Farmdoc:  Risk Assessment Tools on the Web

Gary Schnitkey, Paul Ellinger, and Scott Irwin
Associate Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu
217 244-9595

Farmdoc is an award-winning web site that provides Illinois farmers with information for improving decision-making under risk.  On farmdoc, there are a number of risk assessment tools.  The crop insurance section contains a Premium Calculator and an Insurance Evaluator that are useful in evaluating crop insurance decisions.  The FAST section contains downloadable Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that address a broad array of financial and managerial decisions. One of the spreadsheets evaluates returns and risks associated with alternative farmland leases.  Another spreadsheet evaluates risks and returns from alternative marketing and crop insurance products.  With these tools, farmers can objectively evaluate the risks that they face.