Conferences
Marketing and Insurance Tools for Alabama Cattle Producers
Calen Monroe and Wendiam Sawadgo
Summary
Insurance available to livestock producers is used at a significantly lower rate than its row-crop counterparts' insurance. For example, Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) covers only 5% of the cattle in Alabama. Therefore, the objective of our program is to increase producer profitability by providing livestock and forage producers with the knowledge to increase the adoption of under-utilized risk management insurance tools and explore new marketing opportunities. Our overall goal is to educate 160 Alabama Cattle Producers over eight meetings. In the fall series alone, we were able to reach sixty-four producers over four meetings. A big focus of this grant has been to reach producers underserved by crop insurance in addition to beginning farmers. This programming uses a two-part workshop series: one that has already been offered in the Fall of 2024, and one provided in the Spring of 2025. The Fall series included an introduction to national and Alabama cattle markets, information on what characteristics stocker cattle buyers look for, and marketing risk management strategies available to cattle operations. In the second series of workshops, we plan to focus on more in-depth basics of risk management such as how LRP applies to specific operations, as well as information on the benefits of direct-to-consumer beef marketing. It is important for beginning farmers and ranchers to consider risk-management options to inform decisions on their operations. With the programming provided by this grant, we can help cattle producers manage marketing risk and help other Extension educators create similar programming in other states.
Details
| Conference | 2025 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference |
| Presentation Type | Poster |