2019 Risk Management Workshops

The National Sorghum Producers has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency to educate and engage producers on the most important risk management issues for farmers to consider in 2019. With margins on the farm as tight as ever, active risk management is vitally important. Fortunately, crop insurance and grain marketing go hand-in-hand, enabling producers to actively manage their price risk.

Throughout the year NSP and RMA have hosted multiple workshops to engage and educate producers. The topics covered apply to all crops, and in particular, grain crops. Topics include a how-to on pairing grain marketing with crop insurance, a market outlook, a crop insurance 101 refresher and information on new products such as whole farm revenue protection.

Garden City Featured Speaker

Dr. Art Barnaby

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Dr. Art Barnaby

Art Barnaby provides educational programs on crop insurance, government commodity programs, and risk throughout Kansas. His work emphasizes the development of alternative public policies for crop disaster protection. For example, he developed the Crop Revenue Coverage (CRC), which has been renamed Revenue Protection (RP). RP is currently providing nearly $85 billion of coverage for America’s farmers. Other research explores the impact of government commodity programs.

Perryton Featured Speaker

Dr. Joe Outlaw

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Dr. Joe Outlaw

Dr. Joe Outlaw is a Regents Fellow, Professor and Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. He also serves as the Co-Director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University. In this role, Dr. Outlaw frequently interacts with members of Congress and key agricultural committee staff to provide feedback on the likely consequences of agricultural policy changes. His extension education and applied research activities are focused on assessing the impacts of farm programs, risk management tools, renewable energy, and climate change legislation on U.S. agricultural operations. .Dr. Outlaw is originally from Devine, Texas. He received his B.S (1987), M.S. (1988), and Ph.D. (1992) degrees from Texas A&M University, all in agricultural economics.

“Why actively manage risk?”
“Risk management is very important because of volatility as we become a global marketplace. The more erratic nature of politics in business, and macroeconomics worldwide, and the interconnectedness of countries worldwide has increased volatility. And so, daily, they have to deal with issues that really don’t connect directly back to the farm. And so, risk management practices and risk management tools help [producers] deal with those radical unknowns."
- John Miller | Southwest Agribusiness

Crop Insurance Basics

Revenue protection – Protects or guarantees price insured receives for crop along with yield crop insurance
Acreage report – Details number of acres planted, percent share insured and plant dates
APH – Historical data on acres and production. Determines average yields
Cause of loss – Reason for damage to crop
CAT – Covers only catastrophic losses above 50% at price equal to 55%
Coverage level – Percent of yield covered in the event of a loss
Guarantee – Total amount promised to an insured in the event of a loss
Harvest price – Determined closer to harvest and values production to count
Enterprise unit – Allows inured to group all acreage of same crop by county and share
Optional unit – Allows land to be divided by location, crop type and practice within county
Production report – Details actual production of crop
Projected price – Estimated price at sales closing date
Sales closing date – Date insured must apply for coverage
Transitional yield – County average yield used to make up required four years of APH history
Yield protection – Protects amount of production crop produces; Claim is paid when production is less than guarantee

What is whole-farm revenue protection?

Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) provieds risk management for all crops on a farm under one policy.

Available in all counties in all 50 states
Prices are based on guidelines in the policy
Claims are settled after taxes are filed for the policy year
Coverage is provided for the durations of the producer’s tax year
Largely calculated using tax documents including and especially the Schedule F
Protects against the loss of insured revenue due to an avoidable natural cause of loss during the insurance period

WFRP protects against loss of revenue from: