Deciding what to plant the last several years has been easy, but it will be quite different in 2014 based on the current market outlook.I was at a farm management meeting in central North Dakota early this week and one of the topics was the 2014 crop budgets. Obviously, the bottom line for most farmers in 2014 will not be nearly as good as what we've had the past three-four years for several reasons including:

Much lower new crop prices Steady or, in fact, still rising land and cash rent values Some moderation in input costs, but nothing significant yet

Deciding what to plant the last several years has been easy. Every crop showed big returns per acre. What to plant came down to rotational issues, planting dates, etc. It will be qui...