Crop insurance a farm business must

My family knows a little about how much farmers are at the mercy of Mother Nature.

During the Dust Bowl, my grandparents Edson and Harriet Durfee fled the disaster in Nebraska and came back east to Chittenango to start again.

Back then, there was no farm safety net. When the Nebraska prairie turned against them, farmers like my grandparents lost it all and had to rebuild on their own.

Today, our family’s Tuscarora Dairy Farm is going strong. I farm with my wife and three sons. We grow corn and wheat and have about 1,000 milk cows.

Our farm is not on the outskirts of town. It’s right in the heart of Chittenango with about a thousand homes nearby.

It’s a great opportunity to continue to connect consumers with agriculture. Most people today don’t have a good understanding of where their food comes from. We run a small vegetable stand to serve the community. It doesn’t make much money, but we do it because it makes our neighbors happy and keeps them connected to farming.

When I think back to the challenges my grandparents faced as they packed up and left Nebraska, it reminds me just how much farming has changed. I think they’d be surprised and pleased at how successful our family farm has become.

We wouldn’t have been as successful without a strong farm safety net. The centerpiece of that safety net is the public-private partnership of crop insurance.

I recently invited representatives from the crop insurance industry to my farm to tell my story and show them how we use crop insurance to manage the weather and price risks that, for my grandparents, were nearly unmanageable.

The large investment required for each acre we plant makes crop insurance a must. Buying insurance helps take out some of the risk on those acres.

When it comes to milk, last year the price was so low that we feared if it continued it would put a lot of stress on our finances.

We bought a dairy revenue protection policy from our local crop growers agent to help mitigate the risk of the volatile dairy market. Fortunately, the price of milk rebounded, and we didn’t need to use the insurance.

Like all farmers, we would rather sell products at a good price than make an insurance claim.

Crop insurance is just like all the other insurance you have. We end up spending a lot of money on insurance, but you can sleep at night knowing if something happens, you are going to be protected partially and you will be able to rebound from it and continue on.

I’d like to thank Congress and the American public for backing a strong system of crop insurance in the Farm Bill. As the political cycle heats up and we head toward the 2020 elections, I hope policymakers will remember just how important crop insurance has become to rural America.

Steve Durfee operates Tuscarora Dairy Farm with his wife and three sons in Chittenango. This op-ed appeared in the Madison County Courier.

Crop Insurance Sets Record, Saves Money, Protects America’s Heartland in 2018

SAN DIEGO – More than 334 million acres of farmland were protected by crop insurance in 2018, a 20 million acre increase over 2017 and an all-time high. And, crop insurance came in $2 billion under original federal budget projections for the year.

Jim Korin, chairman of National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) and president of NAU Country Insurance Company, noted these accomplishments, among others, in his opening remarks at the crop insurance industry’s annual meeting today.

With more than 1.1 million crop insurance policies sold to farmers across the nation, Korin credited the growing popularity of crop insurance to the exceptional service provided by private-sector insurers and the unique working relationship they share with the government.

“The public-private partnership that defines crop insurance has been successful in providing the important safety net for our farmers and the rural areas where they live,” Korin said. He noted that the crop insurance industry has been able to quickly pay claims while routinely coming in below budget projections, saving taxpayers billions.

Under the successful crop insurance model, farmers invested in their own protection by paying $3.7 billion in premiums and shouldering a significant portion of losses through deductibles.

This public-private partnership was further reinforced with the overwhelming passage of a bipartisan Farm Bill in December that strengthened crop insurance and firmly rebuffed efforts by some critics to make the program less affordable and available to farmers.

“With everything that occurred during the year, nothing defined the world of agriculture more than the debate and passage of the 2018 Farm Bill,” said Korin. “This process saw congressional field hearings from coast to coast and a steady call from farmers across the nation to ‘do no harm’ to the crop insurance safety net.”

Larry Heitman, chairman of the American Association of Crop Insurers and senior vice president of NAU Country Insurance Company, also addressed the convention and said maintaining this kind of support from farmers will continue to be important moving forward.

“As tempting as it may be to relax until the next Farm Bill negotiations begin again, let’s remember our program is a target for those that want to redirect agricultural funds to their own causes or programs,” he told the group. “We must continue to maintain and strengthen our partnership with agriculture commodity associations and conservation and wildlife protection groups to work together for a coalition to benefit all Americans – rural and urban.”

Heitman and Korin explained that the industry’s attention will now turn to working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure a smooth implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill, while continuing to serve rural America.

Korin concluded, “We must remember our purpose: To provide exceptional coverage and service to farmers and ranchers to help them do what they do best…feed and clothe the world.”

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Crop Insurance Helps Preserve Family Farming Legacies

Earlier this year, our family ranch was awarded the Colorado Leopold Conservation Award, which recognizes agricultural landowners actively committed to a land ethic.

This was a crowning achievement for Beatty Canyon Ranch, and we are honored to be acknowledged for our efforts to control invasive species, manage grazing and protect wildlife habitats.

Being stewards of the land is something that has always been important to us and we strive to innovate and improve at every turn. We have made great progress in our conservation methods over the years and we know that these practices are not only important for the environment but for the long-term stability of our operations.

Unfortunately, no amount of innovation can always protect us from the perils of Mother Nature. As anyone from southeastern Colorado knows, weather issues like drought are always a challenge for us.

For the last 20 years, persistent drought situations have affected our cow-calf operation. We do our best to overcome these weather-related challenges, but during a severe situation like in 2002-03, when we faced both an extreme drought and a down market, we had to liquidate. That is something that is difficult to come back from.

Thankfully, today we do have some tools in place to help deal these types of weather-related risks. One of the most important tools is an efficient crop insurance program for our nation’s ranchers.

When people talk about crop insurance they don’t always associate it with cattle operations like ours, and that is understandable. In its early days, crop insurance was available for only a handful of commodities. But recent farm bills have made improvements to the program and crop insurance has now been expanded to cover new specialty crops as well as the pasture, range and forage where our cattle graze.

This coverage isn’t a handout—farmers and ranchers pay for the protection out of our own budgets. In Colorado, farmers and ranchers paid $69.7 million collectively for crop insurance policies last year, covering nearly 7 million acres.

The federal government also provides some support, which is essential to keeping the program affordable.

We don’t always need this protection, and we would prefer to never have to use it, but the cost is well worth it because it offers some stability and peace of mind.

On Beatty Canyon Ranch, we currently have fourth, fifth and sixth generations involved in day-to-day operations, and our family ranching history stretches all the way back to when my great grandfather immigrated here from Ireland. While this may sound impressive, it is not uncommon among farm families.

For many ranchers across America, being able to pass down our operations to the next generation is a driving force behind what we do. That, along with playing a role in providing food and fiber for our fellow Americans while being stewards of the land is what makes all of the long days and hard work worth it.

We are doing our part, and I urge Congress to do its part by passing a new Farm Bill with crop insurance intact. It, along with our ongoing conservation efforts, with ensure that ranchers will have a legacy to pass down to future generations.

Steve Wooten operates Beatty Canyon Ranch in Northeast Las Animas County. This op-ed appeared in The Chronicle-News on September 27, 2018.

Crop Insurance Helps Preserve Farming for Future Generations

Farming is a unique profession in so many ways. First, it is more like a calling — to be part of God’s gifts here, and a steward of these gifts. To follow a crop from seed to harvest, or to see an animal born and grow to maturity — that’s a lot of the reason we do what we do.

But farming is different from other professions in other ways as well, including the unique risks and unpredictabilities we face every year. Farmers, for example, are always at the mercy of the weather. A 200-bushel corn crop can quickly become a 50-bushel corn crop under the wrong conditions.

In addition, we face a volatile market and never know which way the pendulum is going to swing. Lately, it hasn’t been swinging in our direction.

Thankfully, we have tools like crop insurance that help us manage risks like these. I feel strongly that crop insurance is critical to preserving our farms for future generations. So strongly, in fact, that in addition to being a farmer, I have also served as a crop insurance agent for fellow farmers for nearly two decades.

In my role as a crop insurance agent, I work with growers to help them purchase protection they need whether they are starting a farm, or preparing for their next crop.

For beginning farmers, having this protection is especially important. Many farmers starting out rely on banks for operating loans and these banks often require crop insurance so that farmers can pay back these loans if they have a bad year.

It has been extremely rewarding for me to work with these young farmers and to play a role in helping them not only get started in business, but stay in business despite the numerous challenges farm country has experienced in recent years.

During the severe drought of 2012, for example, our area had terrible crop yields. That year was hard enough on established farmers, but for beginning farmers I know that having crop insurance played an integral role in their survival.

There are a few misconceptions out there about crop insurance, which have become especially widespread during the ongoing Farm Bill negotiations. But let’s be clear: Crop insurance is not a handout.

Farmers purchase crop insurance out of their own pockets. On average, farmers spend $3.5 to $4 billion per year for crop insurance coverage. Last year in Kentucky, farmers collectively paid $57 million for coverage. As is the case with other types of insurance, we must prove that we have met a deductible to be eligible for a payment for a portion of our loss.

Because of the unique risks involved in farming, the federal government also provides support to reduce the cost to farmers. If we didn’t have this federal support, crop insurance would simply not be affordable for most of America’s farmers and ranchers.

Of note, before crop insurance was widely available and efficient like it is today, the cost of natural disasters fell directly on U.S. taxpayers by way of disaster bills. And they took forever to get to the farm.

I am fortunate to be the eighth generation of my family to farm in LaRue County, although I didn’t inherit family farm land. We purchased our farm more than a decade ago, basically starting from scratch. It hasn’t always been easy, but it is our way of life — our calling. Agriculture has always been the backbone of our country, and I would love for one or all three of my children to carry on this tradition.

In order for that to happen, we have to protect crop insurance.

Jeremy Hinton is a farmer and crop insurance agent in Hodgenville, Kentucky.  This op-ed appeared in the LaRue County Herald News on September 6, 2018.

U.S. Farmers Rely on Crop Insurance

My family has been in agriculture in northwest Ohio for generations. My great-grandfather, grandfather, and dad farmed. I followed in their footsteps.

It was a great blessing. We were taught to love and appreciate hard work, and we learned to work as a family.

I carried this same work ethic into my own business 30 years ago, when I decided to leave the family farm and go into crop insurance full time. Today, my son runs the company and I help him. My wife is still involved, as is my daughter. It is a true family business and is rewarding for all of us.

I know firsthand that families devote vast amounts of financial resources, time and energy to growing the food that feeds the world. I also know firsthand that farming is extremely risky. The 1980s provided periods of challenging weather and prolonged low commodity prices.

Back then, farmers had to go to Congress and ask for ad-hoc relief bills. Taxpayers had to cover the cost and it often took years for farmers to get relief. It wasn’t a fair system so Congress asked the private insurance sector to help solve the problem.

Thankfully, we now have modern crop insurance that eliminates much of the stress that comes from competing with Mother Nature and volatile markets. Revenue coverage allows a farmer to market grain well before harvest and take advantage of profitable sales opportunities that are often not available at or after harvest. Revenue coverage would have been a great blessing for Ohio farmers during the 1980s, when ongoing low commodity prices took a huge toll on grain farms.

In my insurance business, I help farmers purchase policies that are uniquely tailored to their operations. When disaster strikes, a private-sector claims adjuster verifies the loss just like any other insurance product. Farmers pay their premiums, shoulder their deductibles and get checks in weeks, not years.

It is important for policymakers to understand the part about farmers paying for coverage. This is not a handout. Farmers across the country have collectively spent $50 billion out of their own pockets in the past 17 years for coverage. They also absorb the first 25 percent on average of any loss before their coverage kicks in.

Congress is starting its debate on the new Farm Bill, which sets out rules for crop insurance.

I urge Congress to keep in place the system of crop insurance we have today and allow it to expand to meet new demands.

Rex Williamson Payne, farmer, Northwest Ohio

This op-ed ran in the Columbus Dispatch on July 26, 2017.

Crop Insurance Preserves South Dakota Farm Economy

South Dakota’s history is deeply rooted in agriculture, perhaps more so than any other state in the union. From the homesteaders who came here in the 19th century, with little more than a plow and a dream, to their descendants who still work the land, agriculture is the way of life for many South Dakotans.

As the president of the S.D. Farm Bureau and a livestock, corn and soybean farmer myself, I can tell you firsthand that our state’s farmers personify a work ethic and a sense of pride and purpose that we are seeing less and less of outside of agriculture these days.

But agriculture is more than just a proud tradition — it’s also S.D.’s top industry, with a $25.6 billion economic impact each year. Our farmers and ranchers generate 20 percent of our state’s economic activity and provide jobs, directly and indirectly, to 122,000 residents.

It’s essential that we preserve S.D.’s farm economy, not just for our own economic well-being, but for all Americans. Our nation’s farmers play an indispensable role in ensuring a safe, affordable and stable food supply. And this role is becoming increasingly important as we struggle to meet the needs of a growing world population. In short, food security is a vital part of our national security and that’s something we need now more than ever.

Unfortunately, our farm economy has seen better days. Our farm families are facing a year of projected below-cost returns on corn, soybeans and wheat. Overall, farm income is also projected to decrease again in 2016. This will be the third consecutive year of declining farm income, following sharp drops in 2014 and 2015 totaling 56 percent in those two years. If the 2016 income projection comes to fruition, it would mark the lowest farm income level since 2002.

This is why having a sufficient farm safety net — with crop insurance as the cornerstone — is more critical than ever. Crop insurance provides protection against the one thing that even the most resilient farmer cannot defeat — the wrath of Mother Nature.

