The following article appear in the Agriculture News Section of the Oklahoma Farm Report on Monday September 24, 2012:
Apache Farmers Co-op finance manager Davey Jones has been studying the agricultural finance landscape for a long time. What he’s learned over the years has allowed his co-op to create a bundle of risk-management tools and services they are preparing to offer their members. If they benefit the membership of the co-op, Jones says they may be coming to a co-op near you.
Radio Oklahoma Network’s Farm News Director, Ron Hays, recently spoke with Jones about the evolution of their risk management process and what it offers producers. Jones says the project has developed organically as the needs of producers has developed.
“It’s been a process as agriculture has changed and as, specifically, the input costs in agriculture have changed. It’s become a much riskier way of life. As we’ve watched that unfold, we’ve noticed that there are certain things that, looking backwards, if our producers had taken certain steps, then they really could have negated a lot of the negative consequences of these risks when they do play out to their disadvantage.
“So, we began to look at some things, as a co-op, that we might do, services we might provide that would help them plan ahead and manage those risks a little better.
“So, about two-and-a-half years ago, we began to kind of put together the pieces of the puzzle as droughts and price volatility of both inputs and the crops and livestock that we market became more erratic. As they became more erratic, it really seemed to pick up the pace of the need to make that come to fruition a little quicker. [Read more…] about Apache Farmer’s Coop Readies New Risk Management Services For Roll Out