Evaluation of risk management alternatives for indiana grain producers

Crop insurance and pre-harvest pricing strategies were analyzed for “all years” and “years following a normal crop year” scenarios for the 1986 through 2001 period in three Indiana counties. Crop insurance products and early spring pre-harvest marketing generally had positive returns for producers. A large number of strategies provided higher mean revenues, higher 5 per cent values-at-risk, and higher certainty equivalents than the benchmark strategy. Although pre-harvest marketing strategies had the highest certainty equivalents in both scenarios, net farm revenues were lower and crop insurance combined with pre-harvest pricing were common among top-ranked strategies following normal crop years.