RightRisk ag profiles: a playbook for managing records, insurance, and markets in Alaska

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RISK IS INHERENT to production agriculture. Farmers and ranchers face many challenges stemming from five sources – production risk, financial risk, market risk, human risk, and institutional or legal risk. Personal preferences for and tolerance of risk and strategies used to manage risk are quite individualistic. Recently, RightRisk published three Risk Management Profiles illustrating risks faced by Alaskan producers …

Beyond the Balance Sheet: Building Financial Resilience in Alaska Agriculture

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THE NATIONAL FARM ECONOMY is struggling at present, especially in the crop sector, with low crop prices and persistently high operating costs. One alarming indicator of this struggle is rising bankruptcy filings. In 2024, Chapter 12 filings increased in the U.S. by 55% over the number of filings in 2023 and this upward trend continued in the first half of 2025. While alarming, it is important to realize that this upward trend is coming from a 20-year low in 2021. It is not a time to panic but rather a time to become aware of potential problems developing . . .

Alaska Meat Processing: What Livestock Producers Need to Know

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LIVESTOCK producers in Alaska who want to sell meat products directly to consumers, restaurants, and other establishments must navigate a set of regulations designed to ensure food safety and public health. This guide provides an overview of the regulatory requirements, processing infrastructure, and logistical considerations for livestock producers developing a direct-to-consumer meat business in Alaska . . .

Crop Insurance Programs for Alaska Producers

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ALASKA is home to 1,173 farms on 869,852 acres, resulting in an average farm size of 742 acres. However, only 72,708 acres are considered cropland and, according to the 2022 Ag Census, only 36,211 acres are harvested cropland with 2,398 acres of it irrigated. Crop insurance is not widely used in Alaska . . .

Roundtable Issues Across Alaska Agriculture

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RIGHTRISK professionals conducted four educational Roundtables throughout Alaska – Delta Junction, Fairbanks, Soldotna, and Palmer – in January 2023. RightRisk collaborated with Alaska Farm Bureau, Alaska’s soil and water conservation districts, and University of Alaska-Fairbanks Cooperative Extension to encourage producers to participate in the Roundtables . . .

This is the time of year when farmers are reviewing their finances.

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FARMERS OFTEN summarize their accounting data at year’s end in preparation for delivery to their tax preparers. They also update their balance sheets and compute true profits earned last year . Successful farmers should also be develop plans for the coming year. A financial plan for a farm business is called a cash flow budget . . .

ALASKA IS THE LARGEST STATE by area; however, only about 850,000 acres are farmed.

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FARM OPERATORS IN ALASKA focus on producing cattle, hay, barley, and floriculture. Over 700,000 of the agricultural acres in the state are classified as pasture and rangeland. In this newsletter, we highlight crop insurance programs available to Alaska producers of agricultural products, where they are available and the use of those programs over the last five to six years. We also describe the Whole Farm Revenue Protection program available throughout Alaska along with the new Micro Farm program . . .

PRODUCTION agriculture is a rough business. Profit margins are razor thin for many commodities, input costs continue to climb, markets are unstable, and the potential for failure seems to be increasing.

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Drafting a solid risk management plan to help manage risk exposure and account for uncertainty is imperative. Planning should include partial budgets for alternative strategies. Partial budgeting comes in many forms and is a method often used to evaluate potential changes to an enterprise. This change could include anything from a cropping change, keeping extra breeding livestock, or a capital purchase.
   RightRisk.org has developed a Risk Scenario Planning (RSP) tool and companion RSP course to help identify sources of business risk and uncertainty, as well as learn how to use the RSP tool to manage the risk. The RSP course has three primary modules, including four case studies highlighting how the RSP tool can be used in the partial budgeting process . . .