Farmers are also facing several challenges, including increased global competition, which has driven commodity prices down. In Arkansas, farmers have also faced drought and lowered yields. To help farmers deal with these challenges, Extension and Arkansas State University have created the Arkansas Risk Management Education Program. It helps producers in 27 eastern Arkansas row-crop counties evaluate their financial situation and identify strategies to improve farm finances. Besides Surrette, the program has James Marshall at extension headquarters in Little Rock and Scott Stiles at ASU in Jonesboro.
Farmers have no shortage of questions to ask the risk management specialists.
They want to know if it s feasible for their son to take over the farm, if it s an economically sound practice to expand acreage, if they should buy or lease a center pivot irrigation or if they should level their land. Surrette said farmers are going to have to become more precise managers and gain more control over costs. He has shown several farmers how to set up and use a computerized records keeping program. He said farmers used to keep receipts and other records on the dashboard of their truck or in a shoebox. With a computerized program such as Quicken, they can keep up with their finances better and use it to produce valuable reports.