AgTools for Managing Risk in Specialty Crops

This website is a resource for agricultural producers who manage the financial, marketing, production, and human resource risks associated with agriculture. Producers of high-valued crops often make large up-front investments in hopes of gaining sufficient returns in the future to cover their establishment costs and make a reasonable return on their investment. Producers who misjudge the costs and potential returns of such an investment may find themselves in serious financial difficulty. Global competition, labor costs, labor availability, and narrowing profit margins increase growers' risks when establishing and producing agricultural crops. Adequate compensation for these risks can come to those who have the needed information, develop cropping and marketing strategies, and perform sensitivity analyses on each of these strategies before implementing a decision. The following decision-

A Grower's Technology Economic Assessment Model (TEAM) is a computer program designed to assist agricultural producers make long-run decisions when implementing technologies to a specific crop or cropping systems. TEAM estimates machinery, building, labor, and production input costs as well as fruit size, grade, and total yield for calculating returns for crops with multiple establishment and production years. The program allows the user to inflate specific return and input cost items over time to analyze the net present value, internal rate of return, and financial feasibility when implementing a particular technology, making minor changes to returns or input costs, or comparing cropping systems.making tools aim to help agricultural crop producers make better decisions to manage those risks.

Budget Editor is a computer program used for creating and editing budget files, as well as initially loading budgets provided with the program to be used by CPA or ECL. Budget Editor acts as the base program from which CPA and ECL work. Program installation instructions (pdf)

The Crop Profitability Analysis (CPA) computer program is a Windows-based program designed to help agricultural producers make long-run cropping decisions. CPA uses previously generated enterprise budgets to establish a base from which producers can analyze the potential profitability of perennial crops with establishment periods (such as orchards), or the feasibility of long-term crop rotations. CPA also analyzes the financial feasibility of potential investments by generating annual net cash flows.Program installation instructions (pdf)

The Equitable Crop Lease (ECL) Program is designed to assist growers and landowners establish equitable crop lease agreements. With ECL a user can easily comprehend and evaluate the potential risks associated with annual and long-term leases, reevaluate current leases, and change cropping systems. As with the CPA program, you can analyze potential data one or several years into the future, reducing financial risk and ensuring the highest level of preparedness that a user could possibly expect in such a volatile market. Program installation instructions (pdf)

Growers' Stories: Managing Financial Risk with CPA and ECL (DVD) Learn how growers used Crop Profitability Analysis and Equitable Crop Lease software (above) to help them make critical management decisions. On a case-by-case basis, the moderator reviews the seven grower situations and shares the results of each analysis. In the CPA segment, learn how growers used the program to help them make decisions about renewing an orchard, adding value to an existing crop, developing a business plan, and grafting over to new varieties.  And in the ECL segment, discover the program's value in establishing a new orchard with a 32-year lease, leasing a mature orchard, and renegotiating an existing lease.