Managing risk will continue to be a key part of farm profitability in 2020, and Iowa State University Extension is providing farmers with a wide range of risk management tools to help make the process more understandable. The February edition of ISU’s Ag Decision Maker has four risk management articles, along with accompanying videos that allow producers to watch and listen to each specialist describe each tool.

Topics include the “Basics of Crop Insurance,” featuring Gary Wright, farm management specialist with ISU Extension; “Small- to Medium-Sized Cattle Feeders”  with Tim Christensen, ISU Extension livestock specialist; “Comparing Farmland Returns to Stock Market Investments”  is presented by Kelvin Leibold, ISU farm management specialist; and “Farm Financial Performance Analysis”  is led by Charles Brown, also an ISU Extension farm management specialist.

These risk management articles and videos were made available through a grant and partnership with USDA’s Risk Management Agency.

Articles, videos and webinars 

A webinar series on risk management topics will be held on Tuesdays in March, says Madeline Schultz, coordinator for the ISU Women in Agriculture program. The goal of the videos and the webinar series, she says, is to provide another way of reaching producers and explaining these complex and important topics. “It’s an additional opportunity to share more information about the different kinds of risk management tools and options available, and the different risk management topics farmers need to know about and understand,” she adds.

Topics for the March webinar series will include substitute decision-making (March 10), comparing farmland returns to the stock market (March 17), and late and prevented-planting lessons learned in 2019 (March 24). The webinars will be held at noon, and participants should  preregister if they plan to tune in.

Schultz says the ISU Extension specialists helping to produce the videos and webinars have been supportive of the additional outreach opportunity. “They are excited about meeting and fulfilling the needs of their audience and getting this information out to farmers and others in different ways.”.

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