News Articles

January 2005

How will you fund your retirement? asks Hoard’s Dairyman (Jan. ’05). The article offers a number of tips, including, “Don’t rely on farm income alone. . . . . Don’t rely solely on Social Security as a big chunk of retirement income in years ahead. . . . Start early, but it’s never too late. . . . Consider today’s tax consequences. . . . Pick a plan or plans (the article includes a chart comparing traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, and SIMPLE IRA).” The author notes, “The plans outlined above are the vehicles you use to set up a retirement plan. How you invest that money—how you drive that vehicle—is another question. . . . For all the plans, you can put the money in savings accounts, money markets, bonds or bond funds, stocks or mutual funds, insurance annuities, or in any combination of the above. . . . With all of the choices and consequences, it’s best to get professional advice to review your current retirement plans or to help you set up a new one. . . . Financial advisors generally charge one of three ways—a fee for their service, a commission on sales of investments, or a percentage of assets.”

MCTA Brightens the Holidays for 100 National Guard Families (Minnesota Christmas Tree News, Winter ’05). “100 families whose loved ones are serving overseas received a Minnesota Grown Christmas tree, wreath and poinsettia. . . . The importance of these traditional holiday symbols was evident, as many recipients were quite touched by the gesture. One woman commented that her family wasn’t going to get a tree this year because her husband was overseas but that this event changed her mind. She added that she was glad that she and the kids were going to have a tree after all.”

Basal Pruning Basics by Dr. Rick Bates from Penn State’s Department of Horticulture appears in Minnesota Christmas Tree News, Winter ’05). “Basal pruning Christmas trees is an important but often overlooked cultural practice. . . . Basal pruning is removing the branches between the lowest complete whorl of foliated branches of the Christmas tree and the ground. It is also referred to as butt pruning, or putting a handle on the tree.” Dr. Bates includes several “rules of thumb” on basal pruning, including “Time your basal pruning to correspond to the first or second year of shearing,” and “wait until the tree has attained sufficient size that pruned limbs won’t exceed about one-third of the total foliage.” He notes, “Basal pruning is a tough job . . .” and gives several tips, including “prune the stem high enough to avoid serious defects such as incomplete bottom whorls and crooked stems,” and, “Cut the branches almost flush with the stem to avoid both long stubs and cuts that damage the tissue on the main stem.”

Sales Timber (Green Profit, Jan. ’05) writes, “Consumers aren’t as enamored with the Norman Rockwell-style choose-and-cut Christmas tree farms as they used to be. This past season has again seen people dragging man-made trees down from the attic or home from the store. . . . The drop in tree sales among cut-your-own operations has been deemed a result of time-strapped consumers and the reason for less traffic. . . . sales of natural trees have dropped from 27.8 million in 2001 to 23.4 million this past year. And while touting improved quality, artificial tree purchases have risen from 7.3 to 9.6 million.

Publication helps families plan farm transfer (The New Jersey Farmer, Jan. 1, ’05). The New Jersey State Agriculture Development Committee has released a new publication, “Transferring the Family Farm: What Worked, What Didn’t for 10 New Jersey Families.” “The book offers real-life profiles of families who describe their successes and challenges, as well as what they learned and what resources proved valuable, as they planned for and undertook the transfer of their land and agricultural operations. The publication is available on the SADC web site, http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/sadc/farmowners.htm or by contacting the Farm Link Program at 609-984-2504.

Two Eye-Opening Events are Catching the Attention of the Industry is the Editorial in American Christmas Tree Journal (Jan. ’05). “The sticker shock of higher freight rates and the tight supply of trucks around the country became evident as wholesalers began their heavy shipments of trees. The second is that recent national and regional surveys indicate that a significant increase in the tree supply may be on the horizon.” In the section headed “Future Tree Supply,” editor Dennis Tompkins writes, “Any surplus that develops will likely affect some regions more than other and may be a few years away. In the face of these prospects, some growers may reduce their plantings. Others may stay the same while some brave souls may increase plantings. Whatever decisions are made, the industry should be thinking of how to operate more lean and mean—including such things as more aggressive culling of fields to help reduce costs and to improve quality.”

The Changing Face of Transportation in the Christmas Tree Industry is discussed in Christmas Tree Lookout (Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, Winter ’05). “The industry has moved from years of very competitive transportation rates to, in some cases, no trucks available today at any price. This has occurred dramatically over the last five years. . . . We see the transportation of our product to market as a different world today versus 1999. . . . Rates have taken at least a 30 percent increase since 1999. Fuel surcharges of 2 to 5 percent have escalated this year to 20 to 25 percent. With the disappearance of about one-half of the trucks available to our region of the country, it increases the difficulty in doing business. . . . All of this said, the industry has risen to the challenges and the majority of shippers delivered their trees on time across the country this year.”

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