CAS presenters Shylea Wingard and John Mangus have recently worked to deliver risk management information to beginning producers in New Hampshire. CAS worked with New Hampshire FFA State Coordinator Maria VanderWoude to schedule and present the informational program to local vocational agriculture programs. Directing the presentation to horticulture and agriculture-focused students, CAS presenters introduced attendees to basic risk management principles and explained the operation and benefits of crop insurance programs offered to New Hampshire producers.

To illustrate the challenges of managing risk and the role of Federal Crop Insurance Programs in agricultural risk management, attendees participated in an interactive learning simulation that illustrated uncertainty and risk in a simulated New Hampshire nursery operation. The outcomes of the game varied by student depending on uncontrollable chance and the risks chosen by a given student over a simulated six-year period. Attending producers’ agricultural experience and interests spanned a range of production agriculture fields.