Crop insurance is a unique public-private partnership that not only supports farmers, but eases the burden on taxpayers. Prior to the emergence of crop insurance as the top risk management tool for farmers, natural disasters regularly resulted in very expensive, unbudgeted ad hoc disaster bills from Congress. Now, when disaster strikes, farmers receive an indemnity check.

Let’s be clear, crop insurance is not a handout — far from it. To gain coverage, farmers have to put skin in the game. In fact, since 2000, farmers have spent nearly $30 billion out of their own pockets to purchase crop insurance protection. We only collect an indemnity after we’ve suffered a verifiable loss and met our deductible.

We purchase crop insurance for our family farm every year and have never filed a major claim. But that’s hardly the point. Like our fellow farmers, we purchase crop insurance for the same reasons we purchase home insurance or car insurance — with the hope we’ll never need it. But we’ll keep purchasing it every year because some day we might. Crop insurance gives us peace of mind, and if we ever experience a major crop disaster, would provide us with the resources to keep farming.

Farmers have faced tough times before and rest assured we will get through them again. Old fashioned hard work, innovation and smart farm policies like crop insurance will help ensure that the proud S.D. farming tradition will live on for many future generations, and, in turn, will secure a bright future for us all.

Scott VanderWal is a third-generation family farmer from Volga. He is president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau and vice-president of the American Farm Bureau. This op-ed appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader on August 9, 2016.

Farming Needs Strong Policy and Crop Insurance

If I don’t take care of the land, then it won’t take care of me, so I consider myself one of the stewards of the earth. I know I’m not alone. My brethren in farming are also caretakers of the land, water and air. We want to be productive and profitable, and pass on our farming operations to the next generation better, more fertile, and more sustainable than we received it.

Given this reality, I naturally become concerned and even a bit cross when I see special interest groups in Washington, D.C., trying to paint farmers in negative light as it relates to taking care of the land and our environment. They attack farm policy and crop insurance, but in critiquing these important tools, with little or no empathy for the risks we take, they are really going after me and farmers like me.

One myth these groups perpetuate is that crop insurance encourages farmers to grow on fragile, uncultivated lands. This is simply not reality, as the number of crop acres in the country has remained stable for more than three decades at roughly 328 million. Meanwhile, the number of those acres that are insured by crop insurance is approximately 298 million.

The 2014 Farm Bill layered additional red tape to ensure conservation compliance on all acres where crop insurance is purchased, and fragile lands are protected by eliminating all crop insurance premium support for farmers if they damage wetlands or plow up native sod.

Another myth they spread is that crop insurance only helps big conventional farming operations when in fact it is a risk management tool that is available to all farmers regardless of operation, size, region or crop. I am a young farmer. I grow both conventional and organic cotton. Crop insurance is arguably more critical for me than it is for the long-established farmers, and I purchase a specialized and exceptionally valuable insurance policy for my organic crop.

It’s a big concern of mine that there is a constant need to defend crop insurance against the myths and outright lies that these special interest groups spread in Washington and beyond. And, frankly, sometimes, I’m amazed that there is so much debate in Congress about the small investment in crop insurance and farm policy, considering the return for every American.

Federal spending on these items is well below one percent of the nation’s entire budget, but the benefit to every American consumer is a safe, secure, diverse and affordable food and fiber supply. Moreover, agriculture is the backbone of a strong economy and a strong society, and from a national security standpoint, it is crucial. We don’t want to be held hostage by another country when it comes to feeding our own people. And right now we are competing with foreign countries that are investing far more in their own agriculture sectors than we are and are cheating on their commitments to free trade in the process.

This constant attacking of farm policy and crop insurance undermines those who work hard to grow the food and fiber we all rely upon.

As farmers, we have no control over weather. We have no control over markets. We have no control over our foreign competitors. We cannot just turn our operations on or off. We have to take care of the land 365 days a year. We need a safety net when commodity prices fall. We need affordable and reliable crop insurance to protect our yearly investments.

Today in my part of the country, I know plenty of farmers who are struggling to make it another year because of the current depressed farm economy while others are making the tough decision to get out of the business altogether. Meanwhile, young people are nervous about jumping into a line of work that is mired in risk and is constantly under attack by special interest groups and some lawmakers in Congress. This is an alarming trend.

Sometimes it takes something drastic to happen for people to realize what they have. I certainly hope it is not the loss of agricultural production in this country as a result of Congress chipping away at the farm safety net for us all to fully appreciate how important it is.

Jeremy Brown is a multi-generational Lubbock farmer who grows both conventional and organic cotton in west Texas. He is on the executive committee of Plains Cotton Growers and also grows wheat, rye and peanuts.

Farm Policy is Essential to Maintaining Ag Production in the U.S.

If there is one place that, in recent years, overwhelmingly demonstrates the need and importance of U.S. farm policy, it is California. For the past four years, this top agricultural producing state has experienced record drought conditions and for farmers like my husband and me, it has taken a toll on our operation.

We have been growing rice in the Sacramento Valley for 30 years and we have never seen a weather event this relentless. Although the arrival of El Nino has provided much needed rain, the effects are marginal because of the intensity of the drought.

Operating loans are essential for every farmer because of the cost of producing crops, but for my family they have enabled us to keep going to the next year despite depressed yields and prices, and in some cases the inability to plant a crop at all.

And we would not be able to receive this crucial financing without crop insurance and farm policy in place. Farming is an inherently risky business and bankers want assurances that we will be able to pay back the loan if disaster strikes. We were not born into farming – we built our operation from the ground up – so we still have land and equipment payments to make regardless of whether we have a good or bad growing season, or whether a natural disaster wipes out our crops altogether. Crop insurance is something we purchase each year to manage this risk and we only receive an indemnity when we suffer a verifiable loss. Even then, it doesn’t make us whole, but it does soften the blow from a bad year.

It’s important to have this kind of safety net in place for all farmers, all across the country. And, I am always alarmed by the calls in Washington to cut what remains of the farm safety net, especially from those who have no idea what it takes to grow food and fiber. We need risk management tools now more than ever to help us overcome unpredictable weather events.

Additionally, we need policy in place to combat unfair practices with our foreign competitors like China and Thailand whose support for their rice growers far exceeds that of the United States and actually violates agreements under the World Trade Organization (WTO). While the U.S. was reforming its policy in the 2014 Farm Bill, other countries were ramping up support for their farmers, in some cases by more than a 100 percent. Their policies are trade distorting and leave American growers at a competitive disadvantage.

American farmers can and do manage extraordinary risks, year in and year out, but we cannot manage the challenges associated with unpredictable and sustained natural disasters, volatile markets, and trade distorting policies of our foreign counterparts without risk management tools like crop insurance and farm policy.

Lawmakers in Washington should consider this reality the next time they want to cut farm policy spending. If they want to continue to have agricultural production in this country, and in California in particular, they need to invest in it.

Lorraine Greco serves on the California Board for the U.S. Rice Producers Association. She grows organic rice with her husband in northern California.

Crop Insurance is Critical for Beginning Farmers

Agriculture has been my passion since an early age growing up on the family farm. I have continued the tradition with a farm of my own.Additionally, I have worked as an agricultural banker for nearly four decades. I started out working in the Farm Credit System, but eventually moved over to the private sector because I wanted to help farmers with estate planning needs in addition to providing credit.

I like to help farmers make the right decisions about their operations, especially as it relates to setting up the next generation of agricultural producers. I want them to be in a good position for the future and prepared for the inevitable challenges that will come their way.

But, I grow more and more concerned about two current trends that I believe threaten the success of agriculture. One is the average age of the American farmer continues to climb while the number of beginning farmers is trending downward. The second trend is the relentless attacks on the farm safety net in Washington that make the uncertainty of farming even more precarious, especially for those young producers just starting.

For example, the 2014 Farm Bill had barely been in place when opponents began proposing cuts – the worst of which appeared in a budget agreement that came together late last year under the cover of darkness and without any consultation with anyone remotely close to farming. The proposal would have essentially gutted crop insurance, which is one of the key elements of the farm safety net.Fortunately, the agricultural community came together and fought off that cut, but this type of attack is a sign of things to come, and it doesn’t bode well for the overall outlook for American agriculture.

A farmer has to invest so much money to grow a crop that they rely on banks for operating loans. Banks would have a hard time making those loans without assurance that farmers would have a way to pay it back if a natural disaster struck.

Crop insurance and farm policy enables everyone – from the farmer to the banker to the taxpayer – to plan for those disasters and overcome them when they happen. If lawmakers continue to try and chip away at this safety net, farmers will not have the ability to survive. This is especially true for young, beginning farmers who have less access to credit and capital.

Therefore, it’s critical that crop insurance remain intact. Investing a future in farming is already a chilling prospect for most young people, given the expense of raising crops, the volatility of the markets and weather events and the low returns on investment. It’s enough to discourage any reasonable person from even trying regardless of whether they are starting from scratch or inheriting the family operation.

As Congress and the White House wrestle with their respective budgets in the coming weeks, I hope good sense will prevail and they’ll leave crop insurance and farm policy alone. Given the current demographics of farming, now is not the time to jeopardize the one thing that farmers can count on.

Larry Kummer is Market President for the Northeast Indiana Horizon Bank.

Crop Insurance is Critical for Beginning Farmers

Agriculture has been my passion since an early age growing up on the family farm. I have continued the tradition with a farm of my own.Additionally, I have worked as an agricultural banker for nearly four decades. I started out working in the Farm Credit System, but eventually moved over to the private sector because I wanted to help farmers with estate planning needs in addition to providing credit.

I like to help farmers make the right decisions about their operations, especially as it relates to setting up the next generation of agricultural producers. I want them to be in a good position for the future and prepared for the inevitable challenges that will come their way.

But, I grow more and more concerned about two current trends that I believe threaten the success of agriculture. One is the average age of the American farmer continues to climb while the number of beginning farmers is trending downward. The second trend is the relentless attacks on the farm safety net in Washington that make the uncertainty of farming even more precarious, especially for those young producers just starting.

For example, the 2014 Farm Bill had barely been in place when opponents began proposing cuts – the worst of which appeared in a budget agreement that came together late last year under the cover of darkness and without any consultation with anyone remotely close to farming. The proposal would have essentially gutted crop insurance, which is one of the key elements of the farm safety net.Fortunately, the agricultural community came together and fought off that cut, but this type of attack is a sign of things to come, and it doesn’t bode well for the overall outlook for American agriculture.

A farmer has to invest so much money to grow a crop that they rely on banks for operating loans. Banks would have a hard time making those loans without assurance that farmers would have a way to pay it back if a natural disaster struck.

Crop insurance and farm policy enables everyone – from the farmer to the banker to the taxpayer – to plan for those disasters and overcome them when they happen. If lawmakers continue to try and chip away at this safety net, farmers will not have the ability to survive. This is especially true for young, beginning farmers who have less access to credit and capital.

Therefore, it’s critical that crop insurance remain intact. Investing a future in farming is already a chilling prospect for most young people, given the expense of raising crops, the volatility of the markets and weather events and the low returns on investment. It’s enough to discourage any reasonable person from even trying regardless of whether they are starting from scratch or inheriting the family operation.

As Congress and the White House wrestle with their respective budgets in the coming weeks, I hope good sense will prevail and they’ll leave crop insurance and farm policy alone. Given the current demographics of farming, now is not the time to jeopardize the one thing that farmers can count on.

Larry Kummer is Market President for the Northeast Indiana Horizon Bank.

Crop Insurance is Money Well Spent by Farmers

Many folks might not realize this, but the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was a turning point in American history, from an agricultural perspective.  Largely gone are the days of government support programs like direct payments.  In their place, and at the center stage of farm risk management tools, is crop insurance.

I had a chance to learn the value of crop insurance first-hand when my cousin and I rented our first farm together in 2012.  We’ve been farming with our family for many years, but felt it was time to expand out and grab some of our own.  Of course, little did we know that the year we kicked off our farming careers would soon become the driest year in decades. We lost all of our dryland crops, roughly forty percent of our acres that year. Thankfully, we had purchased crop insurance.

Unlike days of old, crop insurance is not a federal handout.  In fact, if farmers want to enjoy the protection provided by crop insurance, they must purchase it.  And they do so willingly, spending roughly $4 billion per year out of their own back pockets on crop insurance premiums alone.

For most beginning farmers, crop insurance is nearly a necessity, since banks are hesitant to make loans to farmers who lack sufficient collateral.  Crop insurance allows banks the opportunity to increase lending capabilities with the security of crop insurance.  That’s because with a crop insurance policy in hand, banks feel more secure making those loans to  farmers, since there’s a guarantee of revenue even if the crop fails.

Crop insurance is a public-private partnership whereby individual farmers like me can buy policies for insurance that is specifically tailored for our tolerance to risk and the profile of our farm.  Crop insurance is affordable to farmers, thankfully, because the federal government provides a discount, ensuring that all farmers, young and old, big and small, can purchase policies if they choose to.

Farmers buy crop insurance for the same reason drivers purchase auto insurance:  it offers some degree of stability in times of disaster.  Crop insurance has become, in essence, the nation’s insurance policy for the food supply.  When Mother Nature strikes and farmers lose their crops, those with crop insurance policies in hand can bounce back and plant again the next year.

Crop insurance has also removed some of the financial risk from taxpayers.  Prior to the rise of modern day crop insurance, the wide-scale disaster that we experienced with the great drought of 2012 would have necessitated a very expensive, ad hoc disaster bill from Congress.  Those bills are big and are fully funded by taxpayers.

And while anything is better than nothing when you literally lose the farm, those disaster funds usually took a year or more to arrive in the hands of farmers who needed them.  In my case when I lost forty percent of my crop in 2012, a year would have been much too late.

Crop insurance, on the other hand, is administered by private insurance companies and the indemnity arrives in weeks or a month or two, not years later.  The crop insurance policy I purchased not only allowed me and my cousin to pay back our production loan, but also meet our forward contracting obligations.  And we were able to bounce back and plant the next year.  That’s a smart public policy because it ensures food security for our nation.

Of course crop insurance has its critics, and their sights are squarely on crop insurance, since it’s really the only game in town. And that’s why it’s important for farmers to speak up and let their elected officials know how much they value this risk management tool.

Needless to say, if we hadn’t purchased crop insurance our first year of farming, my cousin and I would be spending years paying off that production loan.  And without this valuable risk management tool available, I’d venture to say many more of America’s farmers would have been joining us.

Scott Reilly farmer and crop insurance agent and lives in Spalding Nebraska.

 

Crop Insurance is Money Well Spent by Farmers

Many folks might not realize this, but the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was a turning point in American history, from an agricultural perspective.  Largely gone are the days of government support programs like direct payments.  In their place, and at the center stage of farm risk management tools, is crop insurance.

I had a chance to learn the value of crop insurance first-hand when my cousin and I rented our first farm together in 2012.  We’ve been farming with our family for many years, but felt it was time to expand out and grab some of our own.  Of course, little did we know that the year we kicked off our farming careers would soon become the driest year in decades. We lost all of our dryland crops, roughly forty percent of our acres that year. Thankfully, we had purchased crop insurance.

Unlike days of old, crop insurance is not a federal handout.  In fact, if farmers want to enjoy the protection provided by crop insurance, they must purchase it.  And they do so willingly, spending roughly $4 billion per year out of their own back pockets on crop insurance premiums alone.

For most beginning farmers, crop insurance is nearly a necessity, since banks are hesitant to make loans to farmers who lack sufficient collateral.  Crop insurance allows banks the opportunity to increase lending capabilities with the security of crop insurance.  That’s because with a crop insurance policy in hand, banks feel more secure making those loans to  farmers, since there’s a guarantee of revenue even if the crop fails.

Crop insurance is a public-private partnership whereby individual farmers like me can buy policies for insurance that is specifically tailored for our tolerance to risk and the profile of our farm.  Crop insurance is affordable to farmers, thankfully, because the federal government provides a discount, ensuring that all farmers, young and old, big and small, can purchase policies if they choose to.

Farmers buy crop insurance for the same reason drivers purchase auto insurance:  it offers some degree of stability in times of disaster.  Crop insurance has become, in essence, the nation’s insurance policy for the food supply.  When Mother Nature strikes and farmers lose their crops, those with crop insurance policies in hand can bounce back and plant again the next year.

Crop insurance has also removed some of the financial risk from taxpayers.  Prior to the rise of modern day crop insurance, the wide-scale disaster that we experienced with the great drought of 2012 would have necessitated a very expensive, ad hoc disaster bill from Congress.  Those bills are big and are fully funded by taxpayers.

And while anything is better than nothing when you literally lose the farm, those disaster funds usually took a year or more to arrive in the hands of farmers who needed them.  In my case when I lost forty percent of my crop in 2012, a year would have been much too late.

Crop insurance, on the other hand, is administered by private insurance companies and the indemnity arrives in weeks or a month or two, not years later.  The crop insurance policy I purchased not only allowed me and my cousin to pay back our production loan, but also meet our forward contracting obligations.  And we were able to bounce back and plant the next year.  That’s a smart public policy because it ensures food security for our nation.

Of course crop insurance has its critics, and their sights are squarely on crop insurance, since it’s really the only game in town. And that’s why it’s important for farmers to speak up and let their elected officials know how much they value this risk management tool.

Needless to say, if we hadn’t purchased crop insurance our first year of farming, my cousin and I would be spending years paying off that production loan.  And without this valuable risk management tool available, I’d venture to say many more of America’s farmers would have been joining us.

Scott Reilly farmer and crop insurance agent and lives in Spalding Nebraska.

 

Crop Insurance Can Help Keep Multi-Generational Farms Within the Family

My farm has been in my family since the mid-1800s. I have seen firsthand how farming has changed over the decades. It is certainly more expensive to farm than when my parents and grandparents and great-great grandparents farmed the land, but one thing hasn’t changed in more than 150 years: farming is an unpredictable business.

Farmers can’t predict the future, but we can make a genuine effort to be smart, informed business owners. We try to make the right decisions and work with what we have. The problem is when ‘what we have to work with’ is ripped out from underneath us. Without crop insurance, many farmers wouldn’t be able to keep farming. Cutting crop insurance would be pulling the rug from underneath agriculture.

Before the modern day crop insurance system, farmers relied on ad hoc disaster relief payments. This was a costly and unpredictable option for all of us – the government, the taxpayer and the farmer, who in some cases may have received a payment too late to avoid bankruptcy.

Congress agreed that crop insurance was the best risk management tool for farmers. In the 2014 Farm Bill, they implemented a crop insurance system that ensured farmers would have access to affordable crop insurance while removing the risk from the taxpayer. In stride, farmers have made operating decisions with the assumption that all the policies of this bill would be in place until the Farm Bill expires in 2018.

Now, in 2015, this proven risk management tool, crop insurance, is in front of the firing squad. I’m not certain why some Members of Congress are willing to turn their backs on farmers now. Washington is nearly 900 miles away from my family farm. From that distance, it may be easy to assume that cuts to farm programs, like crop insurance, would have no effect on farmers, but that’s not an accurate picture.

Crop insurance is the only safety net that most farmers have anymore. Nearly all the cropland in the United States is protected by crop insurance. In Wisconsin, a majority of crop acres are insured, including grain commodities and specialty crops.

Insurance not only allows farmers to face natural disasters and damaging production years without losing everything, but it provides assurance that we can make payments to our banks. The same way any person in this country cannot get a house loan or a car loan without proof of insurance, agricultural banks want the guarantee that farmers can make their payments.

The agriculture economy is struggling. Farm income continues to decline, crop prices are down and inputs continue to rise. The 2015-16 farm year may be a make or break year for many farmers who are ending the year in the red. Forty years ago, a farmer could lose a crop one year and still farm the next. Nowadays one crop loss could end someone’s farming career. In the current state of agriculture, we can’t afford to have another leg chopped off our stool that’s already leaning.

My wife and I have risked our livelihood to maintain the farm for our children and grandchildren, just as my parents and grandparents did for us. Without crop insurance, we would have to quit farming. For the events we can’t predict, crop insurance ensures we won’t lose our multi-generational family farm.

Darrell Crapp is a farmer from Lancaster, Wisconsin. He farms in partnership with his two sons.  This op-ed appeared in the Prairie du Chien Courier Press on January 20, 2016.

Crop Insurance Can Help Keep Multi-Generational Farms Within the Family

My farm has been in my family since the mid-1800s. I have seen firsthand how farming has changed over the decades. It is certainly more expensive to farm than when my parents and grandparents and great-great grandparents farmed the land, but one thing hasn’t changed in more than 150 years: farming is an unpredictable business.

Farmers can’t predict the future, but we can make a genuine effort to be smart, informed business owners. We try to make the right decisions and work with what we have. The problem is when ‘what we have to work with’ is ripped out from underneath us. Without crop insurance, many farmers wouldn’t be able to keep farming. Cutting crop insurance would be pulling the rug from underneath agriculture.

Before the modern day crop insurance system, farmers relied on ad hoc disaster relief payments. This was a costly and unpredictable option for all of us – the government, the taxpayer and the farmer, who in some cases may have received a payment too late to avoid bankruptcy.

Congress agreed that crop insurance was the best risk management tool for farmers. In the 2014 Farm Bill, they implemented a crop insurance system that ensured farmers would have access to affordable crop insurance while removing the risk from the taxpayer. In stride, farmers have made operating decisions with the assumption that all the policies of this bill would be in place until the Farm Bill expires in 2018.

Now, in 2015, this proven risk management tool, crop insurance, is in front of the firing squad. I’m not certain why some Members of Congress are willing to turn their backs on farmers now. Washington is nearly 900 miles away from my family farm. From that distance, it may be easy to assume that cuts to farm programs, like crop insurance, would have no effect on farmers, but that’s not an accurate picture.

Crop insurance is the only safety net that most farmers have anymore. Nearly all the cropland in the United States is protected by crop insurance. In Wisconsin, a majority of crop acres are insured, including grain commodities and specialty crops.

Insurance not only allows farmers to face natural disasters and damaging production years without losing everything, but it provides assurance that we can make payments to our banks. The same way any person in this country cannot get a house loan or a car loan without proof of insurance, agricultural banks want the guarantee that farmers can make their payments.

The agriculture economy is struggling. Farm income continues to decline, crop prices are down and inputs continue to rise. The 2015-16 farm year may be a make or break year for many farmers who are ending the year in the red. Forty years ago, a farmer could lose a crop one year and still farm the next. Nowadays one crop loss could end someone’s farming career. In the current state of agriculture, we can’t afford to have another leg chopped off our stool that’s already leaning.

My wife and I have risked our livelihood to maintain the farm for our children and grandchildren, just as my parents and grandparents did for us. Without crop insurance, we would have to quit farming. For the events we can’t predict, crop insurance ensures we won’t lose our multi-generational family farm.

Darrell Crapp is a farmer from Lancaster, Wisconsin. He farms in partnership with his two sons.  This op-ed appeared in the Prairie du Chien Courier Press on January 20, 2016.

Keep Crop Insurance Out of the Crosshairs

The passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was the beginning of a new chapter in U.S. farm policy, putting to rest most of the old farm support programs and replacing them with a reformed farm safety net and its centerpiece: Crop insurance.

Unlike farm programs of the past, only farmers who purchase crop insurance enjoy its protection. In fact, when a farmer purchases crop insurance, they are handed a bill, not a check. Crop insurance is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, with farmers paying tens of thousands of dollars per year on premiums for policies that most of them will hopefully not need.

The Farm Bill was a grand compromise. In exchange for $23 billion in spending cuts programs, Congress required market-oriented reforms to commodity programs and made a five-year commitment to ensure the affordability, availability and viability of crop insurance. Unfortunately, anti-farmer groups are targeting crop insurance with proposed cuts that would seriously hamstring the private sector delivery that is the hallmark of success for the program. That would not only threaten to make the system unworkable for farmers, but also endanger the reliability of our nation’s food supply.

Farmers and farm groups value crop insurance because it combines the efficiency of the private sector with the universal coverage of the public sector. Today, virtually any farmer who wants to purchase crop insurance can, and here in Wisconsin, farmers spent roughly $86 million out of their own pockets to do so this year alone. Nationally, that number usually exceeds $4 billion annually.

Remember the historic drought of 2012 that threatened the nation’s heartland and was compared to the dreadful days of the great Dust Bowl? In the past, a disaster of that magnitude would have triggered an overly expensive and completely taxpayer-funded disaster bill. And although those funds were appreciated, they could take months or years to arrive, oftentimes too late to stop a foreclosure.

Things have changed dramatically now that farmers have much improved access to crop insurance, which now protects more than 90 percent of planted cropland. When the drought laid siege to the nation’s heartland, private sector crop insurance adjusters were quickly on the scene, and indemnity checks were usually in the hands of farmers who had verifiable losses in weeks, not months.

Crop insurance worked so well in 2012 that the nation’s farmers bounced back the next year and produced an enormous bounty of grains. And there wasn’t a single call for a disaster bill.

Farmers are the engines that drive the economy of rural America, and without a sufficient safety net in place – like crop insurance – that entire equation is at risk. That is why not only farmers, but ranchers, input suppliers, processors, and equipment companies have all called on Congress to protect crop insurance from any further cuts.

As a farmer, I can tell you that I take great pride in what I do and I understand the important role I play in producing the nation’s food, fiber, feed, and fuel supply. It seems that farmers and consumers alike here in Wisconsin need to remind our congressional delegation of this fact as well.

Tom Gillis, President, Wisconsin Corn Growers Association

Keep Crop Insurance Out of the Crosshairs

The passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was the beginning of a new chapter in U.S. farm policy, putting to rest most of the old farm support programs and replacing them with a reformed farm safety net and its centerpiece: Crop insurance.

Unlike farm programs of the past, only farmers who purchase crop insurance enjoy its protection. In fact, when a farmer purchases crop insurance, they are handed a bill, not a check. Crop insurance is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, with farmers paying tens of thousands of dollars per year on premiums for policies that most of them will hopefully not need.

The Farm Bill was a grand compromise. In exchange for $23 billion in spending cuts programs, Congress required market-oriented reforms to commodity programs and made a five-year commitment to ensure the affordability, availability and viability of crop insurance. Unfortunately, anti-farmer groups are targeting crop insurance with proposed cuts that would seriously hamstring the private sector delivery that is the hallmark of success for the program. That would not only threaten to make the system unworkable for farmers, but also endanger the reliability of our nation’s food supply.

Farmers and farm groups value crop insurance because it combines the efficiency of the private sector with the universal coverage of the public sector. Today, virtually any farmer who wants to purchase crop insurance can, and here in Wisconsin, farmers spent roughly $86 million out of their own pockets to do so this year alone. Nationally, that number usually exceeds $4 billion annually.

Remember the historic drought of 2012 that threatened the nation’s heartland and was compared to the dreadful days of the great Dust Bowl? In the past, a disaster of that magnitude would have triggered an overly expensive and completely taxpayer-funded disaster bill. And although those funds were appreciated, they could take months or years to arrive, oftentimes too late to stop a foreclosure.

