Trends continue to snowball with labels about what’s in a food product being expanded to how that food was grown or processed. Gluten-free, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, cage-free, everything-else-free labels are multiplying. It seems almost every day I see a new announcement from a company or a grocery store ad or a label on something I go to buy that has a claim like this.

Most readers’ operations will experience some kind of change in 2016.

No matter how well you budget or how efficiently you manage your farm business, there may be periods in which cash flow is negative. No one knows for sure when these periods will occur, and how long they will last, but every operation should have a financial contingency plan to provide for unexpected cash-flow shortfalls.

On the farm or ranch, there are many times when we find ourselves in situations where we have to question our right versus our moral obligation to take a particular action. There are still deals made on a handshake or based on someone’s word.

“When you use a file to sharpen a knife, push it so you cut with the file moving away from the edge. When you use a sharpening stone, move either the stone or the blade so that the sharp edge of the blade moves toward the stone.”

Proper seed-to-soil contact is paramount. Your planting equipment should be maintained and in proper order to have successful seeding applications for proper stands.