Episode 17 - Risk Management Across America: Inside the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center

In this episode, host Dr. Ahlishia Shipley launches a special series exploring the nation's four regional Extension Risk Management Education Centers with Dr. Ron Rainey, Director of the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center. Together, they discuss what makes Southern agriculture unique, how the Center is helping producers manage today's evolving risks, and why collaboration is central to delivering practical, producer-focused education. Listeners will also hear how the Center's work is strengthening farm resilience and supporting agricultural communities across the region.

Transcript

Ahlishia Shipley 0:00

Welcome to the FARM Champion Podcast. In each episode, we sit down with a FARM Champion, a trusted professional committed to helping producers navigate the business side of agriculture. If you are a farmer, rancher, or agriculture professional working to build a stronger, more resilient operation, you are in the right place. I'm Dr. Ahlishia Shipley, your host. So, listeners, we are starting a special series today where we're traveling across the country to visit each of the nation's four Extension Risk Management Education Centers and explore how each of these centers is helping producers answer important questions about risk management and building resilient, profitable operations. While every center shares the same mission of helping producers manage risk and strengthen their businesses, they each serve a unique agricultural landscape with its own opportunities and challenges. So today we're starting in the South to learn how that region is helping producers navigate these unique challenges and opportunities. So joining us today is Dr. Ron Rainey.

Dr. Ron Rainey 1:13

Good afternoon. Happy to be here and excited to talk about risk management education.

Ahlishia Shipley 1:18

Thank you. So, Dr. Ron, listeners may remember you from our very first FARM Champion episode where we introduce Ag FTAP and the FARM Champion Initiative. So today we are talking about another important role that you serve as director of the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center. So before we get into learning more about the centers and specifically the Southern Center, I really want to understand why risk management education, why is it so important for producers?

Dr. Ron Rainey 1:44

Well, if you look at especially now, the number one issue that threatens farmer survivability and resilience is profitability. And so risk management was formed back in early 2000s to help farmers manage the full range of risk management beyond federal crop insurance. So it includes federal crop insurance, but it also includes commodity marketing, marketing, finance, both the equity and financing strategies, how you manage your labor, how do you manage your production risk? So the overarching goal of risk management is to help farmers be more profitable, help them identify the best management practices, the best tools and strategies that they can use on their operations to help enhance or improve their profitability. And that's the overarching goal of why the centers were formed. And this year we celebrate our 25th year of the Extension Risk Management Education Program.

Ahlishia Shipley 2:39

Excellent. Congratulations. So for those listeners who may not be familiar with the Extension Risk Management Education Program, tell us about the program and why being structured as a region-based program works well for building risk management capacity.

Dr. Ron Rainey 2:55

Yeah, so the best way to describe Extension Risk Management Education, and we call that, as our acronym because every organization has one, ERME. It is a national program, but it is delivered regionally. So it's national in that there's four regional centers. There's a center in the South, University of Arkansas, there's a center out west at Washington State, there's a center in North Central in Nebraska, and there's a center in the Northeast at Delaware. Each center operates and is structured very similar with a director and an advisory council. Each center manages a competitive grants program that we all manage from the same RFA or call for proposals. But we differ in that each one has a unique advisory council that is specific to their region in terms of having public-private stakeholders that on their advisory council that help showcase, highlight the distinguishing features of agriculture in each region. And so each region has a different, and the region's kind of guided by their own leadership, but within their advisory council, they'll have both public and private members, members from farmers and ranch community, members from the land grant community and community-based organizations. And then possibly some linkages with some agstakeholder groups. And so those advisory council members fully understand the unique risks that farmers and ranchers in that region face. They understand the different types of agriculture that are regionally, and hopefully the things that are most important to farmers and ranchers across those specific regions. Therefore, we say that we're a national program, but we're developed and delivered regionally. Because each RFA, the only difference in our RFAs or our calls for proposals is we have regional priorities that are identified by our advisory council. And again, our advisory council serves as the evaluation panel for our proposals.

Ahlishia Shipley 4:38

Thank you for giving that overview. One of the goals of this series is to explore how agriculture varies across the country. And so when people think about agriculture in the South, what do you wish that they understand and what makes farming in the region there unique?

