The latest information on crop insurance will be provided at the North Dakota State University Extension Service's 18th annual crop insurance conference in Fargo on Jan. 17.
Making Crop Insurance Work Better for Managing Price and Yield Risk will be held at the Ramada Plaza Suites and Conference Center. It starts at 8 a.m. and runs to 4:40 p.m.
"The goal of the conference is to help participants integrate crop insurance tools with other risk management tools, understand major issues in the crop insurance industry and highlight new risk management products," says Andy Swenson, NDSU Extension farm management specialist.
The conference is for crop insurance agents and underwriters, professional farm managers, producers, legislators, agricultural and agribusiness lenders,
industry regulators, commodity group representatives, adult vocational agriculture instructors and public officials.
Conference topics and their presenters include:
* Economic outlook - Michael Swanson, economist at Wells Fargo Bank
* Ethics in business - Dennis Cooley, Northern Plains Ethics Institute
* New crop insurance products for 2011, prevent plant qualifications, wheat quality adjustment factors and compensation issues coming out of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement - regional and national administrators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency
* Crop insurance industry perspective - Mike Connealy, CEO of ProAg
* Crop insurance as a tool to enhance marketing - Bret Oelke, University of Minnesota Extension
* Look ahead to crop insurance under the 2012 farm bill - David Graves, American Association of Crop Insurers
The conference has been approved for continuing education credit for crop insurance agents in the Dakotas and Minnesota.
The cost of the conference is $110, which includes lunch, breaks and conference materials. To register, go to http://tinyurl.com/dxrnkh. For more information, call (701) 231-8642.
