Farmers don't know some things about their farms that could make IFBT pretty challenging initially. I think that if we could use some default values based on their selections of key items, and get them started with reasonable starting assumptions, it would reduce a barrier to use of the product.
Here are some thoughts in this regard:
Input Screen 1 Farm Specific Data:
Set Eligible Entities to 1 as default
Input Screen 2 Crop Acreage/Crop Insurance:
Rename this "Crop Budget/Crop Insurance"
Move "Crop Budget" selection up from the bottom of the page to the top of page - so that selection is first
Once budgets are selected providing chosen yields, and once planted acres are selected a number of logical defaults can follow:
Default to "Non-Irrigated" - I think this is the default (but have also found that sometimes these come up initially as Irrigated)
Crop Insurance Approved Yield = Selected farm budget yield
Rate/Adj yield = 95% of Selected budget yield
Risk Class default to "none"
Check "yes" for all the boxes for the insurance various insurance options (QL, TA, YA, YC, YE)
Set base case crop insurance to an 85% Enterprise RP policy with no ECO or SCO for each crop
Payment factor (which only applies to County policies anyway) set to 100%
Input Screen 3 Yield and Expense Budgets
I think these are already all set to the correct default - yields "not final" and costs "not final", all else comes in from the selected budget
Input Screen 4
Assumed basis for new crop: set to -$.30 for each of corn wheat at beans (tends to be pretty reasonable averages across midwest)
Eventually we might be able to make this "smarter" and tie basis to State/County - but at least there would be a placeholder
Input Screen 5
Set base acres for each crop equal to planted acres as a default
Set PLC yields equal to 70% of budgeted farm yields
Elect base acres to ARC-CO as default (although if in the Spring PLC is the likely best choice in a given year for a crop, I would direct you to change this default assumption to go to the more likely "best" program)
These changes would get the farmer up and running much faster and with generally reasonable assumptions that they could refine later.
Farmers don't know some things about their farms that could make IFBT pretty challenging initially. I think that if we could use some default values based on their selections of key items, and get them started with reasonable starting assumptions, it would reduce a barrier to use of the product.
Here are some thoughts in this regard: Input Screen 1 Farm Specific Data: Set Eligible Entities to 1 as default Input Screen 2 Crop Acreage/Crop Insurance: Rename this "Crop Budget/Crop Insurance" Move "Crop Budget" selection up from the bottom of the page to the top of page - so that selection is first Once budgets are selected providing chosen yields, and once planted acres are selected a number of logical defaults can follow: Default to "Non-Irrigated" - I think this is the default (but have also found that sometimes these come up initially as Irrigated) Crop Insurance Approved Yield = Selected farm budget yield Rate/Adj yield = 95% of Selected budget yield Risk Class default to "none" Check "yes" for all the boxes for the insurance various insurance options (QL, TA, YA, YC, YE) Set base case crop insurance to an 85% Enterprise RP policy with no ECO or SCO for each crop Payment factor (which only applies to County policies anyway) set to 100% Input Screen 3 Yield and Expense Budgets I think these are already all set to the correct default - yields "not final" and costs "not final", all else comes in from the selected budget Input Screen 4 Assumed basis for new crop: set to -$.30 for each of corn wheat at beans (tends to be pretty reasonable averages across midwest) Eventually we might be able to make this "smarter" and tie basis to State/County - but at least there would be a placeholder Input Screen 5 Set base acres for each crop equal to planted acres as a default Set PLC yields equal to 70% of budgeted farm yields Elect base acres to ARC-CO as default (although if in the Spring PLC is the likely best choice in a given year for a crop, I would direct you to change this default assumption to go to the more likely "best" program)
These changes would get the farmer up and running much faster and with generally reasonable assumptions that they could refine later.