See event listings and more articles in this edition of Agri-News: April 3, 2023 issue
“This is the time of the year to be finalizing 2023 crop plans,” says Emmanuel Anum Laate, senior crop economist with the Alberta government. “With many crops to choose from based on soil fertility, moisture, prices and margins, planning is important.”
CropChoice$ can help producers answer 4 key questions:
- Which crops should I grow?
- How many acres of each crop?
- Will I make money by growing these crops?
- What are my risks associated with growing these crops?
CropChoice$ helps users adjust their individual crop costs and evaluate various risk management strategies such as changing the crop mix, buying crop insurance, and negotiating land rental agreements. It calculates the expected margins for different cropping scenarios as well as the probabilities of achieving those results.
The latest edition features current crop insurance options, including updated risk coverage levels from Alberta Financial Services Corporation (AFSC). It also includes projected crop costs covering up to 40 dryland and irrigated crops depending on location.
“CropChoice$ recognizes that future crop yields and prices cannot be known precisely,” Laate explains. “To reflect this, users enter worst, best and most likely values for yields and prices. Varying yield and price information based on individual expectations will give a clearer and more accurate forecast than traditional linear budgets.”
He adds that the user’s inputs for expected prices and yields in CropChoice$ help forecast potential gross margins and profitability expectations for several crop plans.
“It is a very easy program to set up and use, and the manual itself is an excellent resource for understanding the program. Once it is downloaded, double click on the icon, choose ‘start’ from the welcome screen and get ready to create and compare crop plans.”
These updates support Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation’s commitment of risk management decision tools for the crop industry.
Download the free CropChoice$ program.
Contact
Connect with Emmanuel Anum Laate for more information:
Phone: 780-422-4054
Email: [email protected]
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