Things have changed dramatically now that farmers have much improved access to crop insurance, which now protects more than 90 percent of planted cropland. When the drought laid siege to the nation’s heartland, private sector crop insurance adjusters were quickly on the scene, and indemnity checks were usually in the hands of farmers who had verifiable losses in weeks, not months.

Crop insurance worked so well in 2012 that the nation’s farmers bounced back the next year and produced an enormous bounty of grains. And there wasn’t a single call for a disaster bill.

Farmers are the engines that drive the economy of rural America, and without a sufficient safety net in place – like crop insurance – that entire equation is at risk. That is why not only farmers, but ranchers, input suppliers, processors, and equipment companies have all called on Congress to protect crop insurance from any further cuts.

As a farmer, I can tell you that I take great pride in what I do and I understand the important role I play in producing the nation’s food, fiber, feed, and fuel supply. It seems that farmers and consumers alike here in Wisconsin need to remind our congressional delegation of this fact as well.

Tom Gillis, President, Wisconsin Corn Growers Association

Insurance on crops boosts farms of all sizes

It is no secret that farm demographics demonstrate an alarming trend in American agriculture.

The average age of the American farmer is rising while the number of beginning farmers is decreasing.

These beginning farmers are typically younger than their more established counterparts with less access to credit and capital.

I see this reality every day as a banker at one of the largest agricultural lending institutions in Indiana. In general, all farmers need access to credit to operate and manage a farm, but it is even more crucial for a young farmer because of the enormous startup costs.

It is not an exaggeration to say that farmers borrow more in a single year to grow a crop than some Americans borrow in a lifetime.

And, frankly, banks can be wary of lending to a young farmer just starting out because of the combination of a short credit history and the inherent riskiness of the business.

The one factor in their favor is crop insurance. By purchasing a policy, young farmers enhance their ability to obtain financing because banks have the assurance they can make payments even during tough times.

But opponents of farm policy in Washington are proposing legislation that, if enacted, would threaten the viability of this important risk management tool and make it harder for young, beginning farmers to survive.

These farm policy critics would have you believe that barring producers with large operations from participating in crop insurance helps smaller farmers.

Actually, it does the opposite.

Pooling of risk is essential for any viable insurance program. Because every farmer of every size in every part of the country can purchase crop insurance, the risk pool is large and diverse, which makes crop insurance affordable for all farmers and minimizes the financial exposure of the bank, the farmer and the taxpayer.

Similarly, car insurers want older, more experienced drivers in the same risk pool as those who are younger and potentially more accident-prone.

Eliminating the more established farmers from the mix shrinks this pool and undermines the entire system, making it harder for smaller, beginning farmers to get insurance coverage and, subsequently, agricultural financing.

Statistics already show us that farming is a hard life with fewer and fewer people willing to try it.

Now is not the time to make starting a farm even more difficult by destroying the viability and affordability of crop insurance.

Now is the time to protect the one thing beginning farmers and their bankers can count on.

Joe Kessie is the senior vice president and commercial south regional manager at Lake City Bank in Warsaw, Indiana.

Insurance on crops boosts farms of all sizes

It is no secret that farm demographics demonstrate an alarming trend in American agriculture.

The average age of the American farmer is rising while the number of beginning farmers is decreasing.

These beginning farmers are typically younger than their more established counterparts with less access to credit and capital.

I see this reality every day as a banker at one of the largest agricultural lending institutions in Indiana. In general, all farmers need access to credit to operate and manage a farm, but it is even more crucial for a young farmer because of the enormous startup costs.

It is not an exaggeration to say that farmers borrow more in a single year to grow a crop than some Americans borrow in a lifetime.

And, frankly, banks can be wary of lending to a young farmer just starting out because of the combination of a short credit history and the inherent riskiness of the business.

The one factor in their favor is crop insurance. By purchasing a policy, young farmers enhance their ability to obtain financing because banks have the assurance they can make payments even during tough times.

But opponents of farm policy in Washington are proposing legislation that, if enacted, would threaten the viability of this important risk management tool and make it harder for young, beginning farmers to survive.

These farm policy critics would have you believe that barring producers with large operations from participating in crop insurance helps smaller farmers.

Actually, it does the opposite.

Pooling of risk is essential for any viable insurance program. Because every farmer of every size in every part of the country can purchase crop insurance, the risk pool is large and diverse, which makes crop insurance affordable for all farmers and minimizes the financial exposure of the bank, the farmer and the taxpayer.

Similarly, car insurers want older, more experienced drivers in the same risk pool as those who are younger and potentially more accident-prone.

Eliminating the more established farmers from the mix shrinks this pool and undermines the entire system, making it harder for smaller, beginning farmers to get insurance coverage and, subsequently, agricultural financing.

Statistics already show us that farming is a hard life with fewer and fewer people willing to try it.

Now is not the time to make starting a farm even more difficult by destroying the viability and affordability of crop insurance.

Now is the time to protect the one thing beginning farmers and their bankers can count on.

Joe Kessie is the senior vice president and commercial south regional manager at Lake City Bank in Warsaw, Indiana.

This drought just isn’t giving up, but farmers aren’t quitters

California’s central valley has been called America’s salad bowl, but honestly in the last four years, it looks more like a dust bowl than a vegetable garden. The historic drought has caused many California farmers to pay prices for water – just to keep their orchards alive – that most Americans would find unfathomable.

Almond, stone fruit, grape and citrus owners once paid roughly $70 per acre foot to ensure that their long term investments had enough water to remain healthy and productive. That cost is now as much as $1,300 per acre foot – about an 1800 percent increase – all while the retail value of their crops has risen very little in comparison.

Estimates are that 170,000 jobs in Kern County alone are directly connected to farming and harvesting. But the number of jobs connected to supporting those farmers, growers and harvesters is around eight times that amount. Crop insurance acts as an underpinning for all of these important jobs and productivity that represent a sizable portion of our economy.

In the past, a wide scale disaster of this magnitude would have triggered a series of very expensive ad hoc disaster bills paid for exclusively by taxpayers. But there has not been a single disaster bill passed even though this drought refuses to release its grip. And that’s because nowadays, farmers are able to purchase the protection and peace of mind of crop insurance.

Crop insurance is a public private partnership whereby farmers purchase policies with their own money, and the policies are sold and serviced by participating companies and agents.

Clearly, the success behind crop insurance is that it’s affordable, viable, and available. Unlike other forms of insurance, any farmer who wishes to purchase crop insurance can do so, regardless of the size of their farming operation or how many years they may have under their belts farming.

Farmers prefer crop insurance because it allows them to pay a premium to help remove some degree of risk from a very volatile business. Twenty years ago, many farmers had never heard of crop insurance. Today, crop insurance protects more than 90 percent of planted acres nationally.

A crop insurance check will never come close to what a farmer can get from a good harvest. But it does offer farmers some peace of mind so that they know that if Mother Nature gets ugly, they can bounce back and be in business again next year. That’s good for consumers, who don’t want their food supply disrupted, and good for the rural economy as well.

When I began this career 13 years ago, I was surprised that bankers were making loans without the guarantee of crop insurance. Obviously, that doesn’t happen much anymore. In fact, it’s very difficult for farmers to get a loan at all without a crop insurance policy in hand.

Of course, crop insurance has its critics who try and make the program sound like another federal handout. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, when farmers purchase crop insurance, they receive a bill, not a check. And only receive a payment if they incur a loss greater than a deductible amount chosen a year in advance. Just like homeowners insurance, farmers buy crop insurance hoping they won’t have to use it, but rest better at night knowing they are more secure.

Yes, this drought has been historic and is about as stubborn as a drought can be. But farmers are hardworking, honest and smart businessmen and women who have armed themselves with the best tools possible to weather this storm. And crop insurance has ensured that California’s central valley will remain America’s fruit and vegetable garden for generations to come.

Todd Snider is a crop insurance agent, Kern County Farm Bureau director, Bakersfield Homeless Center director, and resides in Bakersfield.

Crop Insurance Literally Saved My Mississippi Farm

As a fourth generation Mississippi farmer, I grew up knowing that I worked in a field full of risks.  When the weather cooperates, prices dive.  When prices are great, foreign markets collapse, sending prices into a sudden nosedive.   It’s always something.

However, it wasn’t until I actually set out on my own in farming in 2011 that I fully understood just how financially exposed farmers are when they put a crop in the ground.  That year, I had to borrow roughly $2.5 million to put 3,500 acres of mostly corn into the ground, fully knowing the financial consequences if things went awry.

Just as luck would have it, my crop insurance agent talked me into buying enough coverage that year to cover a loss – up to 85 percent of my crop – that was simply unimaginable to me.  I wrote that $60,000 check knowing purchasing my crop insurance policy that year certain that I was buying coverage for a catastrophe that would never happen.  And then it happened.  And that’s the moment I realized that for me, crop insurance is not only essential, it’s the only reason I’m still in business today.

The concern that I had about what had become the drought of 2011 after I planted my crop quickly morphed into a lump in my throat as torrential rains came to the Mississippi delta and the local river spilled over its banks.  Before I knew it, the levees had failed and the Yazoo River was knocking on my front door, flooding nearly my entire farm.

Crop insurance is a public-private partnership whereby individual farmers purchase policies out of their own back pockets for insurance that is specifically tailored for their tolerance to risk and the profile of their farm.  Crop insurance is affordable to farmers, thankfully, because the federal government provides a discount, ensuring that all farmers, young and old, big and small, can purchase policies if they choose to.

Farmers buy crop insurance for the same reason drivers purchase auto insurance:  because it gives you some degree of stability in times of disaster.  If you wreck your car, your car insurance will replace it and you can go to work the next day.  Why wouldn’t we as a nation also want to have an insurance policy on our food supply, since that, after all, is the most important thing we have?

Prior to the rise of modern day crop insurance, the wide-scale disaster that we experienced in 2011 would have necessitated a very expensive, ad hoc disaster bill from Congress.  While anything is better than nothing when you literally lose the farm, those disaster funds usually took a year or more to actually land in the hands of the farmers who needed the help.  A year or two is often just too late for some farmers, particularly young and beginning farmers.

Crop insurance, on the other hand, is administered by private insurance companies and help arrives in weeks or a month or two, not years later.  In my case, as my farm was literally underwater, my crop insurance agent, the adjuster and the their supervisor were on site to get things moving for me.

In 2014, crop insurance covered nearly 90 percent of planted farmland in the U.S., costing farmers roughly $3.8 billion out of their own back pockets.  Those policies protected 128 different crops including nearly all major commodities and a long list of specialty crops including apricots, bananas, blueberries, cherries, coffee, olives and tangerines.

Needless to say, if I hadn’t purchased crop insurance that first year I struck out on my own, I would be doing something else other than what I love and do best, which is farming.  And me, my wife and kids would be spending the rest of our lives paying the bank back for that first production loan I borrowed.  Don’t let anyone tell you anything differently:  Affordable, available and viable crop insurance is essential for a healthy farm sector and plentiful, domestic food supply.

John Michael Pillow is a farmer from Yazoo City, Mississippi.

Cuts to the Farm Safety Net Jeopardize a National Asset

“When the well’s dry, we shall know the worth of water,” said Benjamin Franklin.

Similarly, if ever we lose the hard-working independent family farms that take care of the nation’s landscape while producing a diverse set of crops more reliably and efficiently than any farm sector in history, then, and only then will we truly understand the value they provide.

I, for one, hope we as a nation never get to that point and I will work every day on behalf of agricultural producers to prevent such a scenario. But, it’s a challenge for a number of reasons; chief among them is we take our secure, affordable, national food supply for granted. It’s always been there, it always will be.

To be sure, the “well” that is the American farmer is not going dry, but here are some reasons why we should make certain that the policies we embrace don’t put our farmers in danger.

First, the demographics are not on our side. The number of farmers continues to decline and the age of farmers continues to increase. These numbers speak to a way of life that is hard and seems to grow harder by the day.

Second, the business of farming is getting ugly. The Secretary of Agriculture is forecasting a 32 percent decline in net farm income from 2014 to 2015 and lower commodity prices for the foreseeable future.

Third, when farmers aren’t dealing with the vagaries of Mother Nature and falling commodity prices, then they’re worried about the constant threat of new regulatory burdens.  Just consider recent activity in Washington: the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule that some have labeled the biggest land grab in the history of the U.S. causing every ditch across rural America to be regulated as a major waterway. Farmers and ranchers will endure the brunt of this new regulation as the primary stewards of land resources in the U.S.

Finally, to add to this political risk and uncertainty, some lawmakers are trying to use the appropriations process to threaten farm policy one year into the 2014 Farm Bill. This is after the farm safety net has already borne dramatic cuts over the last decade in an effort to reduce our national deficit.

Crop Insurance was the primary target.  And, while the efforts were rightly rejected, they could have brought an agricultural sector that is already suffering to its knees.  Farmers purchase crop insurance to protect against losses due to natural disasters.  They only receive an indemnity after suffering a verifiable loss and paying their deductible. Crop insurance enables farmers to rebound quickly after a disaster and it prevents dramatic farm losses, which in turn allows them to pay credit obligations and fixed expenses.

This system is hugely important for not only farmers, but also to rural communities and the national economy as a whole. Agriculture accounts for nearly $800 billion in economic activity and supports one out of every 11 jobs in the economy. Cutting the farm safety net would serve to reduce farm financial protection and drive independent American farm families out of business.

