Over the past several weeks, I have heard multiple farmers say that, while prices are really bad right now, they are still a buck or two higher than when Biden was president. I didn’t believe them for a minute, but, at the same time, I don’t believe they were lying to me. Our minds all work to […]
It is Monday morning. We are in the 20th day of the federal government shutdown. One of the things that most strikes me is the complete lack of information from politicians and officials on both sides of the aisle about how much money is at stake, and what the impacts of stopping those flows of money might […]
It’s October 3, 2025, and the federal government shut down two days ago for lack of budget legislation. It was not a surprise. Republicans holding power in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House have made it a point not to negotiate a resolution, either among themselves (they had the power to resolve this […]
We do a bit of business planning work here at Regional Strategic, Ltd. Our president, Mark Imerman, cut his teeth on business planning as a market development economist at the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. It that role, he assisted farm operators and investors develop marketing facilities for alternative crops. It was a strategy pursued […]
It is detasselling season in Iowa. Detasselling is a critical process in hybrid seed production. Hybrid seed is critical to Midwest corn production. Detasselling in Iowa is heavily dependent upon immigrant labor. During detasseling season, Iowa utilizes 8,000 to 10,000 hours per day of immigrant labor on H-2A visas in crop production The exact numbers for any […]
