1. ARMS Data Utilization: The wish list of a general farm organization Samuel M. Funk, Economist Illinois Farm Bureau ® A presentation to the Farm Foundation/ERS Conference “Data to Serve 21 st Century Agriculture: Expanding the ARMS” St. Louis, Missouri December 4, 2003

2. What we want to do Provide an accurate depiction of farms –Financial characteristics and conditions –Structural issues CAFOs Marketing challenges Provide a baseline for examining farm-level impacts of policy options –Federal farm policy –State and federal tax consequences

3. What we have done with ARMS Difficulties with single-state analysis Approximation by association The 3-I’s –Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Disclosure Issues –By state –By farm type

4. Alternatives for Data Sets Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Assoc. (FBFM) Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA) Detailed Financial Data Time Series Farm Income and Financial Characteristics Tracking Structural/Operational Data Self-Selected Groups, Mid-Range

5. Looking to the Future Enhanced use for state-level policy implementation –CAFOs –Disaster assistance –In-state tax programs Practical tool for considering broader use of additional in-depth information –Potential of extrapolating data from farm financial record systems