Picture and content: Arkansas Cattlemen's Association

Weather

This week was a messy one for sure. Cool weather and rain made it kind of nasty out. Tomorrow we could see storms and then another chance of winter precipitation is in the forecast for middle of the week. The forecast isn't clear just yet, but it is looking like we will get some snow out of the system.

Arkansas and Mississippi River

Crop Insurance Decision Maker Tool

Dr. Hunter D. Biram, Assistant Professor and Extension Economist, University of Arkansas

Crop Insurance Decision-Maker 2025 is a free web-based decision tool provides expected revenues net of costs under various risk management strategies. The user may compare if crop insurance is "worth it" by seeing which risk management strategy results in the highest expected net revenue. Scenarios are provided for Yield Protection (YP), Revenue Protection (RP), and Revenue Protection - Harvest Price Exclusion (RP-HPE) across all eight available coverage levels (50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, and 85%). The user can compare the expected net revenues across all these scenarios to one scenario in which no insurance is purchased. In most instances, the best (or optimal) strategy is to buy at least some level of crop insurance. More specifically, the best coverage level tends to be in the 75% to 85% range.

You will notice that there is a set of "Risk Neutral" and a set of "Risk Averse" results. The "Risk Neutral" results do not account for a user's risk preferences which means the user is not at all concerned about drought, excess rainfall, pest pressure, or any other risk which may drive down yields and/or prices. They are only concerned about maximizing profit with no concern about risk. The "Risk Averse" results account for risk preferences and will always be below the "Risk Neutral" results. That is because we model someone who is willing to accept a dollar amount less than the expected amount with certainty rather than take on the risk and not be guaranteed a level of revenue net of cost. We essentially model the "peace of mind" that is purchased with crop insurance.

Since most farmers tend to be risk averse, I generally suggest following the "Risk Averse" results. I note that the optimal level under both scenarios tends to be the same but the level of net revenue is different since the "Risk Averse" user is willing to accept a lower dollar amount with certainty. The lower dollar amount reflects the expected net revenue that includes an insurance premium. The "Risk Neutral" results do not have an insurance premium in the cost of production.

For more details on the crop insurance products, themselves, I would recommend the following resource we have developed:

Wheat

The big rains came again this week. Most of the fields I looked at mid week were draining okay, but you could see the holes and low areas as water was standing. Hopefully this water will drain on off and we will dry up soon.

Some small amounts of fertilizer went out last Saturday to get growth kicked off. We need to be ready to pull the trigger on another shot of fertilizer as soon as it dries up.

River Valley Rice Meeting

The River Valley Rice Meeting will be held on March 4, 2025 at Brown's Catfish Restaurant in Russellville.

KOMA Beef Conference Postponed

Due to inclement weather, the KOMA Beef Cattle Conference scheduled for February 19th has been postponed. We understand the inconvenience this may cause, but the safety of our attendees and participants is our top priority. The conference will be rescheduled for later in the spring.

Little Red River Beef & Forage Conference

The Little Red River Beef & Forage Conference is still scheduled for next Friday in Heber Springs. If you are interested in going, please register by calling the Cleburne County Extension Office at 501-362-2524.

Here is the tentative agenda:

9:00 am – Registration

9:30 am -Welcome – Amy Heck

9:35 am – Sustainable Ag Practices for Your Ranch – Tyler Caston

10:00 am – Electronic Animal ID Program – AR Department of Agriculture

10:20 Break

10:35 am – Pasture Pest Control – Amy, Michelle, and Brian

11:05 am – Livestock Market Report - Dr. James Mitchell – Extension Livestock Economist

11:45 Lunch

12:30 pm – Hay Verification Program – Danny Griffin and James Reed

1:00 pm – Managing Farm to Table Freezer Beef Program – Kevin Lawson

1:30 pm – Calibration and Technology in Agriculture – Jason Davis

Using Cool-Season Annual Grasses for Hay and Silage

Cool-season annual grasses, like annual ryegrass, are routinely planted for forage for livestock. Dr. Jonathan Kubesch recently updated some recommendations on planting cool-season grasses for forage. Check out the updated factsheet here:

Tall Fescue Toxicosis in Sheep and Goats Webinar

By Dr. Dan Quadros UA Division of Agriculture Small Ruminant Specialist

Webinar on February 26 about “Tall Fescue Toxicosis in Sheep and Goats”. The webinar, organized by the University of Missouri, will be from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. CT, no cost, but registration is required by clicking here:

Livestock Market Report

The weekly livestock market report is available on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture website.

Pesticide Applicator Trainings

This is the Pesticide Applicator Training Schedule for Faulkner, Perry and Conway County.

Cost for the certification training is $20 that is payable at the training. It is a good idea to call and register for the class or if you have any questions, feel free to call and ask. Office numbers are located below. Anyone can go to any of these trainings. You don't have to just go in your county.

Faulkner County call and talk to Mindy Beard at the office at 501-329-8344 or email at rbeard@uada.edu

Perry County - 501-889-2661

Conway County - 501-977-2146

You can also get certified online. It also costs $20. The link to the online training is listed below.

Sign up for Text Alerts

You can now sign up for text alerts from me throughout the year. I have two areas you can sign up for which includes Faulkner Livestock or Faulkner Ag (Row Crop Updates). To sign up you can follow one of these links or use the QR Codes below.

February 21 - Little Red River Beef Conference - Heber Springs

March 4 - River Valley Rice Meeting - Brown's Catfish Russellville