Dr. Ron Rainey 4:52

Yeah, so one of the things I would say about the South is the diversity of agriculture. We have a number of large-scale commercial row crop operations. We also have some farm and ranch large scale. We also have a number of small-scale, diversified, medium or small, direct marketing farmers. So we have a plethora in terms of how the farm and rancher characteristic, who that who that farm and rancher, what that farm and rancher looks like. And then also we have some unique crops, cotton, peanuts, unique to our regions, what more so. And then most of the rice is grown in the southern region. So there's some uniqueness there in terms of the crops that are grown that we try to focus in on with our advisory council representation to understand those specific sectors. But then to talk about how do we support agriculture in that space. You know, there is some climate difference. We have a lot more heat and humidity with our crops. So having the understanding of how do we operate with irrigated agriculture, how do we operate with the heat stress within the livestock sectors, those types of things or the different disease and pest pressures that we may see in the South. Having that understanding, it's important to come down to the regional level to best help those farmers and ranchers that operate in this region.

Ahlishia Shipley 6:04

Wow, that is a lot of different types of agricultural communities that you are serving. So, how does the Southern Center work to support and also develop educational programs that are relevant across such a diverse agricultural landscape?

Dr. Ron Rainey 6:20

And I think the word that I would say most important is perspective. And so to have the appropriate perspective for all of those different sectors, which means that we have to have some level of understanding and representation on our advisory council. And we've got to be intentional within our center to make sure that we're serving our entire region, recognizing those opportunities, recognizing those areas that are facing challenges and trying to be responsive in order to be relevant. So that we see a project and it could be in the organic space, we have someone that is a perspective on it. We see a project in large scale, you know, maybe an emerging crop. I'm hearing that canola is a crop that may see increased rise in the South, that we have someone who can speak to that and speak to that crop and speak to the production systems that utilize and produce those crops. So, because the other thing about ag is that you got not only the production side, you got the whole value chain of the logistics like support, getting it to market ultimately to the consumer, whether it's going through elevators and storage or going through processors, or maybe it's being shipped out to international markets. But again, we have to have an appreciation of how do we serve that entire value chain and all of those members within that value chain that represent the ag sector.

Ahlishia Shipley 7:32

So it sounds like that responsiveness and relevance is a value that you actually have operationalized.

Dr. Ron Rainey 7:39

It is an absolute value proposition. And I and I and I pride myself on trying to lead in such a way that we have the appropriate perspectives represented in our leadership teams, that we have an open-mindedness to look at all sectors of ag to represent, to make sure that we're representing all or have the opportunity to represent all. Now, now we admit we look at at the size and scope of economic impact of those various sectors. And that's where we kind of do a diversified portfolio, if you will, of making investments to support those sectors. But across the board, we're engaged in all those spaces. I like to think that we have done some wonderful innovative things in the sustainability space, as well as being innovators on commercial row crop agriculture in terms of providing technical assistance that enhances the ability of our farmers and ranchers to both understand and manage risk at their farmer ranch.

Ahlishia Shipley 8:34

Thank you. So, Dr. Ron, I'm going to throw in a wild card here. You sit in Arkansas. Arkansas had the highest number of farm bankruptcies last year. And there are other things going on in the agricultural environment, such as the emerging threat of the New World Screwworm and market uncertainty, increased production costs. So, how does the Southern Center kind of mobilize to address those issues for producers from an educational perspective?

Dr. Ron Rainey 9:02

I would say so. The second thing in addition to having the right perspective is the ability to collaborate. So we can't be all things to all people. So we're intentional on how we collaborate not only with our advisory council members, but with also partners across the region. A couple of those partners, I would say, would be the other 1862, the land grant universities across our region, both 1862 and 1890. So having the appropriate linkages within the other land grant universities. And then a step from that, we go and we engage with other colleges and universities that do education and outreach with the agriculture sector. Beyond the land grants, we try to reach out and have linkages with some major non-government organizations or community-based organizations. So if they're representing significant numbers of producers and they're impacting or have the ability to influence those producers, we try to have a relationship with them. Oftentimes we have partnerships with them. So we collaborate in a number of spaces, specifically, I would say, with the Southern Region Farm Management Committee, which are the extension agricultural economists across the South. In response to this recent challenge, we just released a publication called Surviving the Economic Downturn, which is a 25-chapter publication put together by those uh extension economists from across the region, addressing every possible issue that our farmers are facing, whether that be how does this current crisis compare to the 1980s financial crisis where we lost 15% of our farmers and ranchers. We've heard numbers as high as that for this current crisis, but we're still seeing how that plays out, driven by some different things, but mostly by high input costs, lower commodity prices, and depressed marketing options, given what's going on with our trade. But as we look at that and we look at the horizon, we release this collection of publications and we're tying those publications not just to present them and publish them, but to engage and leverage with some type of outreach. So our next step is to try to work with those faculty to do a series of webinars to where we try to do outreach and engagement across multiple means. The one reason we do this podcast is try to reach people additionally. Because our goal is that we're relevant. Our other goal is to have a value proposition that we deliver it across the board. That means deliver it across multiple means to multiple audiences, both large and small, including our consumers, because the awareness of the general consumer of what goes on in agriculture is important to agriculture.

Ahlishia Shipley 11:24

Wow, and surviving the economic downturn sounds like an incredible resource. But from what you're sharing, it seems that also partnership and collaboration is another value of the center. And what I love about what you shared is that it really operationalizes extension in terms of using that research-based knowledge and actually developing relevant, responsive resources and programming for the public.

Dr. Ron Rainey 11:50

Yeah, across our region, our tagline for the Southern Center is empowering producers to manage risk. And I use that word, I love the word empower because we don't give grants primarily to individual farmers and ranchers. We do it to educators. We do it to universities, community-based organizations, nonprofits, farmer organizations that then will go and educate the farmers and ranchers. So we're trying to fund and create training and materials like the downturn publication that impact behavior, that enhance understanding. And then we actually try to get to the point that in through our funded projects and through our capacity building efforts, we try to evaluate how those changes in understanding or perspectives result in the changed behaviors. Are they adapting new practices? Are they changing their marketing strategy? Are they changing their production plans? Do they have a better understanding of their production costs to the point that they went from a no on their financing question to a yes? And we try to go down to one, explain and make sure our farmers and ranchers understand their current environment. But then what are the tools and strategies available beyond federal crop insurance, but including federal crop insurance to help them navigate and manage andor minimize the risks that they face?

Ahlishia Shipley 13:03

Wonderful. So one of my favorite parts of these conversations is hearing what this work actually looks like on the ground. So could you share a story about a producer or a community that illustrates how the Southern Center is empowering producers and what that success looks like.

Dr. Ron Rainey 13:22

So one of the biggest success stories that I love is talking about that empowering process, is some efforts we've done in federal crop insurance. So we had a producer who said that they were having issues submitting a claim on their federal crop insurance. So in our efforts to go out, and I have a program funded that's aligned with the center that was in the crop insurance space. So one of my navigators is on a farm visit and they call and they say, hey, we're on our way out to visit. We're going to try to help you clarify and help more transport, help you understand what are the options before you. So we asked the farmer, who is your crop insurance agent? Because that's how federal crop insurance is delivered through an agent. They said that their agent was USDA Farm Service Agency. And so we said, your agent is FSA. If your agent is FSA, then that's not a federal crop insurance product. That's FSA's NAP or non-insured ag product program. And so then when we explained that, so that was to that farmer, it was revolutionary because that farmer said, I thought that was my federal crop insurance. I have no idea when we start talking about the different products that they should be exploring, like whole farm revenue or micro farm, which are the two products that would benefit that specific farm more directly. So that's one avenue is helping that light come on to help a farmer understand what are the resources and what are the true programs that are there for them. And another success would be to talk about having a farm, an urban farm out of Mississippi, talk about that they were able to successfully get whole farm revenue insurance. They had knew what the insurance program was, but they never could understand how they could make it fit within their system financially, get their records in order. But by providing the technical assistance that we're able to provide, we were able to help that farm successfully get the records to get that they were able to qualify and secure a whole farm revenue crop insurance product. And just to be clear, whole farm revenue ensures a level of income. So once they are successful in getting into that program, they're able to ensure a set or a minimal income going forward. And so the way that operates is so that operation should be able to grow their assets in a way that they can grow their income coverage, that they are not managing those risks on their individual balance sheets anymore. They've transferred it to an insurance company. And as I tell a farmer, because many farmers, when they're looking at crop insurance, they'll say, crop insurance doesn't pay. I say, well, it's not necessarily that you want it to pay. I have insurance on my car, but I'm not looking to go out and total it. I'm looking to have a risk that I could lose the use of my car covered by someone else, and I'm willing to pay that fee to transfer that risk that I no longer have to worry about that risk. Same thing with our businesses and our farms and ranches. We want them to understand and understand and what's the economic level that they should go in to get covered so that they're no longer covering those risks on their balance sheet. And to me, that's the most successful success story I could talk about is helping a farmer achieve crop insurance to date that they are now covered, not on their balance sheet anymore. And so because it's whole farm revenue, that's covering yield loss and it's also colouring price or market failure loss. So think of all the risk that they've transferred over to their product, and now they just have to go out and do their best to put in a crop. If that's unsuccessful, then they will have an okay year versus having a year where they get put out of business.

