Poster Abstracts

AGR-Lite-Insurance Offers Unique Blanket Protection
Mary Mafuyai-Ekanem, North Carolina A&T State University
John O’Sullivan and Keith Baldwin, (NCA&TSU) Phillip Farland (NC Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services), Raleigh, NC Sandra Strayhorn (USDA/RMA/Outreach, Raleigh, NC Regional Office)
This poster will feature the latest AGR-Lite Insurance Program and how it works for limited resource farmers audiences in our area. The program is sponsored by the USDA/RMA/Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program.

Annie’s Project Risk Management Education for Farm Women
Bob Wells, Iowa State University Extension
Ruth Hambleton-University of Illinois Extension, Tim Eggers-Iowa State University Extension, Kelvin Leibold-Iowa State University Extension, Mary Sobba-University of Missouri Extension, Karisha Devlin-University of Missouri Extension
Annie’s Project is targeted to women involved with the farm business. Annie’s Project concentrates on providing farm management education in five risk management areas: (1) production, (2) marketing, (3) financial, (4) legal and (5) human resources.

Benchmarking Texas Cow-calf Operations by Region
Stan Bevers, , Texas Cooperative Extension
This poster will present production and financial results by region. Production performances will include pregnancy rates, calving rates, weaning rates, weaning weights, and stocking rates. These results serve as benchmarks for other cow-calf operations and assist those operations in identifying their own strengths and weaknesses.

Decision-Making Tools for Perennial Agricultural Systems
Clark Seavert, Oregon State University
Herb Hinman - Washington State University, Karen Klonsky - UC Davis
This website is a resource for agricultural producers who manage the financial, marketing, production and human resource risks associated with perennial agricultural systems.

Developing a simulation game to help farmers learn about risk management strategies
Gregory Ibendahl, Mississippi State University
This poster demonstrates a computer-based simulation that allows farmers to try various risk management strategies in a short timeframe and without any real money being used. The simulation game developed here is for analyzing and trying out dairy put options. Price risk and the option prices are based on real data.

Feasibility of Machinery Cooperatives
Phil Kenkel, Oklahoma State University
A machinery cooperative feasibility template and related educational material were developed by Oklahoma State University with support from USDA Risk Management Agency. Related educational material developed by Oklahoma State University addresses organizational, procedural and structural issues.

Increasing Use of Price Risk Management Tools by Beef Producers Who Stocker, Background and Finish Cattle
Emmit Rawls, University of Tennessee
Curt Lacy-University of Georgia, John McKissick-University of Georgia, Tammy McKinley-University of Tennessee
Extension specialists from the University of Tennessee and University of Georgia planned and conducted four educational workshops in each state to teach beef producers how to use futures and options to manage price risk. As a follow up to the workshops, monthly teleconferences are being held with interested workshop participants to keep them up to date on fundamental and technical information related to feeder cattle and live cattle futures.

Information Needs and Risk Management Strategies Preferred by Limited Resource Farmers in Alabama
Duncan M. Chembezi, Small Farms Research Center, Alabama A&M University
E’licia L. Chaverest, Small Farms Research Center
This poster is aimed at sharing the results of the needs assessment survey conducted in 2006 involving 300 small and limited resource farmers in Alabama. It also highlights some of the important strategies or tools preferred by agriculturalproducers in dealing with agricultural risk.

Intergenerational Farm Transfer Workshops in Delaware
Laurie Wolinski, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension
Maria Pippidia, University of Delaware
This project’s objective is to educate Delaware farm families about the many aspects of managing their estate, from estate planning to intergenerational transfer of the farm operation, during day-long workshops. This poster will highlight the results of the pre-workshop mail survey, as well as the results of pre and post workshop self-assessments.

National Women in Agriculture Risk Management Efforts
Laurie Wolinski, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension
Jeff Reisdorfer, University of Minnesota Digital Center for Risk Management Education
The information presented on this poster will highlight the 2006 National Extension Women in Agriculture Conference and the National Women in Agriculture website.

Personnel Management for High Plains Agribusiness Producers
Steve Amosson, Texas Cooperative Extension
Danny Klinefelter, Texas Cooperative Extension; Bridget Guerrero, Texas Cooperative Extension; and Fran Bretz, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
A two-day conference was held in Amarillo, Texas to assist agribusinesses to become better equipped with personnel management issues they face daily. A pre and post-test was administered, an exit survey consisting of open-ended questions on content was utilized, and a six-month post-attendance mail survey was employed to assess implementation. A 34.2% increase in knowledge gained was measured.

