard mileage rates, the amount a taxpayer must use in calculating reductions to basis for depreciation taken under the business standard mileage rate, and the maximum standard automobile cost that a taxpayer may use in computing the allowance under a fixed and variable rate plan. In addition, for employer-provided vehicles, the Notice provides the maximum fair market value of automobiles first made available to employees for personal use in calendar year 2020 for which employers may use the fleet-average valuation rule in § 1.61-21(d)(5)(v) or the vehicle cents-per-mile valuation rule in § 1.61-21(e).

AEM, along with four other major tractor manufacturers, asked the district court to enjoin North Dakota Senate Bill 2289. In December 2017, the district court granted a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the act likely violated rights of the major tractor manufacturers under the contract clause of the U.S. Constitution. The state of North Dakota and an intervenor,
the North Dakota Implement Dealers Association, appealed that order.

In the appeals court split decision issued last week, the majority held that the tractor manufacturers “could not reasonably foresee any impending intervention into their agreements, as the regulations go beyond regulation of coercive and discriminatory practices; they enlarge dealer reimbursements; and they impair obligations of contract.”

The decision also said that the state “failed to show the legislation furthered a significant and legitimate public purpose and failed to demonstrate the requisite guarantee that it provides more than benefit to special interests. A state is required to demonstrate more than a conceivable or incidental public purpose for impairing the obligation of contracts.”

The North Dakota Attorney General’s office is currently reviewing the decision. We would hope the courts will, in the end, agree with the attorney general’s view that placing two competing manufacturers’ products side-by-side on the dealer lot does not implicate the Lanham Act. Indeed, public interest would be served by allowing consumers to select the most appropriate product for their needs and reducing the distance a consumer has to travel in rural North Dakota to shop for the various products offered by farm equipment implement dealers.

Our Association has and will continue to follow developments in this litigation closely, and, while not a party to the action, we are concerned with the outcome. We believe this suit seeks to defend “dealer purity” under the protection of federal trademark law (Lanham Act).