Farmers around Illinois who are interested in receiving a “check-up” on their risk management plans are invited to attend one of three upcoming meetings, sponsored by AgriVisor and COUNTRY Financial.
The meetings will be held on January 31 at the Holiday Inn in Mt. Vernon, Ill.; February 1 at the Northfield Suites in Springfield, Ill.; and February 2 at University Plaza in DeKalb, Ill. All meetings begin at 5:00 pm and include a ribeye dinner. Cost is $19 per person. A drawing for an iPad will also be held at each location.
“The meetings will be a ‘one-stop shop’ where farmers can learn about many key factors that may affect their risk management plans in 2012,” said Clayton Pope, manager, AgriVisor, LLC. “Today’s markets are so volatile; our goal with these meetings is to provide farmers with specific tools to help them reduce their risk to enhance the prospects for a successful growing season.”
Each will include a weather outlook from Mike Tannura, owner of T-storm Weather; an economic outlook by Kurt Bock, COUNTRY Financial chief executive officer; and grain market insights from Dale Durchholz, AgriVisor senior commodities market analyst. The Mt. Vernon meeting will have political insights from U.S. Representative John Shimkus’s office; Springfield’s political insight will come from U.S. Representative Tim Johnson’s office; and U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren’s office will speak at the DeKalb meeting.
Pope also stressed farmers have a key component to manage risk on their operation: crop insurance. “The federal crop insurance deadline this year is March 15 ,” he said. “Now is the time to make critical decisions. There are tremendous risk management opportunities available from the use of crop insurance products. AgriVisor wants to teach farmers how to effectively take advantage of those opportunities.”
Registration closes January 23. Call your local COUNTRY financial representative, county Farm Bureau office, or visit www.agrivisor.com for more information and to register.