Education, Training and Outreach on Risk Education

Project Overview

EW03-011
Project Type: Professional Development Program
Funds awarded in 2003: $99,600.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2006
Matching Non-Federal Funds: $17,000.00
Region: Western
State: Colorado
Principal Investigator:
Doug Hoag
CSU

Annual Reports

Commodities

  • Animals: bovine

Practices

  • Animal Production: grazing - rotational
  • Farm Business Management: whole farm planning

    Abstract:

    Project Summary: Risk management is difficult to teach because the breadth of problems and solutions are great. This project developed an educational program based on a simulation called RightRisk (rightrisk.org). RightRisk provides farmers and ranchers a chance to manage risk in hands-on, realistic scenarios that won’t leave them broke if they make mistakes. We developed six new scenarios, with complementary educational materials, trained Extension specialists in six states, and presented over 135 workshops for over 2,000 farmers and ranchers. Our website experienced 6,000 hits/month from 13 countries and 35 US states, with 65 of users logging on for over 5 minutes.

    Project objectives:

    The goal of this project, or overarching objective, is:
    To build a unique, innovative, and effective risk education program for farmers and ranchers and to train extension personnel in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona how to use it.

    Objective 1: Build an active, hands-on, applied, and realistic learning tool / program to teach risk management. This program will include (1.1) a field version of RightRisk, (1.2) an internet site with many scenarios to play in RightRisk (e.g. crops, livestock, prices, yields, pests, different locations), (1.3) a written, scripted educational program to accompany the field education program, and (1.4) written educational materials to accompany the program.

    Objective 2: Train agricultural educators how to use the educational program built in objective 1. A central base will be in Wyoming, and integrated with the Western Risk Management Library, the Western Livestock Risk and Education Coalition (the current team of cooperators in the six states) and the newly formed Western Center for Risk Management Education. The central base will house the website and educational materials. Programs in the six states will be delivered to Cooperative Extension educators, lenders, Farm Service Agency, and crop and livestock insurance professionals that can in turn offer training to farmers, ranchers, absentee landowners, and other clients.

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.