In this session, ABA’s Senior Vice President of Agriculture and Rural Banking Policy will give an update on federal agricultural policy. Ed will explain how the current agricultural economy and political leadership is shaping current agricultural policy and the 2023 Farm Bill. He’ll will give you an overview of USDA, Congressional leadership, and other important players in the agricultural policy world. Lastly, this session will provide you with available resources in the agricultural banking space that can help you as a banker.

Crop insurance provides significant risk protection to farmers throughout Arkansas. This presentation will provide an overview of current levels of participation in Arkansas as well as key updates to the program that farmers and bankers need to be aware of heading into the 2023 crop year.

Active ShooterAwareness and Preparedness

The expansion of weather volatility, Ag price volatility, and Ag production volatility is going to be orders of magnitude beyond recent historical precedent. When we overlay these historic climate cycles with current deglobalization and shifting supply chain trends, the “just in time inventory” Ag supply chain model the world has embraced over the past 20 years will quickly revert back to the tried and true “stockpiling strategy” and regionalized global trade structure seen throughout most of history. In this presentation, Hackett explains these various short, intermediate, and longer-term cycles mentioned above, why they happen along with the historical data on production and price impacts. Emphasis will be placed on how growers and producers can navigate this dramatic change in our weather patterns to alter their growing, cash selling, and hedging activities.Both the long term and short-term Ag price considerations will be discussed in detail based on these capital flows and natural weather cycle trends to provide a framework for proper preparation and execution of producer plans and budgets.

3:00 p.m.

This session examines how using seasonality, capital flows, climate cycles, and technical chart patterns can preserve positive margins on the farm while providing operating flexibility to minimize risks to farm equity drawdowns.

Join us as we discuss common issues in the field of perfection and priority of liens and security interests covering crops and farm products under Arkansas law and the Food Security Act, and collateral assignments of farm program payments paid under programs administered by agencies of USDA. Attendees will also learn about recent and emerging issues involving the conservation compliance provisions of the Food Security Act and the potential effects to creditor liens and security interest covering farm program payments and crop insurance proceeds that can result from non-compliance by borrowers/operators. The presenter will also discuss certain state and federal laws and regulations applicable to agricultural loans and lenders.