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College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

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Workshop to Aid Producers in Managing Crop Risk

January 25, 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Changes in farm legislation, expansion of new technologies such as biofuels, and volatile shifts in crop prices have driven many producers to change the way they manage crop production and risk.

A workshop, sponsored by Ohio State University Extension and Kansas State University, offers producers a hands-on approach to integrated marketing and production management that combines government programs, crop insurance and alternative marketing techniques.

Producers have two opportunities to attend the Risk & Profit Assessed Grain Marketing (RAM II) workshop: On Feb. 22 from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express, 2150 East Wooster St., Bowling Green, Ohio; and on Feb. 23 from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Central Ohio Technical College, Montgomery Hall, 200 N. White Woman St., Coshocton, Ohio.

The cost to enroll in either workshop is $25, which includes lunch and all materials. Registration deadline is Feb. 15.

The purpose of the workshop is to aid producers in making decisions that may affect farm financial risk and income. Through a hands-on case-study approach, participants will manage a typical grain farm during an upcoming marketing year, selecting the type and level of crop insurance, taking advantage of available marketing opportunities, and making use of risk-management tools such as futures, options, forward contracts and basis contracts.

Tools addressed during the workshop include Crop Revenue Insurance, Revenue Assurance, Multi-Peril Crop Insurance, Actual Production History, Income Protection, Group Risk Plant, Group Risk Income Production, Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments, and Average Crop Revenue Election.

Based on the producer's decisions, a spreadsheet software program will be used to identify the resulting financial risks and income effects. The respective outcomes will then be evaluated, compared, and contrasted. Producers will have access to a hard copy of the results for future study and review.

Instructor for the workshops is Kansas State agricultural economist Art Barnaby, who has been instrumental in the development of crop revenue insurance programs and their integration with marketing alternatives and agricultural programs.

For more information, log on to http://www.agmanager.info.

To register for the Bowling Green program, contact OSU Extension educator Alan Sundermeier, at 419-354-9050 or e-mail sundermeier.5@osu.edu.

Author(s): 
Candace Pollock
Source(s): 
Dean Baldwin