“The continued growth in farm loans demonstrates the important role banks play in the success of farms and ranches both large and small,” said John Blanchfield, senior vice president and director of ABA’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Banking. “Banks remain the most important source of ag credit holding more than half of all farm loans.

The cash fed cattle trade was slow to develop last week with only a few bids having been offered by Thursday. Asking prices from cattle feeders were decidedly at $130 live and $205 dressed with bids of $125 live being ignored.

The most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report was released Friday, March 8. The report held few surprises in red meat and crops, but poultry changes—particularly of broilers and turkey— drew attention.

Cash fed cattle trade developed sporadically throughout the week, starting on Monday with a few loads sold in Texas at $128 live. This was called too small to set the market and perhaps was cleanup trade from the prior week. Offers started the week at $130 live and $206-207 dressed.

The first to move was Russia, which notified the U.S. and other countries in December that they were required to certify that their pork and beef exports were free of ractopamine residues. When the U.S. government did not implement a program for certifying exports, Russia closed its market to imports of beef and pork from the U.

The most recent Cattle on Feed (COF) report was released Friday, Feb. 22. It detailed the number of cattle on feed in feedlots with a 1,000-head or greater capacity as of Feb. 1 and the number of cattle placed on feed and marketed from such feedlots during the month of January.

Throughout last week, cash fed cattle sales were slow to develop, both on market and outside reasons. The storms caused some difficulty for feedlots around the country, and when dealing with the physical necessities of digging out and caring for the cattle, sales become hard things to do.

The fiscal cliff created the opportunity for a number of changes in the tax rules regulating when a farm must complete and file their annual income tax returns. For 2012, farm income tax returns have received a deadline extension from the normal March 1, 2013, date to file their tax returns without penalty, if they have not made estimates.

The average U.S. retail price for regular motor gasoline is up about 45 cents per gallon since the start of 2013, reaching $3.75 per gallon on Feb. 18. The rise in gasoline prices is partly due to higher crude oil prices.

The order in which withdrawals are made is the key to tax efficiency. Generally, this means tapping taxable accounts—i.e., investments other than IRAs and taxdeferred employer plans such as 401(k)s—first, since they were made with aftertax dollars and taxes have already been paid on investment earnings.