Author: Craig Kim

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Why Every Farmer or Farm Owner needs an Accountant

accountant for farmers

Farming isn’t simply concerned with milking cows and planting crops. Farms are businesses and they need accountants. Some farmers deny this claim. They believe that they can survive without financial experts but they are wrong.

Like any business that is designed to earn revenue, farms must maintain accurate records. And those records must be analyzed, interpreted, and then used to make decisions that will affect the future of the farm. That cannot happen without an accountant.

These financial consultants play a variety of roles, and there are several reasons why you should hire one for your farm, including:

1). Legal Requirement

In some regions, farms are required by government agencies, insurance firms, and the like to maintain pristine records of their activities. In other words, if you investigate the matter, you might be shocked to learn that the law expects you to hire an accountant. This is the only way to produce and maintain detailed records of your farm’s financial activities.

accounting for a farm

2). Value

Accountants won’t stop at maintaining your records. They will also determine the value of your farm. They will do this by calculating the financial worth of your assets, not to mention your present and future earnings. This will benefit farmers that might want to sell their farm in the future. It will also help farmers that want to settle matters of inheritance.

3). Performance

An accountant will allow a farmer to measure the performance of their farm. By looking at the farm’s earnings, expenses, and liabilities, they will determine whether a farmer is succeeding or failing. They will also identify weaknesses that the farm can plug to enhance its earnings in the future.

4). Planning

Accountants are useful planning tools. They will forecast your farm’s future using past and present successes and failures. These predictions will show you what you can do to improve your farm’s fortunes in the short and long term.

CPA for farmers

5). Knowledge

Some farmers are convinced that record keeping is a waste of time. However, others are bound to appreciate an accountant’s ability to track their income and expenditure. An accountant can tell you what you are making and spending within a particular period.  For example, a North Palm Beach Accountant would know that an orange grove gets special tax deductions. This allows you to take pride in your successes. It also provides data that you can use to budget for the future.

6). Tax

Every business is expected to pay taxes. Farms are no different. Even if you are confident in your ability to file your tax returns, you are better off leaving this task in the hands of an accountant. First of all, they know tax laws and they will ensure that you adhere to every regulation, protecting you from the penalties that businesses suffer whenever they break the law.

More importantly, accountants will show you how you can benefit from tax deductions. They know every loophole that you can use to reduce your taxes. They will show you how to save money. This, in turn, will increase your profits.

Farmers ignore these experts because they do not view farms as businesses. But this mindset is wrong. Farms are no different from traditional corporations. They have business premises and employees, and they earn revenue. And because they are no different from traditional businesses, farms must take advantage of the same financial professionals found in the average company.

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From Data to Diets, the Future of Farming is Diversification

Diversity is just as important in food production as it is for healthy, nutritional diets, farmers from around the world told this year’s Committee on World Food Security meeting. From dairy to aquaculture, farmers from across the sector said access to the full range of tools, technologies and systems could help meet the challenge of feeding a rising population in ever-changing conditions. A panel of farmers and experts spoke at a side event co-hosted by Farming First on innovation and […]

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5 Key Takeaways from the 2019 Borlaug Dialogue

The 2019 Borlaug Dialogue concluded today with three final panels exploring the importance of building resilience against climate change and conflict – neatly wrapping up the main topics of conversation that have appeared over the last three days. Two major issues that cropped up time and again were climate change and the projected global population growth. With these looming challenges, many speakers highlighted the need for the agricultural world to not only prioritise increases in productivity, but also nutrition, livelihoods […]

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History of the Green Bay Packer Cheesehead

green bay packers cheesehead

The state of Wisconsin produces about a quarter of the cheese that is made in the United States. This effort comes from the farms, or from the milking itself that sometimes occurs in conditions of temperatures below zero degrees Celsius. That symbolizes the spirit of the working people of this state, which also uses its Green Bay Packers as an emblem.