Meanwhile, our foreign competitors seem more than ready to move the U.S. out of the agriculture business as they ramp up support for their own farmers. As Texas Tech University’s Darren Hudson recently told a Congressional committee, “Other countries are treating their agricultural sectors as a national asset for security purposes and for the U.S. not to consider the implications of those choices would leave us at a competitive disadvantage.”

Indeed, it would be a tragic commentary if years from now – having squandered our own national asset because we didn’t fully appreciate its worth – we look back and remember what we had and lost.

Tim Lust is the CEO of the National Sorghum Producers.

 

Crop insurance essential for farmers

Crop insurance essential for farmers

New England Farmers Need Access to Affordable Crop Insurance

Although Federal Crop Insurance has been around since 1938, it was largely unused by the farmers because it was either unaffordable, unavailable, or both.  Instead, when farmers experienced widespread losses from natural disasters like floods, hail, or hurricanes they turned to Congress for ad hoc disaster assistance.

According to the Congressional Research Service, that assistance has cost taxpayers in excess of $70 billion since 1989.  With taxpayers opposed to the cost of the program and farmers unable to pay expenses due to the time it took to deliver relief, Congress acted.  That action came in the form of the Federal Crop Insurance Act, which expanded crop insurance, making it affordable and accessible to our nation’s farmers.

With the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress ended direct payments and other similar programs.  Today, if farmers wish to manage the risk posed by Mother Nature and market swings, they must purchase crop insurance.

Crop insurance is a public-private partnership that provides farmers with risk management tools that can be tailored to their needs.  The cost is shared by farmers, who pay premiums and have deductibles, as well as participating crop insurance companies and the federal government who shoulder a portion of losses.

And crop insurance has had plenty of opportunity to prove its worth to New England farmers.  In 2011, the arrival of Tropical Storm Irene turned the regions’ creeks into torrents and flooded many of the area’s croplands right before harvest.  Farmers who needed the field crops that had yet to be harvested watched in despair, as those fields were first swallowed and then erased by Mother Nature.

Thankfully, many of those farmers had purchased crop insurance, and private sector companies who assessed the damage had indemnity checks to the farmers usually within weeks or months, not the years that federal disaster assistance can take.  This allowed New England farmers to bounce back and be in full production again in 2012, ensuring rural economies didn’t suffer any long-term damages.

Last year, farmers spent $3.8 billion out of their own pockets purchasing crop insurance nationally.  Those policies protected 295 million acres of farmland valued at $129 billion.   Today, 90 percent of planted cropland was protected by federal crop insurance, which today protects 128 different varieties of crops, ranging from commodities like corn to fresh vegetables.

New England is unique, both in the types of farming we do and the markets we serve.  Many of our smaller and diversified farmers sell directly to consumers and the variety of crops raised limit their option for crop insurance.  The 2014 Farm Bill created the Whole Farm Revenue Protection Program to address the needs of diversified farmers and offer roughly equivalent crop insurance products to them.  Whole farm protection policies are especially important to New England farmers who are now dealing with the increased weather fluctuations caused by climate change, which has triggered a 73 percent increase in extreme weather events in New England.

Agriculture has always played an important role in the New England economy.  It is not only part of our heritage, but it is topic of growing importance to consumers who wish to know more about their food.  New England farmers, whether they are dairymen, fruit and vegetable growers, or any other combination we see in our rural landscape, need a safety net to guard against events beyond their control. By ensuring crop insurance remains affordable, available and viable we will ensure the continuation of our farms for the benefit of consumers and rural towns across the region.

Roger Noonan is president of New England Farmers Union.

Farmers Need Protection of Crop Insurance

When the homesteaders came to Kansas, they were looking for land to farm and a chance at the American dream. If they were like my family, they arrived here in a covered wagon, and many of us still live on the land where they began to build their dreams.

But Kansas can be a cruel place to farm. On the turn of a dime, a lifetime’s worth of work and every penny you have can be wiped out by a single hailstorm, a heat wave or drought, a springtime flood or frost, or a market crash that erases any chance of profit regardless of how well your crops do that year.

And that, in a nutshell, is why the vast majority of Kansas farmers purchase crop insurance every year, and why it must remain available, affordable and viable. In fact, with the passage of the 2014 farm bill, crop insurance is the primary risk management tool available to commodity farmers and the only risk management tool available to many specialty crop farmers.

One thing that has dramatically changed in agriculture since my family homesteaded in Minneapolis, Kan., is that farming has now become an incredibly capital-intensive venture. It takes so much money just to put a crop in the ground and harvest it at the end of the season that anyone farming without crop insurance might as well be playing Russian roulette.

I’ve had lots of friends tell me over the past several years that if it weren’t for crop insurance, they would not have been able to put a crop in the ground the next year. Crop insurance is a public-private partnership whereby farmers purchase private policies from participating companies that sell and service the policies. One of the government’s main roles is to discount the policies to a degree that they are widely affordable to most farmers.

In 2014, about 90 percent of planted cropland was protected by crop insurance, paid for out of the back pockets of farmers to the tune of $3.8 billion. Nationally, more than 1.2 million policies were purchased, protecting almost 294 million acres of food, feed, fiber and fuel crops that accounted for more than $110 billion in liabilities.

With the cost of farming so high, most farmers have to actually show proof of having purchased crop insurance in order to secure a production loan from a bank. The farmers get to sleep better at night because they have purchased the protection of crop insurance, and banks are able to make production loans to folks who might otherwise be judged too risky.

Some think that crop insurance is a freebie. Let me set the record straight right now: It’s not. Farmers have skin in the game when they pay their premiums, which is not pocket change. I bet the farmers I know spend $35,000 to $40,000 every year to purchase their policies. And in many years, they don’t collect a dime.

The reason why food supply in the U.S. remains abundant is that we have tools in place to make sure that when farmers are knocked to their knees by the whims of Mother Nature, they have a policy tool in hand to pick themselves back up and plant again. Let’s make sure that crop insurance remains affordable, viable and available for generations to come, to ensure a continued legacy of abundance in America.

Steve Baccus of Minneapolis, Kan., is the immediate past president of the Kansas Farm Bureau.

Keep Crop Insurance Out of the Crosshairs

The passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was the beginning of a new chapter in U.S. farm policy, putting to rest most of the old farm support programs and replacing them with a reformed farm safety net and its centerpiece: Crop insurance.

Unlike farm programs of the past, only farmers who purchase crop insurance enjoy its protection. In fact, when a farmer purchases crop insurance, they are handed a bill, not a check. Crop insurance is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, with farmers paying tens of thousands of dollars per year on premiums for policies that most of them will hopefully not need.

The Farm Bill was a grand compromise. In exchange for $23 billion in spending cuts programs, Congress required market-oriented reforms to commodity programs and made a five-year commitment to ensure the affordability, availability and viability of crop insurance. Unfortunately, anti-farmer groups are targeting crop insurance with proposed cuts that would seriously hamstring the private sector delivery that is the hallmark of success for the program. That would not only threaten to make the system unworkable for farmers, but also endanger the reliability of our nation’s food supply.

Farmers and farm groups value crop insurance because it combines the efficiency of the private sector with the universal coverage of the public sector. Today, virtually any farmer who wants to purchase crop insurance can, and here in Wisconsin, farmers spent roughly $86 million out of their own pockets to do so this year alone. Nationally, that number usually exceeds $4 billion annually.

Remember the historic drought of 2012 that threatened the nation’s heartland and was compared to the dreadful days of the great Dust Bowl? In the past, a disaster of that magnitude would have triggered an overly expensive and completely taxpayer-funded disaster bill. And although those funds were appreciated, they could take months or years to arrive, oftentimes too late to stop a foreclosure.

Things have changed dramatically now that farmers have much improved access to crop insurance, which now protects more than 90 percent of planted cropland. When the drought laid siege to the nation’s heartland, private sector crop insurance adjusters were quickly on the scene, and indemnity checks were usually in the hands of farmers who had verifiable losses in weeks, not months.

Crop insurance worked so well in 2012 that the nation’s farmers bounced back the next year and produced an enormous bounty of grains. And there wasn’t a single call for a disaster bill.

Farmers are the engines that drive the economy of rural America, and without a sufficient safety net in place – like crop insurance – that entire equation is at risk. That is why not only farmers, but ranchers, input suppliers, processors, and equipment companies have all called on Congress to protect crop insurance from any further cuts.

As a farmer, I can tell you that I take great pride in what I do and I understand the important role I play in producing the nation’s food, fiber, feed, and fuel supply. It seems that farmers and consumers alike here in Wisconsin need to remind our congressional delegation of this fact as well.

Tom Gillis is president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association.  This op-ed appeared in Wisconsin AgConnection on December 3, 2015

Crop Insurance Helps Farmers and Ag Lenders Manage Risk

Weather anomalies have challenged farmers since the earliest days of agriculture. A flood, hail storm or drought can leave a farmer without a harvestable crop at the end of the season. In Central Kansas, producers have been fortunate in the fact that they have not had to endure multiple years of drought or poor production. However, neighboring areas such as Southwest Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and areas further west have not been so lucky. There is no doubt that crop insurance has helped some farmers stay in business through the tough times.

The United States has learned in hindsight that providing retroactive disaster relief is not only destabilizing for farmers but expensive for taxpayers. Prior to our current crop insurance system, it could have taken months if not years for farmers to receive relief payments following a disaster. While the support did not go unnoticed, there were many instances when the payments came too late to save a farmer from insolvency.

It is a fact that strong farm policy and support for crop insurance goes beyond the farmer, not only benefitting rural America but consumers as well. In the 2014 Farm Bill, crop insurance was recognized as the primary risk management tool for farmers, shifting a good share of the risks associated with farming away from the American taxpayer.

The key to a viable crop insurance system is the public-private partnership that makes it the success it has been. The private sector sells and services crop insurance policies and farmers pay premiums and have deductibles, just like other insurance policies. To incentivize farmers to buy crop insurance, the government partially discounts premiums to ensure that coverage is affordable, available to everyone, and economically viable.

Lenders also play a role in encouraging farmers to make informed decisions about managing their operating risk. At Central National Bank, we are agriculture lenders as well as licensed crop insurance agents. We encourage all of our farmer customers to protect their investment with crop insurance and as a financial institution, we may even be able to offer better loan terms to a producer that implements a solid risk management program.

It is important to keep in mind that crop insurance is a risk management tool, not a profit center. Some have charged that farmers would rather collect a crop insurance check than a good harvest.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Simple math suggests that “playing the crop insurance game” is not a sustainable business plan. In 10 years of working with producers, I’ve yet to meet anyone who would rather collect a crop insurance check than harvest a good crop.  

 As we enter into a period of declining margins, it will be important for producers to review all aspects of their operation, including risk management programs.  Recently, the farm economy has seen double-digit declines in net farm income as well as increases in the number of short-term operating loans. Having access to viable risk management tools will not necessarily add to the bottom line, but it is important for producers to utilize tools such as crop insurance to protect revenue streams through a possible prolonged downturn in the farm economy.

Not only does a well thought-out crop insurance plan speak to a producer’s management skills, but crop insurance also provides a backstop so producers are able to meet their financial obligations. Ensuring farmers have access to affordable, viable crop insurance options is not only critical for the farm business, but it will certainly impact future ag lending decisions in terms of assessing operating risk for loans.

Aaron Gasper is an agriculture and commercial lender at Central National Bank in Salina, Kansas.

Crop Insurance Helps Farmers and Ag Lenders Manage Risk

Weather anomalies have challenged farmers since the earliest days of agriculture. A flood, hail storm or drought can leave a farmer without a harvestable crop at the end of the season. In Central Kansas, producers have been fortunate in the fact that they have not had to endure multiple years of drought or poor production. However, neighboring areas such as Southwest Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and areas further west have not been so lucky. There is no doubt that crop insurance has helped some farmers stay in business through the tough times.

The United States has learned in hindsight that providing retroactive disaster relief is not only destabilizing for farmers but expensive for taxpayers. Prior to our current crop insurance system, it could have taken months if not years for farmers to receive relief payments following a disaster. While the support did not go unnoticed, there were many instances when the payments came too late to save a farmer from insolvency.

It is a fact that strong farm policy and support for crop insurance goes beyond the farmer, not only benefitting rural America but consumers as well. In the 2014 Farm Bill, crop insurance was recognized as the primary risk management tool for farmers, shifting a good share of the risks associated with farming away from the American taxpayer.

The key to a viable crop insurance system is the public-private partnership that makes it the success it has been. The private sector sells and services crop insurance policies and farmers pay premiums and have deductibles, just like other insurance policies. To incentivize farmers to buy crop insurance, the government partially discounts premiums to ensure that coverage is affordable, available to everyone, and economically viable.

Lenders also play a role in encouraging farmers to make informed decisions about managing their operating risk. At Central National Bank, we are agriculture lenders as well as licensed crop insurance agents. We encourage all of our farmer customers to protect their investment with crop insurance and as a financial institution, we may even be able to offer better loan terms to a producer that implements a solid risk management program.

It is important to keep in mind that crop insurance is a risk management tool, not a profit center. Some have charged that farmers would rather collect a crop insurance check than a good harvest.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Simple math suggests that “playing the crop insurance game” is not a sustainable business plan. In 10 years of working with producers, I’ve yet to meet anyone who would rather collect a crop insurance check than harvest a good crop.  

 As we enter into a period of declining margins, it will be important for producers to review all aspects of their operation, including risk management programs.  Recently, the farm economy has seen double-digit declines in net farm income as well as increases in the number of short-term operating loans. Having access to viable risk management tools will not necessarily add to the bottom line, but it is important for producers to utilize tools such as crop insurance to protect revenue streams through a possible prolonged downturn in the farm economy.