Pricing Milk with Contracts and Puts: Evaluating Price Risk Reduction using Historical Class III Milk Futures and Options Data
Margaretha Rudstrom, University of Minnesota Extension
Dr. Kevin Bernhardt, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
The presenters have collaborated on the construction of a spreadsheet system, titled “Milk Marketing Manager,” that allows ex-ante evaluation of generic milk marketing strategies for the years 2000-2006. Results visually compare with and without marketing outcomes including overall revenue, average per hundred-weight price, and measure of dispersion over the seven year period.

Professional and Producer Response to the “Risk-Assessed Business Planning for Small Producers” Curriculum
Marion Simon, Kentucky State University
Louie Rivers, Jr. Kentucky State University
The "Risk-Assessed Business Planning for Small Producers" curriculum has been introduced and taught to professionals and producers across the southern region. This poster will present the response of the trainees to the materials.

Regional Enterprise Budgets for Fruit and Vegetable Crops
Ronald L. Rainey, University of Arkansas
Budgeting and cash flow analysis are integral parts of the planning and risk analysis for agricultural producers. Enterprise budgets are the basic building blocks to this evaluative process. This poster details a project to develop regional enterprise budgets for fruit and vegetable crops that standardize estimation methodologies and production systems across the Southeastern United States growing region. The regional project includes five states and multiple disciplines to provide business planning resources to an underserved audience, specialty crop producers. The project is known as MALTA to denote the five states that are involved in the development of the budgets including the states of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama. The MALTA project builds on the synergies of each state’s Land-Grant university to coordinate the expertise of the institutions’ agricultural economists and horticulturalists in 2006.

Risk Management Education for Goat and Pastured Poultry Producers
Marion Simon, Kentucky State University
USDA-RMA/RME funds have been used to teach goat and pastured poultry production, marketing, and economic information to producers in Kentucky and Tennessee who are looking at these enterprises to replace lost tobacco income. This poster will show the methodology and results of some of these efforts.

Risk Management for Nursery Production for the Southwest and Hawaii
Ursula Schuch,, University of Arizona
Trent Teegerstrom, Dept. of Agricultural & Resource Economics University of Arizona, Russell Tronstad, Dept. of Agricultural & Resource Economics University of Arizona, and Stuart Nakamoto, Dept. of Human Nutrition Food & Animal Science, University of Hawaii
The project Risk Management for Nursery Production for the Southwest and Hawaii is part of a larger RME project that targets livestock, forage, and vegetable and specialty crop producers in the region. Three areas of risk management for nursery producers were addressed: crop insurance, production costs, and labor communication.

Southeast Beef Cattle Marketing School
Tim Hewitt, University of Florida
Todd Davis, Clemson University; Curt Lacy, University of Georgia; John McKissick, University of Georgia; Walt Prevatt, Auburn University; Jim Rathwell, Clemson University
An integrated educational program that combined classroom and hands-on experiences was held to teach Southeast cow-calf producers, extension agents, agricultural lenders, and veterinarians how to calculate breakeven prices that cover variable, total, and family living costs; how to provide price outlook; how to discuss market alternatives; and how to demonstrate how futures and options can reduce price risk.

The National Ag Risk Education Library
Jeff Reisdorfer, University of Minnesota - Digital Center for Risk Management Education
Chris Mikesell, Kevin Klair, Digital Center for Risk Management Education
The National Ag Risk Education Library is a major component of USDA´s Extension Risk Management Education (RME) program. The Library organizes thousands of risk management materials which help producers and agricultural professionals quickly locate information, tools, and assistance on specific risk management topics.

Using Precision Agriculture to Manage Risk
Carl Dillon, University of Kentucky
C. R. Dillon, University of Kentucky, T. Stombaugh, University of Kentucky, Ben Kayrouz, University of Kentucky, J. Salim, University of Kentucky and B. Koostra, University of Kentucky
This project used the teaching of teams consisting of a county extension agent and one or more Kentucky farmers with training and tools to use and help others use Precision agriculture (PA) to manage risk.

Winning the Game
Jeff Reisdorfer, University of Minnesota
Ed Usset, Robert Craven, Wynn Richardson, Center for Farm Financial Management
" Winning the Game" is a series of workshops featuring a realistic marketing game, where producers make pricing decisions before or after harvest. The games cut through the fog of market opinions and commentary to help producers make some common sense decisions.