ALBANY, Wis. – The past year will remain seared in people’s memories. For the Brewer family 2020 will be memorable for far more than the COVID-19 pandemic. The three Brewer siblings lost both parents to cancer within seven months of each other – Glenn and Joann Brewer.

Since my previous report a lot of progress has been made in the fields. The majority of the soybean fields have been harvested, with some corn fields coming off. Conditions this year were ideal for soybean harvest. We had a weeklong stretch of 70s, and almost-80-degree days with the wind some days gusting to as much as 30 miles per hour. The benefit of timely soybean harvest provides a good opportunity to plant winter wheat.

We have had a good stretch of weather so a lot of field work has been finished. The winter wheat is all in and should have a good start. Most are finished doing their cover crops but there are still a few trying to put in some rye.

“Imagine squeezing the space out of a sponge in your hands,” Francisco J. Arriaga says. “You’re reducing its pore space. When we compact soil it can be said we’re squeezing the pore space and the result is less porosity.”

COLUMBUS, Wis. – Jesse Merfeld says the day he watched his girlfriend, Carissa, backing up a tractor to hook up a manure spreader he knew he would marry her. From the beginning of their relationship a farm life was always in the conversation; 18 years later they have it in spades.

Estate taxes are a tax on the transfer of property following a death. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included an estate-tax exemption, which expires in 2025. It requires an estate to file and pay taxes when gross assets exceed $11.58 million per person. After Dec. 31, 2025, the exemption amount returns to $5 million per individual adjusted for inflation, as set by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Previously the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 had gradually raised the exemption amount from $675,000 to $3.5 million in 2009.

It’s like a tale of two landscapes. When I submitted my previous crop report, central Wisconsin was peaking in fall colors. Farmers chopped and combined their way through corn for silage and beans for the bin, under a cinematic landscape of maroons, yellows and flourishes of green. A bump in temperatures felt like summer again as central Wisconsin saw temps in the 70s.

The coronavirus pandemic has now impacted all four quarters of 2020, and seemingly every aspect of life and business. The U.S. economy has been improving since late spring but progress has slowed measurably. With broad fiscal relief now off the table at least in the near-term, the economy will likely end the year in a fizzle.

Students from across the state gathered in Declo on Oct. 14 for the Idaho State FFA and 4-H Land and Soil Evaluation Event.

We were in the home stretch of painting our farmhouse while every other farmer seemed to be intent on harvest. During the first week of October the roar of nearby combines at work spurred us through those last few days.