Monthly Archives: May 2022

FREE Direct Beef Sales Programs

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Are you interested in selling beef directly to the consumer?  What type of insurance do you need? How do you set your prices?  Do you need any permits?  Will it increase your profits?  Not sure where to start?  Wonder what mistakes people have made getting their business off the ground? We’ve got the program for you! Dr. Justin Benavidez and I will be hosting two in-person programs focused on the legal and economic issues related to direct beef sales.  These day-long programs will cover a variety of issues… Read More →

Texas Supreme Court: Courts, Not TCEQ, Determine Water Rights Ownership in Texas

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The Texas Supreme Court issued its decision in Pape Partners, Ltd. v. DRR Family Properties, and in doing so, answered the question of whether it is the courts or the TCEQ that has jurisdiction over water rights ownership disputes in Texas.  [Read Opinion here.] Background Lola Robinson owned two pieces of property in McLennan County, the farm and an adjacent 250-acre tract of land.  In 1986, she obtained two water rights permits from the TCEQ to irrigate from the Brazos River for one of the farms.  The permits did… Read More →

Mental Health Awareness Month: This World Is Better with You in It

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month.  Every year, I do an interview related to agriculture and mental health.  Click to listen to prior interviews with Ted Matthews, Adrienne DeSutter, and Lesley Kelley. This year, I was thrilled to have my friend, Shannon Ferrell, join me to talk about the work he is doing in this area.  Shannon offers important insight, information, suggestions, and encouragement.  He summed up our discussion with the most important line:  This world is better with you in it.  To listen to my interview with… Read More →

2021 Texas Rural Land Value Trends

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Each year, the Texas Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers publishes a Rural Land Value Trends report.  They just released their 2021 edition.  Click here to download. This report breaks Texas into seven regions and then each region is broken into smaller sub-regions.  The report then offers information regarding land prices and leasing rates for various types of property from irrigated cropland to rangeland to CRP land.  Additionally, this is the only publication I am aware of that publishes average hunting lease rates… Read More →

Texas Court Considers Principal Place of Residence Requirement for Medicaid

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A recent Austin Court of Appeals decision in Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. Estate of Clyde L. Burt, answers an important Medicaid qualification question.  Is an applicant required to reside in a home prior to seeking nursing care in order for the home to be considered an excludable resource  under the Medicaid rules? [Read opinion here.] Background Clyde and Dorothy Burt bought a home in 1974 and lived there until December 2010 at which time they sold the home to their daughter, Linda Wallace, and moved into… Read More →