Robots in the Mud
There is a lot of well-deserved interest in agriculture these days. After all, growing food is critical in any economy and is uncorrelated to gyrations in the stock market. In fact, the value of Iowa farmland out-perform the DJIA. The question here is, can high tech robotics improve our yields, returns, and efficiency? Recently, a…
Read MoreAn Unusual Organic Crop Rotation
When I was eleven working on my family farms in Emmetsburg, our license plate proudly stated “Iowa, A Place To Grow”. That has never been truer than today. What has changed for my family is how we farm, moving from conventional chemical-based farming to organic. Today our organic crop rotations include corn, oats, soybeans, alfalfa…
Read MoreThe Economist – January 3, 2015
January 3, 2015 “Institutional investors such as pension funds see farmland as fertile ground to plough … farming them out to specialist funds … Over the past 20 years in America, annual returns of 12% have caused some to dub it “gold with a coupon” … it out performed most asset classes … with low volatility…
Read More