“I am the owner! Why do I feel so powerless?” “Why don’t my employees do what I tell them?” “I wish I had more influence with my partners.” “Employees frustrate me.” As I teach and interact with farm and agribusiness managers, I frequently hear comments like those above. Why do managers so often feel like this?

It’s been almost a year since my last article on the subject of estate planning and Congress’ extension of the federal lifetime exemption of $5 million dollars per person. This lifetime exemption is set to expire on December 31, 2012 and revert back to $1 million dollars per person. This is a ticking time bomb for most farm estates in this country, as a $1 million dollar gift exemption really doesn’t go very far in succession planning. In these ever-increasing turbulent times for producers, futures markets drive us crazy and the media continues its barrage on commodities and crops, whether they are growing or not, which tends to sway markets (at least in my mind) in the wrong direction, making any long-term planning decisions on your operations next to impossible. But estate and succession planning, both long term and short term, are both beneficial and possible with the right team in place.

A discussion of risk management can get very complicated very quickly. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the tactics at your disposal. What’s the right strategy? What has the best potential for long-term success? But perhaps it doesn’t have to seem so complicated. As I was preparing to write this article, I did a little research and thought about what it actually means to practice risk management.

If the Dairy Security Act, as included in the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012, or Farm Bill, were to pass Congress before the end of its current session in December, it would implement the act’s provisions to begin tracking an “actual dairy producer margin.” That margin would be defined as the difference between the U.S. all-milk price and the average feed cost.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on developing middle managers. The first article in this series looked at determining the right ingredients and personality types for middle management roles. Once selected, those middle managers need to be groomed to be able to fill the owner’s or previous manager’s shoes. “You need to teach people to do what you would do if you could be there all the time,” said Mary Kraft, noting it was a favorite quote from Tom Fuhrmann’s Dairy Works seminar.

YES, Tail docking in cattle should be permitted and the entire subject be left up to the owner and no one else – period! First, my safety and the safety of my children and any other who may milk for me is paramount. In the past, I have been hit in the face with crud-covered tails – twice I have suffered scratched corneas and once I had a capillary in my eye ruptured, leaving the white part of my eye blood-filled and painful.

In March, President Obama appointed Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy as director of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Ramaswamy, an entomologist, grew up in India at a time when food was scarce. However, he also experienced firsthand how research – especially agricultural research – can transform a country for the better. Throughout his career, Ramaswamy served in administrative and educational and research capacities at multiple land-grant universities across the country. Prior to joining NIFA, Ramaswamy was dean at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Progressive Dairyman Editor Dario Martinez followed up with Ramaswamy to discuss NIFA’s current research endeavors, including those connected to the dairy industry.

It’s no secret that corn supplies will be low this year – and tensions are running high on what to do about it. Numerous organizations have signed on to a petition presented to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson asking for a waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) to reduce the ethanol industry’s demand for corn and, therefore, increase the amount of corn available to the farmers and livestock who need it.