Not only does a well thought-out crop insurance plan speak to a producer’s management skills, but crop insurance also provides a backstop so producers are able to meet their financial obligations. Ensuring farmers have access to affordable, viable crop insurance options is not only critical for the farm business, but it will certainly impact future ag lending decisions in terms of assessing operating risk for loans.

Aaron Gasper is an agriculture and commercial lender at Central National Bank in Salina, Kansas.

History demonstrates the importance of a farm safety net

If my family had kept the farm, I would have been a fourth-generation farmer of a grain operation. But they couldn’t.

The ’80s were not kind to us, and my family made the difficult decision to exit the business. They were not alone. Some statistics show public farm auctions numbered around 500 a month during the darkest days of the decade, with hundreds of thousands of farmers defaulting on their loans. Nearly 2,000 banks failed or received assistance through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation between 1980 and 1994, which is more than any other period since the FDIC was created.

Watching my family and neighbors go through this kind of torment made an impression. It’s one of the reasons I am passionate about what I do today. It is a high priority for me as an agricultural banker to do everything I can—not only as a provider of capital and traditional banking products, but a provider of expertise and counsel—to help farmers make the right decisions about their operations. I want them to be prepared for a crisis.

Fortunately, for farmers today there are more tools available to manage the risky business of farming than there were a few decades ago. One of those tools is crop insurance, which has improved significantly through the years to become one of the key pieces of the farm safety net. Farmers have to invest so much money to grow a crop that they rely on banks for operating loans. Banks would have a hard time making those loans without assurance farmers would have a way to pay it back if a natural disaster struck. Crop insurance enables everyone—from the farmer to the banker—to plan for those disasters.

Additionally, crop insurance is structured in such a way that spreads risk across a large and diverse pool of participants so that the impact of losses from a disaster is minimized. That’s because it is widely available and affordable for producers all across the country regardless of their farm size. Without this kind of farm safety net for all of our farmers, large production losses could set in motion a series of events reminiscent of the 1980s when farms failed and banks were stressed to the point of shutting down.

Therefore, it’s critical crop insurance remain intact. Something that seems harder and harder to do in today’s political environment where opponents are determined to destroy the one thing farmers can count on during tough times.

We saw their work in full force during the latest budget agreement that was negotiated at the last minute and included cuts to crop insurance. Thankfully, the agricultural community responded in equal force and demanded the cuts be reversed. Lawmakers are expected to address this provision in the next omnibus spending bill.

We do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past where harsh economic conditions combined with an inadequate safety net caused producers to leave the farm altogether. Right now, we have farm policy in place that encourages sound risk management practices and helps farmers to position themselves for the future.

In the midst of the crisis as he signed the 1985 farm bill, President Ronald Reagan said, “This country is nothing without the farmer, and those who work the land have the right to know that there’s a future in farming. Their children have the right to know that they’ll still be able to work the family farm generations from now and make a decent living.”

By then it was too late for my family and countless others to continue farming, but if we’re smart, we’ll learn the hard lessons from the past so future generations can continue.

Indeed, we are nothing without farmers. And, they can’t survive the vagaries of the business without sound farm policy.

Nate Franzen is the President of the Agribusiness Division at First Dakota National Bank in South Dakota. He has worked in agricultural banking for more than two decades. 

Crop Insurance Policies are Crucial for Farmers

As someone who has spent more than four decades managing a fourth-generation farm and the past 10 years building my family’s crop insurance agency, I believe I have valuable perspective worth sharing regarding how essential today’s federal crop insurance policies are to America’s farmers and consumers.

Specifically, I would like to explain how essential the Harvest Price Option has become to the modern agricultural producer.  The Harvest Price Option insures a crop at its actual harvest-time value. Think of it like a homeowner’s insurance policy. If your home appreciates in value after you purchase it, you are protected at the home’s current value if it burns down and you have to rebuild.

Unfortunately for agriculture, this policy that makes rebuilding possible has come under fire from those who misunderstand the unique risks for farmers who are constantly exposed to the ravages of Mother Nature. It is important to note that farmers pay an additional premium for this type of protection and it supports their risk management in two distinct ways.

First, a farmer often prices a large percentage of his anticipated – or before harvest – crop using forward price contracts with a local elevator. If a natural disaster strikes causing production to fall short of the quantity sold, the farmer would need to purchase enough of the crop to fulfill his contractual obligation. But, the price of the commodity is likely to have increased because of the overall drop in production due to the disaster. Consequently, the remaining crop available to purchase is priced much higher than what was covered under the spring contract.

By purchasing the Harvest Price Option as part of his crop insurance policy, the farmer is able to meet his contractual obligations either by buying grain to deliver under the contract or by making a financial settlement with the purchaser.

A second way the Harvest Price Option becomes essential to producers is if the grain being produced is intended to support the farm’s future animal feed needs. If a natural disaster destroys the grain that is to be harvested, then the producer will be forced to purchase feed instead.  If there is a widespread short crop, the feed costs will be much higher.  With the Harvest Price Option on the producer’s crop insurance policy, the farmer will be paid the actual harvest price on his lost production.  This, in turn, allows him to purchase the feed needs for his livestock operation and still maintain a viable business.

In fact, allowing farmers to maintain a viable business when the unexpected happens is what crop insurance is all about.  The beneficiary is not just the farmer, but also the American consumer. Crop insurance enables farm families like mine to pick up the pieces after a disaster and continue to produce food and fiber without significant price increases or supply shortages for consumers. The fact that Americans spend less of their disposable income for food than any other country speaks volume as to how critical it is that farmers have risk management tools like crop insurance.  The critics would do well to try to understand the link between a viable crop insurance program and an affordable, stable food supply before proposing measures that would destroy it. In other words, before biting the hand that feeds them.

Gary Riekhof is a farmer and crop insurance agent from Higginsville, Missouri.  This op-ed appeared in the Columbia Tribune on June 6, 2015.

Crop Insurance Helps Farmers Survive Unpredictable Weather All Across the Country

“Frost threatens northern U.S. corn; rains soak southern Plains.”

This recent headline says it all. The diversity of American agricultural production coupled with the varied growing conditions across the country and the swings in weather explains why farmers need a safety net. More importantly, it describes why crop insurance is the centerpiece of the farm safety net.

U.S. multi-peril crop insurance is a risk management tool that farmers, regardless of their location, crop, or production method, purchase to protect against the loss of their crops due to natural disasters such as hail, drought, freezes, floods, fire, disease, or the loss of revenue due to a decline in price. Farmers buy policies to fit the individual needs of the their operations. In 2014, 1.2 million policies were sold protecting more than 120 different crops covering 294 million acres.

I have been farming corn and soybeans for about three decades and I have always purchased crop insurance because it gives me some peace of mind even though we are in a climate setting that typically doesn’t experience wide weather extremes like some of our neighbors in other parts of the country.

That’s not to say we haven’t been hit with our share of unpredictable weather that made planting and harvesting a crop challenging. It does mean I customize the policy I purchase to meet the needs of my operation.

For example, just two years ago, we had a hard time getting a crop in the ground because nine inches of snow blanketed the area on the second day of May, which is normally the time when we’re wrapping up the planting season. The soil was already soaked from a rainy spring season. That year we didn’t start planting until the middle of May and didn’t finish until the first week in June.

Late planting can potentially put a farmer in double jeopardy – not only are they expecting lower yields because of the delay in planting, but that crop is also vulnerable to frost around the autumn harvest time.

This was the first time in more than 20 years of farming that we planted corn in June – more than a third of our crop. It was also the first time we elected to take prevented planting provisions for roughly 5 percent of our acres as part of our crop insurance policy. Prevented planting provisions are designed to provide coverage when extreme weather conditions prevent a farmer from getting in the fields.

Crop insurance helped us cover some of the loss from that bad year. It made it manageable, which is why it’s an essential risk management tool for my farm and others like mine all across the country. The cost of growing crops has increased substantially. It wasn’t too long ago that it took about half of what it takes to grow an acre of corn. Because of these costs, a substantial crop loss would be a major financial setback for anyone. With crop insurance, we are able to level the highs and lows.

There have been a lot of changes to farm policy through the years to reflect the changing times, but given the diversity of agriculture in our country and the way crop insurance can be uniquely tailored to address disastrous conditions in an efficient and effective way, it should only be strengthened in the years to come.

Bruce Peterson is a farmer from Northfield and the president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. This op-ed appeared in The Hill on June 3, 2015.

Crop Insurance Helps Farmers Survive Unpredictable Weather All Across the Country

“Frost threatens northern U.S. corn; rains soak southern Plains.”

This recent headline says it all. The diversity of American agricultural production coupled with the varied growing conditions across the country and the swings in weather explains why farmers need a safety net. More importantly, it describes why crop insurance is the centerpiece of the farm safety net.

U.S. multi-peril crop insurance is a risk management tool that farmers, regardless of their location, crop, or production method, purchase to protect against the loss of their crops due to natural disasters such as hail, drought, freezes, floods, fire, disease, or the loss of revenue due to a decline in price. Farmers buy policies to fit the individual needs of the their operations. In 2014, 1.2 million policies were sold protecting more than 120 different crops covering 294 million acres.

I have been farming corn and soybeans for about three decades and I have always purchased crop insurance because it gives me some peace of mind even though we are in a climate setting that typically doesn’t experience wide weather extremes like some of our neighbors in other parts of the country.

That’s not to say we haven’t been hit with our share of unpredictable weather that made planting and harvesting a crop challenging. It does mean I customize the policy I purchase to meet the needs of my operation.

For example, just two years ago, we had a hard time getting a crop in the ground because nine inches of snow blanketed the area on the second day of May, which is normally the time when we’re wrapping up the planting season. The soil was already soaked from a rainy spring season. That year we didn’t start planting until the middle of May and didn’t finish until the first week in June.

Late planting can potentially put a farmer in double jeopardy – not only are they expecting lower yields because of the delay in planting, but that crop is also vulnerable to frost around the autumn harvest time.

This was the first time in more than 20 years of farming that we planted corn in June – more than a third of our crop. It was also the first time we elected to take prevented planting provisions for roughly 5 percent of our acres as part of our crop insurance policy. Prevented planting provisions are designed to provide coverage when extreme weather conditions prevent a farmer from getting in the fields.

Crop insurance helped us cover some of the loss from that bad year. It made it manageable, which is why it’s an essential risk management tool for my farm and others like mine all across the country. The cost of growing crops has increased substantially. It wasn’t too long ago that it took about half of what it takes to grow an acre of corn. Because of these costs, a substantial crop loss would be a major financial setback for anyone. With crop insurance, we are able to level the highs and lows.

There have been a lot of changes to farm policy through the years to reflect the changing times, but given the diversity of agriculture in our country and the way crop insurance can be uniquely tailored to address disastrous conditions in an efficient and effective way, it should only be strengthened in the years to come.

Bruce Peterson is a farmer from Northfield and the president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. This op-ed appeared in The Hill on June 3, 2015.

Farmers in the Northwest Need Access to Affordable Crop Insurance

When the 2014 Farm Bill became law, it marked a pivotal moment in the history of U.S. farm policy.   The new Farm Bill eliminated direct payments and reduced some of the price support policies of the past in favor of expanding crop insurance, which allows farmers to purchase varying levels of protection for their crops.

Gone are the days when farmers got a check every year regardless of weather or market conditions. Gone are the days when large-scale natural disasters would trigger wildly expensive disaster bills aimed at helping farmers get back on their feet.  From here forward, farmers who want risk protection will receive a bill, not a check, when they sign on the dotted line every year.

This is a good thing for several reasons.  First, crop insurance ensures farmers have a risk management plan in mind early in the year.  In addition to that plan, they must put their money towards purchasing a crop insurance policy.  This is no small amount of money for many farmers, who in 2014 spent roughly $3.8 billion on crop insurance premiums.

All told, those policies protected 295 million acres of farmland valued at $129 billion.  Today, 90 percent of planted cropland is protected by federal crop insurance, which protects more than125 different varieties of crops in all 50 states.

The evolution to crop insurance has effectively moved risk management away from the public sector, funded exclusively by taxpayer dollars, and toward the private sector, where farmers and crop insurance companies help shoulder part of the cost of natural disasters.   This is good for taxpayers because it takes them off the hook for the entire bill when disaster strikes, good for farmers who must always keep their risk management plan in mind, and good for rural America because farmers are the engines that generate economic activity.

Crop insurance has been around since 1938, but it wasn’t until Congress decided to make it affordable and ubiquitous that farmers really began to sign up.   And when disaster struck – as it does nearly every year somewhere here in the Northwest – farmers turned to their crop insurance policy and their insurance company, not their member of Congress, for help.

The demographics of farming can be rather scary, with the age of the average age of the nation’s 3.2 million farm operators at 58 years old and rising daily.   For young and beginning farmers, access to affordable and reliable crop insurance is honestly a make-or-break issue.  For those just entering farming, the costs are high and their ability to sustain a loss is very limited.  For them, purchasing a crop insurance policy not only protects their crops, but their careers paths as well.

Crop insurance is very popular here in the Northwest, with farmers and ranchers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho spending more than $96 million out of their own pockets last year to purchase the peace of mind offered by crop insurance.  Those policies protect the region’s apples, potatoes, sugar beets and a long list of other crops from the ravages of Mother Nature and volatile market swings.

In the old days, farmers largely relied on disaster assistance from the federal government in times of crisis.  According to the Congressional Research Service, some forty-two ad hoc disaster assistance bills cost taxpayers $70 billion since 1989.

