Election Day!

Thank God it is finally here, election day!  I do thank God for America and for our freedom that was earned and is preserved by our military.  I can never say thanks enough but I can vote for the principles this country was founded on.  Whenever I see a soldier or a story about one, I know I have to be informed and I know I have to vote.

Neighbor Darrell called last night howling and laughing.  He asked if I got tired of Rosenberger?  I knew right then he watched me cut down his sign.  He said I saw you give it a good kick, too and just howled out loud.  You should really hear the man laugh.  I knew then he saw me trip over the dang thing, nearly fell on top of it but in reality I tripped over it.  I never told him the whole story.

I said yes I got tired of him and voted for Peter Pence.  I really had him howling by this time.  Then I said just look at him, then look at Peter Pence, a handsome family man.  I really had him them because we talk about how looks are deceiving.  He knows how I voted and he knows what I believe in.  I think all of you do, too.

What are farmers doing on election day?  Working, of course!  There is quite a bit of corn to shell around here yet and a few bean fields to harvest.  I just saw a big sprayer go by the office window.  It's a great time to kill weeds for next year and there have been many posts on the subject on Crop Talk this fall.

I leave you with my opening market comments I receive most mornings:

"GOOD MORNING,
Happy election day. After tomorrow, no more annoying phone calls.  Yard signs will be put away by the loser, maybe the winner. Who knows.

At any rate, the Dow performed admirably yesterday choosing to settleon the plus side of the market after a down-day of trade. If uncertainties back the major trend at hand, looks like the Dow may have more upside.

Ags are following a higher path this morning after putting in an anemic performance in the last weeks as traders even up. Among the knowns for Ags - continuing low export trade for corn, and fairly robust trade for beans. The higher soybean estimate for production and yield on

November 9th remain problematic for the bull trader. How high will the USDA go? And if the market for soybeans breaks heavily, will it be purchased because demand is so good? The demand for beans does remain robust, so think the answer to that questionwill be yes. But we can lower trading ranges a touch on a much more bearish surprise than the bean market expects. Once again, the USDA report seems to be all about soybeans. And so the markets have been busily defining our trading ranges, and not bothering to deviate from them too much.

As the market fell to the lower end of the ranges, good pricing was noted.  Crop progress was released yesterday with corn harvest 95% complete and beans at 93% complete. Brazil's planting progress (according to their own estimate by Celeres) is 37% complete for beans, behind last year at 48% due to dryness. Argentina did dry out a bit this week, but rains are going to return, a problem that needs to be watched closely as they are running well over 100% of normal.

After being pressured towards the bottom of the trading ranges (except for wheat) the markets in the morning e-trade are higher across the board:
beans: 10-12 higher
meal: 2.80-2.90 higher
oil: 32 higher
corn: 4 higher
wheat: 8 higher

Theme of the day - light turnover as traders watch for election results and square positions into the Friday report.

Election day tendencies of the Dow: when a tight race occurs, the Dow has historically faltered in the next weeks. When a landslide occurs, the Dow tends to rally. Guess overwhelming consensus makes the market
a happy place."

Ed

Seeking And Finding

Here is a really good reading LuAnn and I read this morning.

"We can only get to know people to the degree they allow us to do so.  We cannot get close to people who choose not to reveal themselves.  In most of our human relationships we that love can open up the door to the heart of the one we seek to know."

Isn't that the truth!  This is why "love thy neighbor as thyself "is so important.  My readers are my extended family, my extended neighbors and friends.  You folks make it quite easy to get to know or work with because you have opened your heart to me enough.

I received a lot of good comments, conversations and exchange from you last week.  I received a lot of compliments, too.  I like that.  I want to commend my readers for making me think, expanding my horizons and trying to apply in your life and with others what I share here.

This is good and right use of the Internet.  As I have shared many times, I have met my closest friends and my life partner thanks to this open exchange.  I know there is a lot of evil on the Internet but surely all this good I know about outweighs the negative side to this type of communication.

I wish we could know these candidates a little better.  I think I have heard enough to pick the right choices for me.  So many are looking forward to tomorrow being over and its not even here yet!  I am concerned though that there are so many absentee ballots floating around Ohio that we won't know who wins some critical contests until November 17.

