Agriculture committee  We certainly have to look at the information we're collecting. AgriStability is very targeted to the specific situation on a specific farm. It takes a lot of information to do that, and it takes a lot of manipulation of that information. We need to take a look at that information

Agriculture committee  Definitely. In fact, we have a program called AgriRisk that is specifically designed to assist the industry in creating private sector products to address risk. Will they get all the way to creating a production insurance program similar to we have with AgriInsurance? Likely not,

Agriculture committee  We have about 30% of the producers out there who are earning incomes over $10,000, but they represent about 60% of the market receipts through the program.

Agriculture committee  Our focus on participation is driven by exactly the concern you've just raised. Our hope is that we can take some measures to increase AgriStability participation so that we don't end up in that ad hoc type of approach. Ad hoc approaches tend to be not very efficient in terms of

Agriculture committee  I'll address the question of why participation is declining. We believe there are a number of reasons. We have experienced some record net incomes in agriculture for the last little while, so the perceived need for the program has certainly diminished. Producers are recognizing

Agriculture committee  You're right that the recent high prices have resulted in fewer payments under our programs. Our programs, I would say, haven't really been tested in a downturn yet. At the same time, keep in mind that AgriStability is built on a reference margin and those reference margins are

Agriculture committee  When a producer doesn't have a history of being involved in our program, we actually end up creating a history for those individuals that is based on the industry averages in the area. As a result, a young producer can participate in those programs at the same level as any other

Agriculture committee  Certainly the recent high prices have not only resulted in margins increasing but also in the producers' equity increasing as well, so producers are in a better position today to manage some of the hits you're talking about than they were a number of years back. Our analysis woul

Agriculture committee  Certainly that becomes an AgriInsurance and AgriStability issue. Yes, I'm worried about that too.

Agriculture committee  It's the AgriStability program that we have the concerns with. AgriInsurance and AgriInvest are fairly stable.

Agriculture committee  Our foremost business risk management program in the response to weather events is AgriInsurance. It's our crop insurance program. It's an actuarially sound program that looks at the history over a period of time. Our actuaries follow that extremely closely in terms of the patter

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. Certainly the producers are asking whether the trigger in our AgriStability program is sufficient enough to cover the situations that they see happening with respect to prices. At the same time, we recognize that the producers have realized some fairl

Agriculture committee  Your first question was about what we are hearing with respect to how we can improve participation. We are really looking at it from two aspects: what are the producers' perceived benefits associated with the programs, and what is the burden associated with their participating? T

Agriculture committee  From the burden perspective, we are looking at what it takes for a producer to actually apply to the program. They have to apply every year, and there is a fee associated with it. Are there things we can do to reduce that burden and thereby increase the participation? Your secon

Agriculture committee  It's something we are looking at. What is the burden each year? AgriStability takes a lot of information. Do we need all that information? Are there ways we could do it in a simpler manner?