With access to affordable, available and viable crop insurance policies, farmers have the backstop they need to bounce back when our rapidly changing climate throws them a curve ball.  That’s good for farmers, good for consumers who eat their produce, and good for the rural economy, which is largely supported by local farmers and ranchers.

Kent Wright is president of Northwest Farmers Union.  This op-ed appeared in the Tri-City Herald on May 30, 2015.

Farmers in the Northwest Need Access to Affordable Crop Insurance

When the 2014 Farm Bill became law, it marked a pivotal moment in the history of U.S. farm policy.   The new Farm Bill eliminated direct payments and reduced some of the price support policies of the past in favor of expanding crop insurance, which allows farmers to purchase varying levels of protection for their crops.

Gone are the days when farmers got a check every year regardless of weather or market conditions. Gone are the days when large-scale natural disasters would trigger wildly expensive disaster bills aimed at helping farmers get back on their feet.  From here forward, farmers who want risk protection will receive a bill, not a check, when they sign on the dotted line every year.

This is a good thing for several reasons.  First, crop insurance ensures farmers have a risk management plan in mind early in the year.  In addition to that plan, they must put their money towards purchasing a crop insurance policy.  This is no small amount of money for many farmers, who in 2014 spent roughly $3.8 billion on crop insurance premiums.

All told, those policies protected 295 million acres of farmland valued at $129 billion.  Today, 90 percent of planted cropland is protected by federal crop insurance, which protects more than125 different varieties of crops in all 50 states.

The evolution to crop insurance has effectively moved risk management away from the public sector, funded exclusively by taxpayer dollars, and toward the private sector, where farmers and crop insurance companies help shoulder part of the cost of natural disasters.   This is good for taxpayers because it takes them off the hook for the entire bill when disaster strikes, good for farmers who must always keep their risk management plan in mind, and good for rural America because farmers are the engines that generate economic activity.

Crop insurance has been around since 1938, but it wasn’t until Congress decided to make it affordable and ubiquitous that farmers really began to sign up.   And when disaster struck – as it does nearly every year somewhere here in the Northwest – farmers turned to their crop insurance policy and their insurance company, not their member of Congress, for help.

The demographics of farming can be rather scary, with the age of the average age of the nation’s 3.2 million farm operators at 58 years old and rising daily.   For young and beginning farmers, access to affordable and reliable crop insurance is honestly a make-or-break issue.  For those just entering farming, the costs are high and their ability to sustain a loss is very limited.  For them, purchasing a crop insurance policy not only protects their crops, but their careers paths as well.

Crop insurance is very popular here in the Northwest, with farmers and ranchers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho spending more than $96 million out of their own pockets last year to purchase the peace of mind offered by crop insurance.  Those policies protect the region’s apples, potatoes, sugar beets and a long list of other crops from the ravages of Mother Nature and volatile market swings.

In the old days, farmers largely relied on disaster assistance from the federal government in times of crisis.  According to the Congressional Research Service, some forty-two ad hoc disaster assistance bills cost taxpayers $70 billion since 1989.

With access to affordable, available and viable crop insurance policies, farmers have the backstop they need to bounce back when our rapidly changing climate throws them a curve ball.  That’s good for farmers, good for consumers who eat their produce, and good for the rural economy, which is largely supported by local farmers and ranchers.

Kent Wright is president of Northwest Farmers Union.  This op-ed appeared in the Tri-City Herald on May 30, 2015.

Why America’s Cotton Producers Need Access to Affordable Crop Insurance

 

Crop insurance products were improved in the recent farm bill because Congress recognized that these products are a necessity for farmers, regardless of size. To me, a federally-supported crop insurance policy is defensible because a portion of the product’s cost is borne by the farmer.

I am one of those farmers. I raise cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, peanuts and cattle in north Mississippi. Crop insurance is my most important risk management tool absent the direct payments that were available under previous farm law programs. Effective crop insurance products have allowed Congress to move away from providing ad hoc disaster assistance, thus reducing pressure on the federal budget.

We all have witnessed how farmers across the country have suffered from historic droughts, flooding, hail and other severe weather. Many cotton producers, in fact, have incurred particularly excessive yield losses the past three years from these weather events.

Without a doubt, the volatility of weather and commodity markets necessitates government assistance with crop insurance premiums so that our nation’s farmers have access to affordable and dependable crop insurance products.

Regarding cotton, the Stacked Income Protection Plan, known as STAX, is an insurance product that was included in the 2014 federal farm law and is available to upland cotton producers beginning with the 2015 crop year.

The U.S. cotton industry believes that STAX, like all other insurance products, should not be subjected to limits or eligibility restrictions. With cotton’s safety net now comprised solely by the marketing loan program and crop insurance, the U.S. cotton industry is especially concerned by any attempt to eliminate or place limits on key crop insurance tools.

Farm policy generally, and cotton policy specifically, was substantially reformed, funding reduced, and market orientation increased in the 2014 farm law, so now is not the time for further changes that will only undermine production agriculture’s risk management foundation.

The bottom line is that America’s farmers need an affordable and dependable insurance policy if they are going to continue producing safe, abundant, and affordable food and fiber – which is essential to our national security. Affordable and dependable crop insurance will provide the stability needed for U.S. cotton producers – and undergird an industry that provides employment for some 200,000 Americans and produces direct business revenue of more than $27 billion. Accounting for the ripple effect of cotton through the broader economy, direct and indirect employment surpasses 420,000 workers with economic activity well in excess of $100 billion.

Sledge Taylor is a farmer from Como, Miss., and chairman of the Memphis-based National Cotton Council of America.  This op-ed appeared in the Southeast Farm Press on May 21, 2015.

Why America’s Cotton Producers Need Access to Affordable Crop Insurance

 

Crop insurance products were improved in the recent farm bill because Congress recognized that these products are a necessity for farmers, regardless of size. To me, a federally-supported crop insurance policy is defensible because a portion of the product’s cost is borne by the farmer.

I am one of those farmers. I raise cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, peanuts and cattle in north Mississippi. Crop insurance is my most important risk management tool absent the direct payments that were available under previous farm law programs. Effective crop insurance products have allowed Congress to move away from providing ad hoc disaster assistance, thus reducing pressure on the federal budget.

We all have witnessed how farmers across the country have suffered from historic droughts, flooding, hail and other severe weather. Many cotton producers, in fact, have incurred particularly excessive yield losses the past three years from these weather events.

Without a doubt, the volatility of weather and commodity markets necessitates government assistance with crop insurance premiums so that our nation’s farmers have access to affordable and dependable crop insurance products.

Regarding cotton, the Stacked Income Protection Plan, known as STAX, is an insurance product that was included in the 2014 federal farm law and is available to upland cotton producers beginning with the 2015 crop year.

The U.S. cotton industry believes that STAX, like all other insurance products, should not be subjected to limits or eligibility restrictions. With cotton’s safety net now comprised solely by the marketing loan program and crop insurance, the U.S. cotton industry is especially concerned by any attempt to eliminate or place limits on key crop insurance tools.

Farm policy generally, and cotton policy specifically, was substantially reformed, funding reduced, and market orientation increased in the 2014 farm law, so now is not the time for further changes that will only undermine production agriculture’s risk management foundation.

The bottom line is that America’s farmers need an affordable and dependable insurance policy if they are going to continue producing safe, abundant, and affordable food and fiber – which is essential to our national security. Affordable and dependable crop insurance will provide the stability needed for U.S. cotton producers – and undergird an industry that provides employment for some 200,000 Americans and produces direct business revenue of more than $27 billion. Accounting for the ripple effect of cotton through the broader economy, direct and indirect employment surpasses 420,000 workers with economic activity well in excess of $100 billion.

Sledge Taylor is a farmer from Como, Miss., and chairman of the Memphis-based National Cotton Council of America.  This op-ed appeared in the Southeast Farm Press on May 21, 2015.

No crop insurance would mean no food

We are blessed in this country to have the ability to grow our own food and have enough to export to other nations.

In fact, that is what inspired me to farm. I had a passion for growing food and, in the case of my home state of Washington where wheat is a highly exported commodity, I had the satisfaction of knowing that my work as a farmer contributed to feeding people not only at home, but all across the globe.

The food security we enjoy in this country is made possible in no small part through United States farm policy. With the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress shifted the focus of farm policy to risk management. It made crop insurance the centerpiece, and quite rightly. It helps farmers recover from natural disasters and volatile market fluctuations. It enables them to plan and budget for the long term in the most effective and efficient way.

Farming is an inherently risky business. Even my wheat farm, which is located in the rolling hills above the Palouse River, and considered some of America’s most fertile ground, is vulnerable to serious weather events that can devastate my crops in any given year. I have been farming for more than three decades and I can say, without question, if it weren’t for crop insurance I would not be in business.

And, crop insurance is good for consumers and taxpayers, too.

Without effective and affordable crop insurance, catastrophic production losses would sap the rural economy by setting in motion a series of harmful events: farm failures and consolidation, job losses, financial stress on rural banks and reduced investment in U.S. agriculture.

Emergencies can happen to all of us. There have been enormous emergency bailouts for victims of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters. But because of modern crop insurance, farmers have survived some of the worst production years in memory without that kind of disaster relief. Crop insurance fills the need.

This reality is why I am always concerned by those who criticize farm policy or, worse, advocate for its demise, usually by spreading misinformation about the cost and mechanics of farm policy and crop insurance.

One of the misconceptions is that crop insurance is a handout to farmers. Actually, farmers spend $4 billion a year out of their own pockets for insurance protection. They only collect an indemnity after they’ve suffered a verifiable loss and they’ve shouldered their deductible.

Another attack includes barring farmers with large operations from participating in crop insurance. This would be foolish policy because any risk management pool needs a large and diverse group of participants. We want the most productive farmers in the pool to spread the risk. In the same vein, car insurers want safe drivers to buy insurance to help balance losses from more accident-prone drivers.

A financially healthy rural economy requires a financially healthy farm production sector. And that sector relies on a safety net when catastrophic events happen. It is a modest investment considering the return, which is a stable and affordable national food and fiber supply.

Brett Blankenship is the president of the National Association of Wheat Growers. He farms winter wheat in southeast Washington.

Hollis, Oklahoma farmer: Affordable Crop Insurance is Critical

I started farming and ranching with my father and grandfather in southwest Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle 40 years ago, and I am the fourth generation to farm cotton, peanuts, wheat, corn, milo and cattle on our family’s land.

I was 17 when I started farming on my own, and although I have four decades of experience under my belt, the many issues we face today on the family farm — worked by me, my son, my brother-in-law and my son-in-law — are no less challenging than they were when I began. In most careers, things get easier as you move along. In farming, since the weather and prices are so unpredictable, it really never gets easier.

With few risk management tools available in the early days, it could take years to recover from a hailstorm, an early freeze or any of the many other natural perils that could be thrown at you. When I first learned of crop insurance, I didn’t purchase it because premiums were unaffordable and margins were too slim to afford it. Thankfully, Congress made crop insurance more available and affordable — by partially discounting the premium — and now I wouldn’t farm without it.

Since the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, crop insurance is the best tool farmers have to manage risks and revenue. It’s not cheap, but it is something that we budget for annually and can’t imagine not having.

The key to crop insurance’s success has been its affordability, its availability and its viability. Last year, farmers spent nearly $4 billion on crop insurance policies that protected 90 percent of planted cropland in the United States. I’d bet that many of the farmers in our area wouldn’t be surviving the current drought — which started in 2011 — if it wasn’t for crop insurance.

Despite the fact that agriculture’s safety net programs took a huge cut in the last farm bill, some in Congress seem to think we need to give more. I wonder if some of those people have any idea where their food and clothes come from or what it takes to get it from the farm to their plate or closet.

It seems almost daily that someone in Congress is proposing a bill to cut the premium support on crop insurance. It would not serve anyone to cut these risk management tools to farmers, as they allow farmers to concentrate on producing higher-yielding, better-quality crops that reduce the costs to the consumer.

Crop insurance is not a gift but insurance, just like homeowner’s insurance, that farmers buy. And like homeowner’s insurance, we don’t collect a dime without a verifiable loss and paying a deductible. Without crop insurance, many farmers couldn’t get financed and it would be almost impossible for a beginning farmer to get started.

Crop insurance is critical in meeting these challenges, and guarantees the American consumer a safe, affordable supply of quality food and fiber that is unsurpassed anywhere in the world.

Kelly Horton lives in Hollis.

Why Farmers Need This Program

I always knew I was going to be a farmer.  I grew up learning from my grandfather who turned me loose and gave me a lot of responsibility on his farm from a young age.  I was driving machinery by the time I was 10 years old and running my own harvest crew by the time I was 14.

When I was in school, I entertained being a veterinarian and farming on the side mainly because people told me it was a tough life and I wouldn’t be able to make a living.

That kind of talk only made me more determined, so when I came home from college I started farming full time despite the fact that I barely had a dollar to my name and farming is a capital-intensive business.

I remember the first time I went to borrow money, my banker asked me right off if I had crop insurance and how much was the coverage. I was prepared to answer those questions as crop insurance was then and remains today my primary risk management tool. I wouldn’t think of trying to grow a crop without it.

It’s essential — especially for young farmers, like I was at the time, just starting an operation.

It enables farmers to get financing and also enables them to survive a major catastrophic weather event.

Young farmers are particularly vulnerable to such risks because they are more leveraged than more established farmers. They can’t afford a major hit in their finances or a year without any income.

Just look at my state of Texas where we have suffered a historic drought for the last five years. 2012 and 2013 were particularly bad.

Without crop insurance, this sustained drought would have wiped out an entire generation of farmers. They would not have had the means to make it to another year without something to at least help cover part of the losses.

