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risk

Farm Absorption Capacity and Producer Sentiment

If crop prices slip or input costs climb, how much room does your farm have to adjust? Use a three-question scorecard to assess your fixed costs per unit, enterprise mix and balance sheet. Then see how your score compares with responses from 400 producers in the October 2026 Ag Economy Barometer survey.

ARC/PLC 2026: Making Your Crop Risk Management Decision

Compare PLC, ARC-CO and ARC-IC before making your 2026 farm program election. Join Purdue’s Michael Langemeier November 16 for a free webinar covering the pros and cons of each option, with time for Q&A.

Financial Stress, Labor Decisions, and Farm Resilience: Tools to Evaluate Your Operation

Adding a family member or employee to a farm is a long-term financial decision. These slides and self-assessment tools help evaluate financial feasibility, strategic risk, and business resilience before expanding labor.

Financial Stress on Crop Farms: Who Is Most at Risk in the 2024–26 Downturn?

Midwest crop producers have experienced a significant downturn in corn, soybean, and wheat prices since late 2023, resulting in a drop in net returns in 2024. Moreover, current expectations are that prices will continue to remain at or below the cost of production for at least a couple more years. Consequently, a key question being asked is as follows: “Who is the most vulnerable financially during this downturn”?

Adoption of Conservation Practices and Farm Goals

How do farm goals shape conservation decisions? This analysis draws on a nationwide survey of 400 producers to explore how priorities like profitability, risk, and sustainability impact the adoption of practices like no-till, cover crops, and crop diversification. Farmers who rank conservation as a top goal are significantly more likely to implement these practices—offering a window into what drives long-term thinking in farm management.

Managing Strategic Risks on Your Farm

Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture recorded a series of short podcasts and accompanying videos to help agricultural producers improve their strategic risk management skills. Farms are exposed to strategic risks that are caused by a wide variety of unanticipated shocks to the operating environment ranging from government policy shifts to disease outbreaks.

Key Resources

Advancements in production agriculture continue to accelerate making the business environment more complex and creating a significant need for a forward-thinking mindset. Develop an integrated risk management approach and build a strategic plan now.

Farm Resilience, Management Practices, and Producer Sentiment: Segmenting U.S. Farms Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Margaret Lippsmeyer, Michael Langemeier, James Mintert, and Nathan Thompson segment U.S. farms by farm resilience, management practices, and producer sentiment. This paper was presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia in February. 

Positioning Your Farm for Long-Term Success | Commodity Classic 2024

The list of risks U.S. farmers face is long, ranging from market volatility and supply chain disruptions to erratic weather. Preparing for it all can be overwhelming and seem impossible at times. Being successful in the long run requires sorting out risks and developing strategies to manage and mitigate them. Purdue ag economists James Mintert, Michael Langemeier, & Brady Brewer shared ways in which successful farms manage strategic risks live from Houston, Texas at the 2024 Commodity Classic Learning Center Session on February 29, 2024.

Farm Agility, Resilience & Strategic Risk

Purdue ag economists Brady Brewer, Michael Langemeier and Margaret Lippsmeyer discuss the importance of strategic risk management and the factors that contribute to a farm’s resilience In this episode of the Purdue Commercial AgCast.