This is a three-session series of workshops - January 14, February 11, and March 11. Participants are required to attend all three workshops.

Many farmers are looking toward the 2014 spring planting season with renewed optimism. This year, farmers endured record rainfall during late spring and summer, which flooded fields and damaged crops causing profits to decrease. One question these farmers will be asking this upcoming year is how they can better manage risk. Risk has always been a part of agriculture, but farming in America has changed drastically over the past few years. Increasingly, farmers are learning that it is now a game with new risks. The most successful farmers are now looking at a deliberate and knowledgeable approach to risk management as a vital part of their plan. For them, risk management means farming in a more rapidly changing world. It is the ability to deal with risks that comes with new farming opportunities. Farmers generally deal with five types of risks. They are:

1. Production
2. Marketing
3. Financial
4. Legal Issues
5. Human Resource Issues

Farmers will have the opportunity to learn more about these risks and develop their personal risk management plan by attending a series of Risk Management Workshops. The objective of these workshops is to teach farmers how to understand and implement farm business planning principles for successful risk management decision-making. By attending these workshops, farmers can learn about new risk management tools and services along with those already established. With these tools, local farmers can build the confidence they need to deal with both the risks and the exciting opportunities for the future.

Preregistration is required to participate and participants are required to attend all three workshops. Please register early as space is limited to 35 participants. Travel to the workshops will be reimbursed and lunch will be provided.

The deadline for registration is January 7.

Location: O. P. Owens Agriculture Center

Contact: Nelson Brownlee (Nelson_Brownlee@ncsu.edu)