Developing, Practice and Implementing Written Marketing Plans and Risk Management Skills through Crop Marketing and Risk Management Clubs

Commercial farmers, beginning farmers, lenders and county agents develop and implement pre-harvest and post-harvest risk management plans through monthly meetings. Eight, three-county groups are formed in Western Kentucky which has 80% of the state’s grain crops. Meetings will review USDA reports and price outlook, teach price risk tools and strategies in detail, and how to integrate price tools with crop insurance. A case study developed from farm-record data is used to develop risk plans with concepts directly transferable to respective farm businesses. Risk tools are practiced through the Commodity Challenge game which allows real-time futures and cash market transactions in a risk-free environment. Pre-harvest and post-harvest strategies described in Ed Usset’s grain marketing book are adjusted to Western Kentucky yield and basis risk conditions to teach the effectiveness of alternative strategies. The risk plans will include potential ARC-CO and PLC payments to integrate insurance, marketing tools and farm program payments.