It is an election year, and the number of charts showing the economy-wide influences by a single factor are up. A recent chart making a thin claim about the cause of inflation struck me as a similar rhythm to my … Continue reading →
Moving averages are the most basic tool, taught in undergraduate courses as an introduction to forecasting. Prior to the pandemic, commodity futures charts were the go-to illustration of the benefits of moving averages for undergraduate students. Moving averages smooth out the … Continue reading →
Twenty years ago the State of Indiana asked question, “Does a rural community produce sufficient organic wastes to provide energy for the community?” Fortuitously, Indiana’s BioTown, USA project invited Biomass Rules, LLC to help answer the question. Today’s table summarizes … Continue reading →
Hemp seeds command a premium price. USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) now reports weekly hemp product prices. In the September 11, 2024 report, one pound of hemp seeds was reported at $12.64. That is down from $14.39 per pound the … Continue reading →
As an economist, I have been trained to see the world through a lens of critical thinking. As a manure visionary, I have been trained to look beyond traditional monetary values to measure both benefits and costs. If and when … Continue reading →
Cell addresses in spreadsheets, by default are relative objects. This means that when a formula is copied in Excel the relationship to adjacent cells that are included in the copied cell formula, also gets copied. If the cell to the … Continue reading →
Food pricing has many layers. Earlier, it was established that Biomass Rules considers food to be retail consumption of human nutrients. There are exceptions, but this working definition simplifies many parts. It is easy to look at the farm gate … Continue reading →
The first federal census of agriculture was conducted in 1840. It has been conducted for 184 years. The oldest hardcopy of the US Census of Agriculture in the Biomass Rules collection is from 1982. We have been reading and analyzing … Continue reading →
Ok. This is certainly overkill, but I can’t stop sharing. There was a lot of interest in the last post, Midwest Land Prices Only Increase in the LONG View. But it gets EVEN cooler. Two of the lines in this … Continue reading →
Ten years ago, while working for University of Missouri – Extension, I had the privilege of joining a curriculum development team on estate and farm transfers. We developed the idea of a case, or at least believable story, to go … Continue reading →