In fact, Wisconsin takes agriculture seriously, as more than 64,000 farms that contribute billions of dollars to the economy each year have their homes here, so it’s evident that cheese is very important in this state.

That’s why solving the equation is so easy when trying to discover why passionate and faithful Packers fans, wherever the team plays, go to stadiums to support their team wearing some colorful hats that looks like a huge chunk of cheese on the head, the Packers Cheeseheads. But there is a context that goes beyond a simple relationship with the state that produces the most cheese in the United States.

The origin of the Packers Cheeshead

All of this stems from the sour, long-lived, and passionate rivalry the Packers have with the Chicago Bears. When they won Superbowl XX in 1985, fans of the Windy City began derogatively calling their rivals “Cheeseheads.”

This insult is a childish way of calling someone an “idiot.” However, the insult went wrong, since they gave a new symbol of pride to this state’s residents because cheese is precisely their most important product.

But the Wisconsin natives were not offended, quite the contrary. In fact, in 1987, a man named Ralph Bruno appeared at a Milwaukee Brewers game wearing a hat with a cut similar to a piece of cheese that he made with the foam padding from an armchair that was his mother’s. Since then, it has become a popular piece, particularly for sports fans and Wisconsin residents.

Rather than being teased for carrying the alleged piece of cheese on their heads, Brewers fans started asking Bruno to make hats for them like theirs. In fact, Bruno says that he took his hat to a party, and then a girl approached him to ask him to lend it to her because he wanted to try it on.

At that time, he was able to observe the potential that he had as a business, and with his experience in the patent area, he began to think about how to create molds to be able to make more cheesehead hats.

It goes without saying that he managed to get his answer, as he eventually started making the Packers cheesehead hats, which he would later sell at sporting events in Wisconsin with great success. He would then be able to establish a company called Foamation Inc., which is the one that, under patent registration, manufactures products alluding to cheese, which is a success in that region and that the Packers were in charge of making popular.

cheesehead creator
Ralph Bruno – Creator of the Cheesehead

Winning again

Although after winning Super Bowl I and II, the Packers had a long dry season when it came to success. It was not until 1997 that with Brett Favre, laurels re-greened, and Green Bay fans became proud of their team again. They crowned themselves at the expense of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, and that was when the Packers Cheeseheads gained relevance and notoriety.

The famous hats, which reinforced the identity of fans of Green Bay, the smallest city (just over 100,000 inhabitants) in the entire NFL that owns a franchise, became famous beyond the confines of Lambeau Field when Aaron Rodgers, Under head coach Mike McCarthy. They conquered Super Bowl XLV by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was there that the Cheeseheads remained an undeniable symbol of the identity of one of the most charismatic franchises in the NFL.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers Cheeshead hat: one of the most original symbols of pride

Bruno said that his creation had become a symbol of pride, not only for the people of Wisconsin but also for all the Midwest people. He doesn’t know exactly how many he’s sold, but it’s enough to put together a line of cheeseheads from New York to the West Coast.

Current models of cheese head hats not only include the original cheese chunk design but offer variations such as cheese baseball hats, cheese protection helmets, and many more.

Bruno has even claimed that sales always go up when the team is doing well, so sales should go higher this week with the Green Bay Packers visiting the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. Bruno said that his company usually must add additional shifts to help meet demand in these times.

Today, his company manufactures the iconic Packers cheesehead hat, but they produce all kinds of foam products. He even offers tourists a tour where they can make their Packers cheeseheads hats and thereby bring their Green Bay Packers fanaticism on another level.

The influence of this symbol is so significant that the logo of the Green Bay Packers was slightly modified to combine with the Packers cheesehead hat. Initially, being a team owned by a public company, the Acme Packing Company, its logo served as an emblem of the football team, which had an independent image until 1951, made up of the word PACKERS with a football ball in the background.

This emblem changed in 1956 when the image of a player throwing a pass with Wisconsin’s silhouette and an ovoid in the background was used. In 1961 the team’s iconic “G” was introduced, which had a slight modification in 1980 with the yellow outline’s inclusion.

