Brad Lubben (left), director of the North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center, recognizes Center for Agricultural Profitability faculty members Glennis McClure and Cory Walters with the 2023 Outstanding Project Award for the North Central Region at the Extension Risk Management Education national conference, held March 27-29 in Chicago.
The North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center announced that project director Glennis McClure and co-director Cory Walters were awarded the 2023 Outstanding Project Award for the North Central region at the recent Extension Risk Management Education national conference that took place in Chicago.
McClure is a farm and ranch management analyst and Walters is an associate professor of agricultural economics. Both are with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Agricultural Profitability.
The project, "Farm Survival, Understanding the Role of Risk Exposure in Financial Decision Making," focused on creating a module for the new Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) program to assist producers with crop insurance scenarios and risk management decisions from crop enterprise budgets. The risk module, along with cost of production and projected annual return information provided by the program, has helped with critical information as producers have faced a rise and fluctuations in input costs along with increased financial risks in the current economic climate. The program's impact is shown by the growth rate of program users, with expectations of further growth as education on the ABC program continues and new features are added, including livestock enterprise budgeting.
To read a synopsis of the project, head to the The North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center website: ERME Outstanding Project Winner 2023, North Central Region.
"It’s an honor to receive the Regional ERME award for our work on the Risk Module and continued development of the Agricultural Budget Calculator (ABC) program," McClure said. "Producers, educators, students, and ag professionals that have taken the time to learn and use the program for enterprise budgeting are discovering the risk management and decision-making features included in ABC. It’s proving to be a worthwhile user-friendly resource."
The development team for the program also included Jay Parsons, Larry Van Tassell and Jeremy Eide, all from the Department of Agricultural Economics at Nebraska.