Hunter Biram and Scott Stiles walk through the 2026 ARC and PLC election, with signup open through December 11. They explain why the later signup works in producers’ favor, since USDA price projections and a better read on county yields are already available. They also explain why long-grain rice and cotton are leaning toward PLC while corn and soybeans look stronger under ARC-CO. The conversation then turns to wheat, where the choice is closer and depends a lot on how county yields have tracked against the benchmark.

Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy look at how ongoing shipping disruptions from the Iran conflict continue to raise fuel and fertilizer costs for Arkansas row crop producers. Ryan explains how problems in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea have pushed farm diesel far above the price used in the University of Arkansas 2026 Crop Enterprise Budgets. He also explains why urea costs hit corn, rice, and cotton growers harder than soybean and peanut producers. The two walk through an analysis Ryan built with Scott Stiles estimating the added cost per acre for each crop and the total impact on the state.

Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy walk through the Southern Integrated Risk Management Tool (SIRM), a free web-based decision tool that helps farmers, county agents, crop insurance agents, and ag lenders build a crop insurance portfolio. The tool covers insurable counties in 13 southern states for principal row crops like corn, cotton, rice, and soybeans, estimating producer premiums for buy-up coverage and area plans such as SCO and ECO, adjusted for premium subsidies and land tenure. Hunter also demos how producers can use the tool to fit coverage to their own operation.