This yellow color is not a coincidence since, although they changed their colors from blue and yellow to green and yellow, this last color was kept to match perfectly with the cheese heads, implying that this symbol has always been connected to the team and their fans.

Today, using a Packers cheesehead hat is much more than a symbol of pride, it is a representation of a great team that managed to unite their fans in such a way that they can hold their head high with one of the most pathetic attempts to dent his spirit: A cheeshead.

 

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Risks of Driving While Intoxicated and Why Would You Need an Attorney

Dallas DWI Lawyer

 

Despite the public warnings and stiffer penalties of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated, people still take this risk. If you choose to drive yourself home when impaired by alcohol, you’re putting your life and those of others at risk. Regardless of well you handle the drink, there’s still a heightened risk of causing injuries and death. Did you know that alcohol can affect your coordination, judgment, and reaction time while driving?

The risks of drinking and driving

If the alcohol concentration in your body is 0.1 or more, you’re likely to cause an accident. But even the smallest amount can affect your driving. Let’s look at some of the risks of driving while intoxicated.

Slowed reaction time

When you’re intoxicated, you can’t react quickly to situations compared to when you’re sober. For example, if the front driver brakes instantly, you may not be in a position to slow down. Instead, you’ll run into the back of their car. Even worse, you may not react if you see a pedestrian crossing the road. And the reason is straightforward – when you’re intoxicated, you’ll have slower reflexes that can affect the eye, hand, and foot coordination. These skills are crucial if you want to drive your car safely.

One way of checking whether your reaction time and coordination are up to standard is doing a simple test. If you have trouble putting the keys onto the ignition, your impairment may have reached a level where you cannot drive the car. Similarly, if you can’t stand up straight, you should avoid getting behind the wheel.

Driving while intoxicated

Poor judgment

When you take too much alcohol, you can cloud your judgment. Also, you can make the wrong decisions that you wouldn’t if you were sober. For instance, you can drive without reading the road signs or well beyond the speed limit. On the other hand, driving while intoxicated can make you get distracted with something like a text. Think about it – some things like sticking to one lane requires undivided attention.

When it comes to judgment, this is something you can’t take even the slightest risk. If you take alcohol, you may not be able to calculate the distance between your car and the one in front of you. But when you have a clear mind, you’ll be fully aware of your surroundings, thereby reducing the chances of causing an accident. As your blood alcohol concentration climbs, the danger of causing an accident when behind the wheel skyrockets.

Because judgment is all about the mind, the mental effects after talking alcohol include:

  • The hearing and speech declines
  • It becomes tough to identify any dangerous situation
  • The short-term memory suffers and the ability to concentrate declines
  • Inability to process information like visual searches, signal detection, etc.

Reduced vision

Too much alcohol can affect how you see the world. When the drink enters your body, the muscle coordination reduces and it becomes hard for the eyes to send messages to the brain. This, in turn, interferes with your vision. It’s also believed that when you drink, the pupils dilate slowly and the eye cannot adjust contrast.

What does this mean? You may not be in a position to judge the distance or even see the bloodspots. Besides, when alcohol affects the brain functions, it will interfere with the defensive mechanism. Of course, the excessive eye twitching makes it hard to keep them open.

With diminished vision, you can swerve in front of cars or drift off the road without realizing it. This explains why you should check your visual impairment before you get behind the wheel.

Legal ramifications of drinking

If you choose to drink and get behind the wheel, you could face serious legal consequences. Generally, when an officer of the law stops you, he will conduct some sobriety tests. In some cases, you may be forced to use a breathalyzer to perform the BAC test. If it’s confirmed that you’re driving under alcohol, you risk being arrested and charged accordingly.

DWI

Why you need a DWI attorney

Driving while intoxicated is illegal and can attract hefty fines and penalties. If an officer of the law pulls you over and he confirms that you’re intoxicated, you should prepare for a long road with the justice system. This is where a DWI attorney comes in.