I am looking at buying some wheat calls this week but I think I missed the bottom.  It's been flat for a month since.  Corn has good potential to rise though so I held onto some of our crop.  Jack found a guy in Wilmington to fabricate two new doors for our old StorMor bins because they are no longer made.  I would have to cut the hole out larger to put a more standard door in.

I found a new website by Furniture Row called Farm American.  The support for FFA and agriculture keeps coming out of the woodwork!

I will be SO glad to see tomorrow come!  31 missed calls and a bunch of "vote for..." on the answering machine today!  I tentatively post this YouTube commercial for my friend in France.  This goes with this recent blog.

See you tomorrow,

Ed

Expiring Tax Provisions Affect Me

As 2012 continues to wind to a close, we have been working on taxes.  My friend Doug sent this good piece by Dan Childs at the Noble Foundation to ponder.

"Agricultural producers make decisions each day using assumptions that are based on uncertainties – things like weather, prices and government regulations. The summer of 2012 was filled with such dilemmas. Our nation is suffering from the worst drought since the 1950s with grain and oilseed markets spiraling upward and livestock markets adjusting downward. Our government has not produced a farm bill and the 2007 Farm Bill expired on Sept. 30, 2012. In addition to this, important tax legislation is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2012. This article will discuss a few of the expiring tax provisions that are most important to producers.


The amount specified in IRS Code Section 179 (referred to as the election to expense) is scheduled to be reduced substantially. This election allows an agricultural producer to choose to deduct an amount of the purchase price of a business asset rather than recover the purchase price over a period of years through annual depreciation. It is a very good tax management feature. In 2010 and 2011, the maximum amount of the election was set at $500,000 with a phase out beginning when total purchases exceeded $2 million. In 2012, the maximum election amount is $139,000 with a phase out beginning when total purchases exceed $560,000. In 2013, the maximum election is scheduled to be reduced to $25,000 with a phase out beginning when total purchases exceed $200,000. The amount of the deduction elected is limited to the net business income. However, the IRS allows W-2 wages to count as business income.

IRS Code Section 168 is another provision that deals with depreciation, specifically with additional 50 percent/100 percent (bonus) first-year depreciation. In 2008 through 2010, a taxpayer was required to deduct an additional 50 percent of the cost of certain qualified assets, after the Section 179 deduction if elected, for assets placed in service during the year unless they specifically elected out of it. Congress changed the law in 2010 and added 100 percent bonus depreciation for assets purchased after Sept. 8, 2010, and placed in service before Jan. 1, 2012. The same law also provided for assets placed in service in 2012 to only use 50 percent bonus depreciation. However, no bonus depreciation is available for 2013.

The gain on certain capital assets that are sold after a minimum holding period is taxed at a lower rate compared to typical income tax rates. Most qualified capital assets have a minimum holding period of 12 months. Cattle have a minimum holding period of 24 months. Individuals filing jointly in 2012 who are in the 10 percent and 15 percent brackets (taxable incomes less than $70,700) will not owe any tax on the gain of qualified capital assets sold during the year. If taxable income is above $70,700, the income tax rate is 25 percent or higher depending on the level, up to a maximum of 35 percent. For these taxpayers, the capital gain tax rate is 15 percent. However, for 2013, the capital gain tax rate is scheduled to go from 0 to 10 percent for taxpayers in the 10 and 15 percent income tax brackets and from 15 to 20 percent for taxpayers in income tax brackets of 25 percent and above.

One other tax item related to estate taxes is planned to expire at the end of 2012. This is the $5.12 million exemption, the maximum tax rate of 35 percent on estates and the portability of any unused exemption to the surviving spouse. The exemption amount is scheduled to be reduced to $1 million, the maximum tax rate increased to 55 percent and the portability of the unused exemption will not be available.

Congress has the ability to extend a portion or all of these tax regulations plus many others. However, all we know for certain is the law as it currently stands and its implications for taxes for the remainder of 2012. What Congress will do related to tax regulations in future years is uncertain."

If you are dealing with these I would appreciate your email and comments below.

