Will ACRE Pay on My Farm?[1]

Looking for the latest information on likely payments under the ACRE program? Farmers that have not made an ACRE decision or simply would like to have the latest ACRE information will likely want to register for a KSU webinar that will focus entirely on ACRE payments. Farmers, ag lenders, insurance agents, USDA, and others will find this bottom line approach to ACRE a little different than other approaches to the ACRE decision.

We are in our final stages of planning a KSU webinar on ACRE for Tuesday, August 4, 2009. The focus of the webinar will be on the national average price and state yields by crop that will determine any ACRE payments for 2009. The objective is to provide all current information that will have help farmers to decide if the odds are high in their state for an ACRE payment and the size of the ACRE payment. KSU is now online, with the ability to accept credit cards and online registration. The link to the registration site is: http://commerce.cashnet.com/KSUAGECON

The registration fee will be $50 for a single viewer license and $250 for a group license. However, KSU is offering a discount for early signup. Prior to July 28, the single-view license will be discounted to $25 and a group license will be $200. The Web registration will automatically change the fee to the full cost after July 28. The number of webinar lines is limited. If registration should happen to hit the limit, then the first to register will be enrolled. We will offer the program at two times on Tuesday August 4; at 7:00 a.m. and repeat the webinar at 12:00 noon, Central Daylight Savings Time.

The single viewer license is for a person to watch the webinar and to type in questions during the webinar from the comfort of their office. One word of caution, the $50 fee is for a single line, so if participants give their link to someone else, then the registrant�s line will be �tied up�. Because we only have a limited number of lines, any non-registrants who log in will be kicked off by the KSU webinar administrator!

The group license will allow a company to provide the program in their meeting room to a group of customers and/or their staff by projecting the computer screen on to a large screen. Meeting planners will likely want to purchase external speakers because in a large group meeting, the speakers on most computers will not provide a sufficient volume level. KSU will list all group buyers as sponsors on at least one of the webinar slides. KSU will also list sponsors and their meeting location on AgManager.info. If sponsors do not want to be listed or their meeting is private then we will not list them on the Web site.

Accessing the webinar will only require access to a high speed internet connection. If you have questions about the connection and necessary requirements, please direct your questions to Rich Llewelyn. His contact information is below.

After the last crop report, the market really took a hit, so I would expect the interest in ACRE has increased by corn and grain sorghum farmers. By August, likely over 40% of the wheat price will have been determined and the winter wheat crop has been harvested, but the marketing year for corn does not start until September 1 and the crop is still growing. Therefore, my level of confidence in the wheat numbers is much greater than corn. However, the webinar will focus on wheat, corn, grain sorghum and soybeans.

Troy Dumler and I will make the presentation. Troy will spend a few minutes highlighting his ACRE model in Excel for farmers to test out their own numbers. I will focus on the very narrow issue of NASS price and state yield. Those two numbers will determine which states are eligible and the size of the ACRE check! The purpose will be to �surround� this issue, but farmers will have to make the final decision if they think ACRE will pay. In some states it will be clear, the answer is yes and in other states no. But there will also be states where the numbers are close and will require farmers to make a difficult decision.

Registrants will be sent (probably the night before the webinar) a PDF file with all of the power point slides. KSU will complete ACRE analysis on more states than just Kansas, and those states will be in included in the power point that will be emailed the night before the webinar. When participants register, they may want to indicate the state and crop that has the most interest for them and we will do our best to include those states. We will not have time to cover all states during the webinar but participants can ask questions or make comments about any of the crops or states. Participants will also have the analysis for all of the states that were completed in the emailed PDF file.

Rich or Alicia will be happy to respond to any questions about access, registration, or other concerns about the webinar. Their contact information is:

Rich Llewelyn, email is rvl@ksu.edu or phone (785) 532-1504.

Or Alicia Goheen, email is agoheen@ksu.edu or phone (785) 532-4434.

The link to register and pay by credit card: http://commerce.cashnet.com/KSUAGECON

If you need to register and pay with a check, contact Rich.

The website address with information about the webinar is: www.AgManager.info/events/webinars

Thank you for considering this KSU ACRE webinar.

ART

G. A. "Art" Barnaby, Jr., Ph. D.

WEB Page www.AgManager.info

email Art to be added to KSU

Risk Management List

barnaby@ksu.edu

Department of Agricultural Economics

304 Waters Hall

Kansas State University

Manhattan, KS 66506

(785) 532-1515

[1]Prepared by G. A. (Art) Barnaby, Jr., Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, K-State Research and Extension, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, July 7, 2009, Phone 785-532-1515, e-mail � barnaby@ksu.edu.