Federal crop insurance products have been available to farmers in the United States for 80 years. Beginning in the early 1990s, the range of products offered by the USDA Risk Management Agency expanded, and today farmers have access to federal crop insurance for most of the crops they grow. Currently, nationally farmers can obtain insurance for over 140 crops and forages. Over the past several years, coverage has become widely available for crops produced under organic practices at price elections based on prices that reflect organic premiums.

Wyoming farmers, especially new and beginning farmers, need to understand these features and the information they will need to obtain federal crop insurance coverage.

“An Introduction to Federal Crop Insurance Products for New and Beginning Wyoming Farmers and Ranchers,” covers the following topics for crop and livestock operators in Wyoming:
1. An overview of which types of crop insurance are currently purchased by Wyoming farmers;
2. A decision criteria farmers may want to use in making their decisions about crop insurance;
3. The “units” issues farmers must address in determining whether or not to insure crops on the farm under a single APH contract or multiple contracts;
4. The process for establishing actual production histories on each insured unit;
5. Yield and revenue insurance options, with examples of how a producer’s premium costs, premium subsidies and indemnities may differ under yield and revenue insurance;
6. Other insurance options for crops, including GRP and whole farm insurance products;
7. Options that may be available to manage risk for crops not covered by federal crop insurance in a county; and
8. Insurance options applicable to livestock producers available through RMA, including the Pasture, Rangeland Forage (PRF) vegetation index product.

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The pace of farm lending at commercial banks in the third quarter largely was unchanged from a year ago. Survey data indicate the volume of non-real estate farm loans originated in the third quarter increased about 2 percent from the previous year. The slight increase followed a similar year-over-year increase in the second quarter after sharp declines in lending activity the previous two quarters.

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Leasing or renting pasture or forage is commonplace for many livestock producers across the West and is often an integral part of an operation. While there are many types of arrangements used, establishing a fair and equitable agreement for both parties involved can be a challenge at times. The Forage Risk Analyzer (FRA) tool, from RightRisk.org, is a spreadsheet-based tool designed to help a single or multiple parties (up to six) understand the full value of everything involved in a potential lease and formulate a more fair and equitable agreement. The tool divides contributions into six resource categories including: land, livestock, housing, stored feed, labor, and machinery. The user can allocate estimated costs and returns for up to six lease participants, after entering the basic information into the tool; the tool generates an allocation summary and performs net return and risk analysis based on the information submitted.

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Machinery and equipment is often one of the largest expense categories for a farm or ranch operation. Many producers do not know their machinery and equipment cost for a given activity.The Machine Risk Calculator (MRC) from RightRisk.org can help producers estimate rates for custom filed operations and individual machinery costs. The tool will also estimate the risk sensitivity of those costs to changes in various factors. The MRC uses a comprehensive list of related expenses to calculate an overall cost, including expected life (years), repairs, depreciation, housing, insurance, taxes, and annual use (hours).

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Barley is an important crop in Wyoming that may be raised as animal feed or for malting. Different varieties are typically used for feed barley and malt barley and malting barley yields are generally lower than feed barley yields. Some farmers may choose to raise organic barley to serve the needs of niche markets. Insurance products offered by the USDA Risk Management Agency are available for feed barley, malting barley (through a malting barley endorsement), and organic barley. These products are the focus of this briefing paper.

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Farm sector profitability measures forecast for 2017 range from nearly flat to declining. Net cash farm income, one measure of profitability, is forecast at $93.5 billion ($82.2 billion after adjusting for inflation) for 2017, up 1.8 percent compared to the 2016 forecast. Net farm income, a broader measure of profitability because it includes noncash values such as inventory flows and economic depreciation, is forecast at $62.3 billion ($54.8 billion after adjusting for inflation) for 2017, down 8.7 percent compared to 2016.

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The Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts. It characterizes regional economic conditions and prospects based on a variety of mostly qualitative information, gathered directly from District sources.

The most recent Beige Book provides a brief summary of the Agriculture Sector in Western States.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the availability of a streamlined version of USDA guaranteed loans, which are tailored for smaller scale farms and urban producers. The program, called EZ Guarantee Loans, uses a simplified application process to help beginning, small, underserved and family farmers and ranchers apply for loans of up to $100,000 from USDA-approved lenders to purchase farmland or finance agricultural operations.

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The Multi-Temporal Risk Analyzer (MTRA) Tool was designed to provide economic analysis of multi-year management strategies and decisions involving risk. Examples include investment decisions, changes in production practices, adding and subtracting enterprises, and other decisions that involve multiple years to come to fruition or a multi-year commitment in order to see a positive economic return.

The MTRA tool is unique in that it is specifically designed to analyze risk and uncertainty over a number of years. This is usually accomplished for these types of investment decisions or decisions involving significant management changes by adjusting the time value of money (i.e. interest rate) to include risk or by using conservative estimates for expected returns to account for uncertainty. However, in many cases, these are difficult tasks to accomplish with accuracy or appropriately given the true nature of the uncertainty.

The MTRA tool allows the user to input the decision or proposed change in a partial budget template, where expected positive inflows (increased returns and/or decreased costs) are netted-out against expected negative outflows (decreased returns and/or additional costs). These individual inflows and outflows can be turned on and off over the course of 20 years to reflect long term expectations.

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USDA organic regulations describe organic agriculture as the application of a set of cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that support the recycling of on-farm resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity.

These practices include maintaining and enhancing soil and water quality; conserving wetlands and wildlife; and avoiding use of synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering.

The major focus of this bulletin is on crops and livestock, in the category of organic products for which USDA Risk Management Agency insurance products and USDA Farm Service Agency programs may be available to address production, price and revenue risks and losses from natural catastrophic disasters.

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