Thanks,

Ed

Visions

Today I share my vision of my last corn rows this year through the combine windshield and my visions last night.  As a child I had a lot of visions as I slept.  I got so good at seeing the future that it became scary and I pretty much shut them off.  After I wrote a paper on telepathy or parapsychology in high school it got out of control.  I saw my dad get his hand caught in the corn elevator a few months before it happened and it was enough to scare me to quit trying to look into the future.

I have a good report after last night.  Everything is going to be alright!  Everything I worried about is going to turn out fine.  I don't worry much anymore and when I did it was pretty useless.  It was more harmful than helpful.

I saw LuAnn's license plate SOILH2O then had a good laugh about that.  I saw DRSOIL and had a good discussion on thatl  There aren't many DRSOIL's in this world.  I saw DR HUBER on one plate and got some confirmation on what I have read about his work.

There is good and evil in this world and you have to pick sides.  You can't be in the middle, you are going to have to choose one.  It is quite easy for me to pick one side, but doing it, that's a whole different battle!

There are rules for both sides though and the good side isn't all that hard to follow.  The other side seems to be chaos to me so I get real confused on that side.

We heard the two main rules we learned at church again last night.  There is one God, one Creator, and love Him with all your heart, soul and strength.  I find that easier and easier after I quit struggling to do it or not do it.

The other rule is love thy neighbor as thyself.  I must admit that was quite a challenge at Rhude Road but here on Martinsville Road, it is much easier!  I have the best neighbors in the whole wide world!  It's easier to love them than some of the stupid things I do, I tell you.

This time change throws me for a loop.  I need discipline and I need a regular schedule.  Get up with the sun, eat a little, eat more at noon and watch what I eat at 5 or so.  Go to bed when I am ready to sleep after dark and if I had a good and busy day, that isn't hard to do.

If you have any resentments eating at you or what to do about this or that, write it down.  This is why this blog is so therapeutic for me.  My resentments usually stem from fear, result in anger if they languish and do more harm than goo.

So there is my report!  I hope you like it because it really is good news after months of debating about life and our future, here and with my family and friends.

Have a great Sabbath, it is a beautiful sunny day in southwest Ohio!

Ed

Happy 35th

Happy birthday to our oldest child, Matthew, who is 35 today.  Where in the world did 35 years go?  I remember his day of birth like yesterday.  We were driving up US 68 past Molitor's farm when I noticed the most beautiful sunrise you can imagine.  I just knew something great was going to happen and it sure did.

All of our children are special but today is Matt's special day.  He and I went through a lot of life in the 90's and he was my best friend through some hard times.  We both grew from it.  It was hard to see him go off on his own but it was time.  He did it  a little more slowly and more cautiously than I did and was better off for it.

I wasl always impatient and rushed into everything, a little too quickly sometimes and Matt learned from that.  I explained to him everything I could have done a little better as it happened.  I really think he learned from that.

That has made him a better teacher than I was.  I really wanted to farm and planting time and harvest time was so hard on me.  So I substituted a school farm for my own during school hours and lived my dream out there with my students every chance I got.

The Cincinnati Enquirer had good things to say about him.  "Winkle is one of the most sought-after teachers at Fayetteville Perry. More than half of the 290-member student body is enrolled in his classes; 150 are active members of the FFA Chapter he oversees.


It's a huge draw considering just 10 percent live on farms and only a fraction plan careers in agriculture.

But Winkle isn't surprised at the popularity of his courses. He believes agricultural education is relevant to everything."

Matt went with me everywhere I went ever since he was born.  I got him addicted to tractor pulling and then to FFA.  He loved to go FFA meetings with me where he ended up serving as chapter president, won every award they had and received all four FFA Degrees there.

None of our kids got into trouble but Matt was a really good kid, right when I needed him to be.  I will tell a story on him though, teaching him to drive, I let him practice in the driveway.  He missed the clutch on my little silver Chevy Chevette diesel and ran into the garage door.  The car was so low on horsepower it didn't break down the door.  Now we can both laugh about that.

So here's to my son Matt Winkle, the oldest of 6 great kids.  Happy birthday, Matt, and many, many more.

Dad

Fixer Up'er

Today we tear into the foundation of our 1880 house.  The living room floor is sinking in the northeast corner near the front door.  We had the same problem a few years back on the northwest corner foundation.  We are into another fixer up'er project.

