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Preliminary characteristics of risk management of small ruminant farmers in Missouri

Homero Salinas, Jesus Ramos, Fabiola Rojas, and Kathleen Liang

Summary

Small ruminant farmers confront risks in production management and marketing. This exploratory study seeks to understand farmers' knowledge about the functioning of their animal production system, the strategic planning to improve it, and the risks they confront within agro-industrial processes. A survey with 44 questions was applied to 62 farmers in 2022. The study considered six aspects: Strategic planning (SP), Financial statements (FS), Production risk (PR), Agricultural and livestock insurance (ALI), Growth Innovation (GI), and Marketing (MA). Target farmers had farming mix-systems with a mean of practicing with goats (68%), sheep (48%), chicken (48%), cattle (40%), and other livestock (23%), and 15% of them with cropping activities. Fifty-eight percent of farmers know about FS, and 45% practice GI. In contrast, only 17% know and implement any ALI, 27% know MA, and 29% on SP. It was found that farmers who raise chickens are more diversified 27% of them grow crops. The all-average farmers’ main concerns on risks were a) severe drought, b) goat and sheep price variability, c) variation in non-feed input prices, d) hay price variability, e) animal diseases, and f) actual availability of slaughtering facilities. This information contributes to the framework for building an educational program on risk management for small ruminant farmers in Missouri.

Details

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