Many farmers and ranchers are about as eager to get into risk management as young people are to date someone with bad breath or severe body odor.
Risk is a constant and as farming and ranching have become more complex, so have the risks.
No one can make risk go away, but it can be managed. And that's an important key to survival in these difficult economic times. A couple of years ago Farm Futures magazine surveyed farmers' attitudes about risk management. At that time only about 5 percent of the magazine's readers were using tools available to them to manage risk. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency lists four reasons why farmers and ranchers are reluctant to manage their risks.