Disclaimer: This web page is designed to aid farmers with their marketing and risk management decisions. The risk of loss in trading futures, options, forward contracts, and hedge-to-arrive can be substantial and no warranty is given or implied by the author or any other party. Each farmer must consider whether such marketing strategies are appropriate for his or her situation. This web page does not represent the views of Kansas State University. 
Disclosure:  Dr. Barnaby’s research was the basis for the privately developed Crop Revenue Coverage.

Price & Yield Risk Management Workshops[1]

Growers normally identify price and yield risk as their major risk.  The Risk Assessed Marketing (RAM) and/or Combined Risk Management (CRM) workshops were designed to help participants price a crop before harvest using forward contracts, minimum price contracts, futures, options, and other pricing tools and when combined with crop insurance reduce financial risk.

For several years Bill Tierney any myself have conducted RAM/CRM workshops using a case farm approach for teaching growers, insurance professionals, commodity brokers, grain merchandisers, ag lenders, and others how to use financial tools to manage price and yield risk.  We have continued to add new features to the case problem to reflect changes in government programs, current market conditions and the location of the workshop.  With a new farm bill, additional changes will be need in the case problem.  We conduct these workshops together in Kansas , but typically only one of us conducts these workshops outside of Kansas .  We have conducted risk management workshops in more that 20 states and several foreign counties.

It has been very difficult to describe how the workshops work to a new audience.  I have always told growers it is best to be at the workshop because one misses the interaction between growers.  However, Dan Looker, Successful Farming business editor, attended one of my RAM workshops in Nebraska .  He has published a report on his experience on the WEB located at:

http://www.agriculture.com/sfonline/sf/2002/mid-march/0502business.html

He also published a story in the SF magazine on his RAM workshop experience. 

For those growers who have not attended one of the KSU RAM/CRM workshops, I believe that Dan has done a great job of describing the RAM workshop for growers.  This is a great way to check out the workshop without attending one.  I hope the SF article will convince agribusiness managers to join us at one of our workshops next year.