Special Report

New website helps farmers manage risk

When commodity prices were at record highs, Rosalind Leeck, director of grain marketing for the Indiana Soybean Alliance says the state’s farmer leaders recognized that those prices weren’t going to be around forever.  For that reason, she says the board wanted to provide growers a way to determine and manage risk.

The Indiana Soybean Alliance and Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture partnered to launch the Farm Risk Resources website.  “We’ve made most of the information available online so they can do self-tutorials,” she says.  “They can do some self-analysis.  All understanding when they need to start managing it’s going to take a deeper dive – at which point they would need to engage professionals.  But this at least gives them some places they need to work.”

Leeck tells Brownfield so much of risk management focuses on marketing risk.  “This doesn’t really focus on marketing risk,” she says.  “This focuses on those long-term business risks that people are exposed to.  It talks about relationships.  It talks about business structure and diversification.  All these different things that may not be front of mind for a farmer.”

She says the website is beneficial to farmers across the country. A link to the website can be found HERE.