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 21st Century Agriculture: Expanding the ARMS” St. Louis, Missouri December 4, 2003 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 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 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 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