Our new friend Steve Williams is tackling the job for us.  Ed was never too good at these projects so he made his money where he could and hired out the jobs he couldn't do.  In my older age and arthritis that has been "killing me," his help was never needed more than today.

The bright thing was that LuAnn greeted them at the door and there was one of her graduates, Tim, from Turning Point.  What a blessing!  We see this happen continually in our lives as we work to do God's Will, not ours.  Tim is now Steve's main man!

The opening from the old brick lined cellar into the crawl space isn't big enough, so they have to cut the wall out bigger.  Wouldn't you know there is the Highland County water line into our house right in the way.  So the water line has to be moved, too.  We have no water right now except what we pulled out into containers before they got here.

When the hole is big enough to access better, there is a pile of old homemade bricks under the living room floor that have to be removed.  Steve can crawl in there and get pictures of the underneath to see what needs to replaced or rebuilt.  Then, he can lay down a plastic moisture barrier to keep the humidity from swelling our hardwood floor.

I got up an built a wood fire and finally got LuAnn's office pellet stove working in the far south office and craft room.  Now I need to teach one of the neighbor boys how to take it apart and clean it so it will burn properly.  It's a Countryside and this is our 7th or 8th winter to use it for heating the south side of the house into the mudroom and utility room south of the kitchen.  It really makes a difference on a chilly day like today.

The sun came up so beautifully yesterday after a week of darkness, it felt so good.  It reminded me of a similar day 35 years ago when our oldest son Matthew was born.  It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I could ever try to explain to you.  You knew something special was happening in the heavens.  I teased him about 35 and he said oh that isn't the worst part, that means I am almost 40!  Time goes by that quickly.  He gets it.

I saw two neighbors shelling corn last night, though it is now on the muddy side.  You can tear up a driveway loading area real quickly.  We might shell my last 27 acres this afternoon, it is a well drained bottom and hillside.  Then we can move to the rest of the corn our group has.

The dust is rolling out of the cellar pretty badly and it's enough to make you cough so I better get off here.  Have a great weekend.

Ed

Why I Don't Support Senator Brown

I was very disappointed to see the Cincinnati Enquirer support Senator Sherrod Brown.  They said Josh Mandel is not ready.  How could they support the most liberal senator in the US Senate, the first Democrat they have supported in 20 years?  Did they get paid off or do they know something about Josh Mandel I don't know?

The one thing he did I do support is not supporting the war in Iraq.  I personally thought that was the wrong thing to do and was simply revenge for 9-11.  It took out the bladder that Iraq was to Iran and now Iran is our major enemy in the world.  But he is too liberal for me to support.  Brown is an advocate of equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.  I understand many good people think that is OK but I for one cannot support that.

He is an advocate for and voted for the Affordable Health Care Act.  That act that was never read before voted on and is not affordable.  In the feable attempt to "make health care more affordable" they actually increased the cost of it at a time we cannot afford it.

Brown has criticized free trade with China and other countries. In a 2006 Washington Post article, Brown argued against free trade on the grounds that labor activism was responsible for the growth of the U.S. middle class, and that the U.S. economy is harmed by trade relations with countries that lack the kind of labor regulations that have resulted from that activism.

In 2011, the Columbus Dispatch noted that Brown "loves to rail against international trade agreements." Brown's book, Myths of Free Trade, argues that "an unregulated global economy is a threat to all of us."  He recommends adopting measures that would allow for emergency tariffs, protect Buy America laws, including those that give preference to minority and women-owned businesses, and hold foreign producers to American labor and environmental standards.

Brown is a career politician since they day he graduated from college.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian studies from Yale University in 1974. At Yale, he was in Davenport College, the same residential college as U.S. Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush. He went on to receive a Master of Public Administration degree and a Master of Arts degree in education from the Ohio State University in Columbus in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He taught at the Mansfield branch campus of The Ohio State University from 1979 to 1981.

I don't know about you, but I am not too happy with our career politicians.  Senator Brown is on the far left and I don't support his positions.  Since Congress is in deadlock and our country is not progressing, I believe what Josh Mandel says, ""He's just a politician we can't trust."  "The only way we can change Washington is change the people we send to Washington."

I support the young man in the picture, not the career politician who should be out of the picture.

Ed Winkle