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Agriculture is a risky business - that much is obvious - yet many growers don't regularly assess or plan for risk. This information will help you fill knowledge gaps, so you can effectively manage risks and take advantage of opportunities.
See also: Managing Risk Production Risk Financial Risk Human Risk Legal Risk Anything that leads to uncertainty about costs, prices and demand for your product. Marketing risk derives from price risk, product quality, and market availability.
This publication, by Karen Klonsky at the UC Small Farm Program, walks you through the documents you might need to obtain a farm loan, suggests questions to ask the lender and questions a lender may ask, and provides definitions of terms you will need to know to analyze your financial situation.
No matter what kind of operation you run, writing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the farm chores you do can help you avoid and manage risk and improve the efficiency of your operation.
See also: Managing Risk Marketing Risk Financial Risk Human Risk Legal Risk Anything that directly affects the quantity and quality of your production or causes variation in expected yield. If you've been farming for even a little while, you are probably well-versed with production risk.
See also: Managing Risk Production Risk Marketing Risk Human Risk Legal Risk Arises from the cost of debt capital, cash flow needs, and the ability to maintain and grow equity.
See also: Managing Risk Production Risk Marketing Risk Financial Risk Human Risk Legal risk stems from tort liability - being subject to a civil suit - which is of particular concern to direct marketers.
See also: Managing Risk Production Risk Marketing Risk Financial Risk Legal Risk If there are humans on or near your farm, you have human risks to contend with. Human risks arise from the four Ds: disagreement, divorce, death, or disability of an essential owner, manager, or employee.
County departments, farm bureaus, land acquisition and preservation and natural resources agencies, producer associations, UC Cooperative Extension, and more.
