An early meeting for any marketing club should be determining costs of production. Club members can be sent the BudPro worksheets prior to the meeting and have the majority of the information completed before the meeting. Once the meeting starts, members can then agree upon specific costs such as living expenses and machinery complements. An agreed upon cost of production can then be used to track paper or live trading positions within the club. Following the meeting, individual producers can then use this information as a baseline and adjust the numbers to reflect their own numbers.
Most economists are available to assist with the meetings.
Anyone interested in receiving more information on BudPro can contact your local county extension agent or district economist. The main focus during the past few months has been to fine tune the FARM Assist decision support system while completing the analyses for the demonstrators. The current financial crisis caused by the drought has expedited the need for FARM Assist by farmers and ranchers across the state. As a result, FARM Assist is being offered state-wide. On the risk management curriculum side, we continue to develop and distribute materials every 4-6 weeks.