Will help keep your license

If you’re charged with DWI, you risk losing your license for a specific period. This may harm your work and even social life. A DWI attorney will help you navigate the charges, and could even have them reduced. If it’s your first time, the DWI attorney may convince the court to have it back.

Avoid high-risk insurance

If you have a competent DWI attorney, he or she can negotiate lesser charges. Some of these financial premiums are mandatory and may hurt our financial stability. A DWI attorney will help you navigate the available options, so that you may be eligible to get back on the road.

Will assess your case

Every DWI charge is different – a DWI attorney will assess the different factors and help you understand the legal consequences for your actions. With this in mind, you should work with a DWI attorney who understands the options. In some states, there could be harsher punishments for those who exceed a specific BAC limit.

Avoid stiffer testing

As a way of punishing the offenders, some states can punish the offenders through some tests. Some may be required to undergo urinalysis once a day. And if you miss the test, you risk going to jail. A DWI attorney can convince the jury that you don’t need such tests to live a normal life. If the penalty applies, it can be reduced to a certain level.

Limit probation

A common DWI charge is reporting to the court for the next three months. Probation is not only embarrassing but can also interfere with your daily schedule. A DWI attorney will help you negotiate the terms or reduce the charges altogether.

Safeguard future employment

If a criminal record is not handled properly, it can affect your current and employment. You know how embarrassing it can be if you’re rejected because your records are not clean. With an attorney, the charges can be kept to a minimum.

Driving while intoxicated Dallas is a serious offense that should be handled professionally. If you’re not careful, it could disrupt your life and may attract some outrageous fines. Even if you have never been charged before, a DWI attorney will help you avoid anything that can jeopardize your time on the road.

 

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Key takeaways from the Oxford Farming Conference 2020

The 11th annual Oxford Farming Conference 2020 set its sights on managing global food systems in innovative and environmentally sustainable ways. In line with the world’s sustainable development goals as outlined by the UN, the conference explored the current challenges the agricultural sector faces, with the need to ensure food security, the duty to protect natural ecosystems, and the necessity to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions. In line with the world’s sustainable development goals as outlined by the UN, the conference […]

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One Planet Fellowship takes action to discover the next generation of African climate scientists in agriculture

The One Planet Fellowship, a $20 million initiative dedicated to supporting research on climate change adaptation, is an academic mentoring scheme which aims to support Africa’s smallholder farmers in adapting to a changing climate. This year, One Planet Fellowship has collaborated with the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) to raise awareness and interest in the value of women engaging in research and development. Launched at the 2017 One Planet Summit in Paris, hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, […]

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New Campaign: Innovations for Sustainable Food Systems

Our food systems are under unprecedented pressure. With the global population expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030, making food systems more sustainable will depend on the development and deployment of innovative tools and approaches around the world. Launched in partnership with CGIAR, Farming First’s latest campaign – Innovations for Sustainable Food Systems – features a range of case studies where progress is being made to make food systems more sustainable. Sustainable food systems are interconnected and represent the full agri-value […]

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Nominations Now Open for the 2021 World Food Prize

Nominations are now open for the 2021 World Food Prize – a prestigious international award recognising the accomplishments of individuals working to end global hunger. WHAT: A $250,000 prize, awarded to exceptional individuals who have helped advance human development, by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food around the world. DEADLINE: May 1 2020 NOMINATE: http://bit.ly/foodprize21 With nominations for the 2021 award closing on May 1, the World Food Prize Foundation is calling on the global community to submit […]

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COVID-19 and its Impacts on Global Food Security: A Chicago Council Online Discussion

With its Global Food Security Symposium postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chicago Council held an online discussion about the global food security challenges posed by the pandemic, hosted by The Washington Post’s ‘Business of Food’ reporter, Laura Reily. Exploring the large-scale impact that COVID-19 has already had on the global food system, the participants covered how agricultural production, supply chains, markets, and labour forces have all been affected and are further at risk. The discussion also touched on […]

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