Farm Bureau Launches ‘Production Decision’ Web Site

With farm income anticipated to be down nearly $15 billion in 2006 compared with 2005, the American Farm Bureau Federation has launched a new Web site to assist farmers and ranchers in making production decisions based on prevailing economic factors. The goal is to help producers increase their income and reduce expenses for a positive bottom line.

“As a service to Farm Bureau members, AFBF has always monitored conditions in the agricultural economy and tried to anticipate challenges that Farm Bureau members may face,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “In this new information age, AFBF is capable of more easily sharing information and quickly directing members to important information via the Internet.”

The address for the “Farm Bureau Production Decision Aid” (FB-PDA) Web site is http://fbpda.fb.org/. The AFBF economic analysis team has assembled information and data related to crop and livestock production expenses as well as whole-farm planning. Information includes recent government and university reports and marketing specialist analysis. 

South Dakota Farm Bureau president, Scott VanderWal, who served on the six-member advisory panel that prompted the website to be developed noted, “We didn't try to invent anything new in the short time we had, but sought to collect the best information and websites we could.  We then put links to those sites, so now producers who are looking for information can access our decision aid site and go from there, rather than having to surf around the internet.” 

He added that the website will continue to be updated.  “We will post new information as it becomes available.  Producers who know of additional resources that would help other farmers and ranchers are encouraged to use the contact information for the FB-PDA Web site.” 

The Web site lists production information for cattle, dairy, feed grains, hogs, soybeans and wheat, as well as cotton, fruits/vegetables, peanuts, and rice. Resources or links that relate to each commodity appear on the front page of a section, and then by clicking onto a specific region of the country, the resources specific to that commodity and region are provided.

The FB-PDA site is the result of a recommendation made by the “Input Cost Review” panel (http://www.fb.org/news/nr/nr2006/nr0111a.html) appointed by AFBF President Bob Stallman in January.  The group is in the process of identifying resources that will help producers deal with rising production costs and surveying the regulatory environment to pinpoint any opportunities for relief.

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