Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy discuss the economic impact of the January winter storm on Arkansas’s poultry industry, where prolonged outages and freezing conditions led to major production disruptions. They walk through the difference between damage estimates and economic impact, highlighting over $200 million in structural losses alongside additional losses tied to bird mortality and reduced production. The conversation also explores how these losses ripple through labor income, jobs, and tax revenues across the state. While rebuilding activity will generate significant economic output, they emphasize that it largely reflects recovery from losses rather than new growth. The episode highlights the scale of the storm’s impact and what it means for producers moving forward.

Rising input costs are creating new challenges for producers as fertilizer and fuel markets respond to global conflict and supply chain uncertainty. In this episode, Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy are joined by Grant Gardner (University of Kentucky) to discuss how these shifts are impacting crop margins, input availability, and decision-making. They cover potential acreage shifts between corn and soybeans, the role of energy markets in commodity prices, and how these dynamics are influencing demand. With volatility building across multiple markets, they also discuss what producers should be watching and how to approach risk management in the current environment.

Join Hunter Biram and Breana Watkins as they discuss how rising fuel and fertilizer prices linked to conflict in the Persian Gulf are reshaping crop profitability heading into the 2026 season. Updated University of Arkansas enterprise budgets show tighter margins across several major crops as higher diesel and nitrogen costs increase production expenses. While soybean returns appear stronger in some scenarios, factors such as yield expectations, soil type, equipment needs, and rental agreements all influence planting decisions. The episode highlights how producers can use enterprise budgets to evaluate breakeven scenarios and manage risk in a volatile input cost environment.

Hunter Biram is joined by Will Maples of Mississippi State University to discuss building a disciplined crop marketing plan for 2026. They emphasize using breakeven costs to set realistic price targets, spreading sales to manage risk, and documenting marketing decisions to reduce emotion and improve long-run performance. The conversation also highlights how marketing plans should work alongside crop insurance and Farm Bill programs to support proactive, rather than forced, marketing decisions.

In this episode, Hunter Biram and special guest Francis Tsiboe explore how USDA’s new Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) rule will reshape prevented planting insurance starting in the 2027 crop year. With the elimination of the prevented planting buy-up option, producers who want to maintain similar levels of protection will now have to increase their overall coverage levels, which will raise premiums and expand exposure to other types of losses. Drawing on recent analysis from the Agricultural Risk and Policy Center, the discussion looks into why coverage substitution only partially replaces targeted planting risk protection and what this means for farm-level risk management and program costs moving forward.

Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy walk through the newly finalized Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) payment rates and estimate Arkansas producers will receive about $347 million in total support. They discuss how the per-acre rates for key crops compare to earlier expectations, what the FBA does (and doesn’t) do for breakeven prices across different land tenure arrangements, and how payment limits could affect farms with heavy rice or cotton acreage. They also highlight updated tools including the Arkansas Crop Profit & Loss calculator and FBA Payment Estimator to help producers and lenders evaluate cash flow and planning going into 2026.

Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy are joined by Jennifer James, a fourth-generation rice and soybean farmer from Newport, Arkansas, part owner of H&J Land Company, and host of the Field Good Life podcast. Jennifer shares her path back to the family’s Century Farm and discusses the realities of operating a diversified row crop operation in today’s economic environment.

Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy discuss the launch of the National Cotton Profit & Loss Tool, a free, web-based budgeting and planning resource designed to help cotton producers evaluate profitability, breakeven points, and financial risk. Ryan outlines how the tool pairs county-level yield expectations with customizable enterprise budgets, enabling producers to run detailed what-if scenarios and build cost structures that reflect their own operations. The episode also highlights how the tool can support clearer financial planning, strengthen conversations with agricultural lenders, and invites producer feedback as the tool continues to evolve.