By Kay Ledbetter
Producers facing possible changes in their crop rotations due to water availability and other fluctuations in agriculture will soon have an online decision aid tool, according to DeDe Jones, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service risk management specialist in Amarillo.
The interactive risk management spreadsheet allows input from producers to assist with crop budgets, break-even prices and yields, and to help choose optimal crop mixes under limited irrigation, Jones said.
“In the face of declining water tables and falling commodity prices, we felt like there was a need to develop a tool that would allow producers to make educated decisions under risky conditions,” she said. “This spreadsheet should help them to allocate their water in a way that will maximize profits.”
The two-year project funded by the Texas Corn Producers Board is being conducted by a team of AgriLife Extension economists and a Texas A&M AgriLife Research engineer. In addition, an advisory committee of area corn farmers is providing input into the development of the decision aid.
“This tool will allow the producer to create and evaluate current dryland and irrigated crop budgets and different crop/share leasing arrangements by showing the return on investment between all parties,” Jones said. “Once the budgets are established, they can calculate breakeven prices and yields.”
And while most of those capabilities are already available through other formats, she said this new tool has an added feature, a limited-input decision calculator.