Ahlishia Shipley 16:44

Thank you for explaining those. Those definitely sound like very strong stories of empowering producers. So the Southern Center has a number of resources that are available through the center and also through its partners. How does a producer listening who may have not connected with the Southern Center or even a farmer serving professional, how do they connect with you all and explore your educational resources?

Dr. Ron Rainey 17:10

I would encourage them to look on our website and learn over the different programs through our various tools that we offer. Hopefully, you'll see us out at regional conferences that we are present at throughout the conference where we will routinely share our program postcards that have toll-free numbers that you can reach out and call and contact. But there's an 800 number for the center that you can reach out to us, reach to either the director or to me. But then we also have some alignments that you can go out and reach for some of those programs. So you can give us a call or you can find us online, or you can reach out to any of the land grant universities and ask about the ERME program, whether you're in our region or not, and someone should be able to direct you to the risk management program, ERME resources and programs, because we constantly try to engage with our land grant partners to make sure that we are a constant resource that people can rely on.

Ahlishia Shipley 18:01

Excellent. So just keeping with the resources, Dr. Ron, is there one or more resources that are favorites of yours?

Dr. Ron Rainey 18:08

I can't say a favorite of mine. To me, the my latest favorite is only because it's the latest thing that I've launched and worked on. So the thing that I love that we're working on most recently, and I'm trying to cross-pollinate all the things that I do so that we're visible to our farmers and ranchers and easy to connect with. So we're leading a national effort that's operated through our center, but it's funded by a farm service agency, the Ag FTAP program. But we have these technical assistance people that we call farm champions. And I love farm champions because of its simplicity to have meaning for farmers and ranchers. Because one of the struggles that I see is I've been doing this for 30 years, is to see farmers and ranchers that feel like somehow they're on the outside looking in. Somehow they're missing out on some of the key information or that they get that information later that's not allowing them to be as successful as they possibly can. So one of the things with Farm Champion is I'm just trying to have a simple message to our farmers and ranchers, and that is connect with the farm champion. We're trying to vet those technical assistance experts with a focus initially on our land grants, but I'm gonna go to community-based organizations, but to connect with those technical experts that are helping farmers and ranchers. And the message to our farm champions is we simply want you to create successes for our farmers and ranchers to help make them more profitable, make them more resilient. And that's one of the reasons we're doing these podcasts is to showcase the numerous ways that farm champions can help farmers be more profitable and be more resilient. And so that's what excites me is the simplicity of that, especially in a time when we're overwhelmed with information, to get trusted, credible information that can help you change your bottom line. But more importantly, we can show you how we've helped others change their bottom line as the introduction. Here's what we can do for you. And then we challenge you to take us on and to see if we can help you be more profitable. To me, that's where the rubber meets the road. That's why we exist. Because the ERME program exists to help forums be more profitable. We've leveraged a framework that I think transparently communicates so you don't get into who's funded it or what. You're like, I'm looking for a forum champion. And when you get one, we want our forum champions to shout those successes so that others can learn from it.

Ahlishia Shipley 20:22

Thank you so much, Dr. Ron. You are the ultimate FARM Champion. We thank you so much for joining us today and sharing how the Southern Risk Management Education Center is engaging, educating, and most of all empowering producers to navigate uncertainty and make informed decisions that strengthen their farms, their families, and their businesses. To connect with additional risk management education, technical assistance, and those trusted experts that Dr. Ron mentioned, those FARM champions, please visit agftap.org. Thank you for listening and don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time.