That’s why it is critical that crop insurance remain affordable and widely available. Thankfully the 2014 Farm Bill strengthened crop insurance and added provisions to help beginning farmers. But, the critics of farm policy, including some lawmakers in Congress, never seem to rest and are already clamoring once again for cuts.

They would be wise to take note of an alarming trend that puts the average age of a U.S. farmer at 58. Moreover, in 2012, the number of beginning farmers – those operating fewer than 10 years – was down 20 percent from 2007.

My desire to farm at such a young age is the exception, not the rule. Many young people can’t stomach the risk that is involved and have no desire to try.

Cuts to the farm safety net only make an inherently risky business, riskier. The expense of raising crops, the perils of weather-related disasters, and the low returns on investment, are enough to make anyone run in the other, more secure direction.

Now is not the time to create barriers at the starting point of farming and ranching. Now is the time to give certainty to young people with farm policy they can afford and count on.

Matt Huie farms cotton, corn, sorghum, and livestock in Southeast Texas near Corpus Christi.

Evolution of Farm Policy Benefits Farmers, Taxpayers

Some stereotypes about U.S. farm policy just won’t die.

For example, the belief that farmers get paid for not growing; or that benefits just go to big agribusinesses; or that farm spending is out of control.

Such criticisms make splashy headlines but are no longer relevant thanks to the significant evolution of farm policy over the past 20 years. Over that time, government control of agriculture has given way to a system where farmers take more responsibility, make decisions based on market forces, and are asked to help fund their own safety net.

The most significant reforms occurred in the 2014 farm bill, which is projected to reduce farm spending by billions over the next decade.

The farm bill repealed direct payments – checks that some farmers received every year no matter the market conditions or how crops fared. In their place are crop insurance policies made available to all growers regardless of size, geographic location or cropping decision.

With crop insurance, most farmers get bills in the mail instead of government checks, and because producers are now paying more of the farm policy tab, spending has trended downward over the years (to less than three-tenths of 1 percent of the federal budget).Here’s how it plays out on my sugar beet, soybeans and wheat farm.

Every year, I analyze input costs, market prices and yield trends. Then I purchase crop insurance tailored to the unique risks on my farm.

Most years, my crops succeed and no insurance check is collected, meaning insurance companies and the government keep my premiums to offset other policy costs.

In disaster years when we suffer from drought, frost, flood, hail or a host of other calamities, insurance only kicks in after I’ve shouldered a sizable deductible, meaning I share the cost of aid.

Collectively, farmers spend about $4 billion out of their own pockets every year to buy insurance. They do this because the government ensures policies are affordable and widely available and because an efficient infrastructure maintained by the private sector speeds assistance to us much faster than old government disaster programs, which were 100 percent taxpayer-funded.

Crop insurance is just part my story. Our farmer-owned cooperative also takes out government-backed operating loans on our sugar crop. These loans help cash flow the operation as the sugar is sold over the course of the year, and, like any other business loan, it is repaid with interest.

As a result, sugar policy typically operates at no taxpayer expense and is projected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cost $0 over the next decade.

Admittedly, agriculture’s transition to lower costs isn’t fast enough for some detractors. But, as a farm leader involved in the 2014 farm bill debate, I can attest that tremendous headway has been made, and I know that it is vital to remove remaining stumbling blocks to further reform.

For example, unnecessary environmental regulations on agriculture breed bureaucratic inefficiencies, drive up costs of production and make it difficult to compete.

And, while U.S. farm supports are getting smaller, foreign subsidies are rapidly increasing abroad and distorting global markets.

In the case of sugar, foreign subsidies have created the most volatile commodity market in the world, where global prices currently cover just half the cost of producing the crop. In other words, exporters would lose 50 cents for every $1 worth of sugar sold if it weren’t for subsidies propping them up.

Putting an end to the domestic and foreign policies that stifle U.S. agriculture’s competitiveness should take top priority in the years ahead as the current farm bill is implemented.

And as we wage that fight, taxpayers can take comfort in the fact that they are shouldering less risk and that U.S. farm policy is headed in the right direction.

Kelly Erickson is immediate past president, American Sugarbeet Growers Association, and farms with his son near Hallock, Minn.

Keep Crop Insurance Affordable

Living through the drought of 2012 as an Illinois farmer gave me a whole new appreciation for risk management tools. There are things that farmers can do to try and deal with the curveballs served up by Mother Nature and with the ups and downs of market swings, but many things — like a massive drought or a heat wave — are completely out of our control.

If this drought would have happened a decade before, it would have left many farmers completely devastated and on the verge of bankruptcy, with nowhere to turn but to Congress for an expensive, taxpayer-funded bailout package. In fact, past disasters have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars since 1979.

What was different about the drought of 2012, which was the worst natural disaster to hit this state in my lifetime, is that the vast majority of the state’s farmers had purchased the best risk-management tool around: crop insurance. In fact, farmers spent well over $4 billion out of their own back pockets in 2012 purchasing the protection and peace of mind of crop insurance, which meant when disaster struck, they had a backup plan in hand.

The recent Farm Bill took three long years to pass and cut $23 billion out of farm programs. But for those who for whatever reason are always looking to criticize farm policy that still wasn’t enough. Now they have their sights set again on crop insurance, and are pushing forth ideas to make it more expensive for farmers to purchase.

What these misguided groups and members of Congress seem to miss is that the reason why crop insurance has become the best risk-management tool for farmers is that it’s affordable and reliable. In fact, 90 percent of planted cropland was protected by crop insurance in 2014. It’s this level of protection — made possible by crop insurance’s affordability — that keeps expensive disaster bills from hitting taxpayers when Mother Nature strikes.

Unlike direct payments in the past, crop insurance is not a handout. In fact, when farmers purchase crop insurance, they receive a bill, not a check, and only receive a payment if they incur a loss, and only after paying a deductible. Just like homeowners’ insurance, when farmers buy crop insurance, they do so hoping that they will never have to use it. And many of them rarely do. In fact, since 2000, farmers have paid out more than $38 billion purchasing the protection of crop insurance, and in most years, they don’t collect a dime.

If crop insurance becomes more costly, then farmers simply won’t be able to afford it, and they will have nowhere to turn but the federal government when disaster strikes. This is a lesson we learned over and over again before crop insurance became widely available and affordable.

Crop insurance works so well and has been embraced so readily by farmers across the country because it’s a public private partnership that combines the best of the public and private sectors. Crop insurance premiums are partially discounted by the government to ensure affordability and the policies are sold and serviced by the private sector. And when disaster strikes, an indemnity check arrives in weeks, not years.

Like any other public policy, crop insurance isn’t perfect, and I’m sure Congress will do some fine-tuning to the program in the next Farm Bill just like they did in this one. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that farmers are not only enormous producers, they are enormous consumers as well. And with crop insurance policies in hand, they can bounce back from natural disaster or huge market fluctuations and continue to be the engines that drive the economy of rural America.

Keith Mussman is president of the Kankakee County Farm Bureau.

Keep Crop Insurance Affordable

Living through the drought of 2012 as an Illinois farmer gave me a whole new appreciation for risk management tools. There are things that farmers can do to try and deal with the curveballs served up by Mother Nature and with the ups and downs of market swings, but many things — like a massive drought or a heat wave — are completely out of our control.

If this drought would have happened a decade before, it would have left many farmers completely devastated and on the verge of bankruptcy, with nowhere to turn but to Congress for an expensive, taxpayer-funded bailout package. In fact, past disasters have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars since 1979.

What was different about the drought of 2012, which was the worst natural disaster to hit this state in my lifetime, is that the vast majority of the state’s farmers had purchased the best risk-management tool around: crop insurance. In fact, farmers spent well over $4 billion out of their own back pockets in 2012 purchasing the protection and peace of mind of crop insurance, which meant when disaster struck, they had a backup plan in hand.

The recent Farm Bill took three long years to pass and cut $23 billion out of farm programs. But for those who for whatever reason are always looking to criticize farm policy that still wasn’t enough. Now they have their sights set again on crop insurance, and are pushing forth ideas to make it more expensive for farmers to purchase.

What these misguided groups and members of Congress seem to miss is that the reason why crop insurance has become the best risk-management tool for farmers is that it’s affordable and reliable. In fact, 90 percent of planted cropland was protected by crop insurance in 2014. It’s this level of protection — made possible by crop insurance’s affordability — that keeps expensive disaster bills from hitting taxpayers when Mother Nature strikes.

Unlike direct payments in the past, crop insurance is not a handout. In fact, when farmers purchase crop insurance, they receive a bill, not a check, and only receive a payment if they incur a loss, and only after paying a deductible. Just like homeowners’ insurance, when farmers buy crop insurance, they do so hoping that they will never have to use it. And many of them rarely do. In fact, since 2000, farmers have paid out more than $38 billion purchasing the protection of crop insurance, and in most years, they don’t collect a dime.

If crop insurance becomes more costly, then farmers simply won’t be able to afford it, and they will have nowhere to turn but the federal government when disaster strikes. This is a lesson we learned over and over again before crop insurance became widely available and affordable.

Crop insurance works so well and has been embraced so readily by farmers across the country because it’s a public private partnership that combines the best of the public and private sectors. Crop insurance premiums are partially discounted by the government to ensure affordability and the policies are sold and serviced by the private sector. And when disaster strikes, an indemnity check arrives in weeks, not years.

Like any other public policy, crop insurance isn’t perfect, and I’m sure Congress will do some fine-tuning to the program in the next Farm Bill just like they did in this one. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that farmers are not only enormous producers, they are enormous consumers as well. And with crop insurance policies in hand, they can bounce back from natural disaster or huge market fluctuations and continue to be the engines that drive the economy of rural America.

Keith Mussman is president of the Kankakee County Farm Bureau.

Crop Insurance a Key for Producers

My husband and I have been farming in Southeastern Colorado for more than 40 years, and during that time it’s safe to say there have been a lot of changes not only in farming practices but also in farm policy.

The biggest policy change through the years has been the affordability and availability of crop insurance.

When we first started farming, crop insurance was not an option because we couldn’t afford it.

It wasn’t until Congress made reforms to the program a couple of decades ago that we were able to participate. Additional reforms through the years have made crop insurance more widely available for a variety of crops, regardless of farm size or method of production.

It is still an expensive part of the operation, but it is a necessary part because it provides us with stability — something we can count on. This is helpful not only when we need to show our lender at the bank what our estimated income will be, but also for our own peace of mind.

You have to realize that out here, we can have a beautiful crop and phenomenal yields one year and then get wiped out by a hailstorm or drought the next.

For the last three years, the ongoing drought and the late spring freezes have dogged our crops. With crop insurance, we have been able to level out the highs and lows so we can make it to another year.

The enactment of the 2014 Farm Bill made crop insurance the centerpiece of the farm safety net — and for good reason. It is an effective risk-management tool for not only farmers, but also for taxpayers.

Gone are the days of large, unbudgeted disaster bills aimed at helping farmers when natural disasters strike. Now, because of crop insurance, everyone — policymakers, farmers and bankers — can plan and budget for those disasters.

Recently, there has been talk in Washington about yet again trying to make changes to crop insurance. This is arising just one year after the Farm Bill was enacted.

Specifically, there have been discussions about cutting the premium support that farmers receive for purchasing crop insurance. This does a disservice to everyone.

If such proposals succeed, it would only serve to increase the costs to farmers and undermine their ability to manage risk. As my husband and I can attest, premium support has helped us to afford crop insurance, which, in turn, has helped our overall farming operation.

Each new farm bill ushers in new changes to farm policy. We’ve experienced those changes firsthand, but the one part that should remain constant going forward is crop insurance. It is the key to a steady, safe food production system in the U.S. The beneficiaries of crop insurance are not just farmers but also consumers.

Cathy Scherler is the president of the Colorado chapter of Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE), a national non-partisan organization committed to improving the profitability and production of the agricultural industry. She and her husband grow wheat, grain sorghum, sunflowers and corn on their farm in the Eastern Plains. This op-ed appeared in The Pueblo Chieftain on April 11, 2015.

Crop Insurance a Key for Producers

My husband and I have been farming in Southeastern Colorado for more than 40 years, and during that time it’s safe to say there have been a lot of changes not only in farming practices but also in farm policy.

The biggest policy change through the years has been the affordability and availability of crop insurance.

When we first started farming, crop insurance was not an option because we couldn’t afford it.

It wasn’t until Congress made reforms to the program a couple of decades ago that we were able to participate. Additional reforms through the years have made crop insurance more widely available for a variety of crops, regardless of farm size or method of production.

It is still an expensive part of the operation, but it is a necessary part because it provides us with stability — something we can count on. This is helpful not only when we need to show our lender at the bank what our estimated income will be, but also for our own peace of mind.

You have to realize that out here, we can have a beautiful crop and phenomenal yields one year and then get wiped out by a hailstorm or drought the next.

For the last three years, the ongoing drought and the late spring freezes have dogged our crops. With crop insurance, we have been able to level out the highs and lows so we can make it to another year.

The enactment of the 2014 Farm Bill made crop insurance the centerpiece of the farm safety net — and for good reason. It is an effective risk-management tool for not only farmers, but also for taxpayers.

Gone are the days of large, unbudgeted disaster bills aimed at helping farmers when natural disasters strike. Now, because of crop insurance, everyone — policymakers, farmers and bankers — can plan and budget for those disasters.

Recently, there has been talk in Washington about yet again trying to make changes to crop insurance. This is arising just one year after the Farm Bill was enacted.

Specifically, there have been discussions about cutting the premium support that farmers receive for purchasing crop insurance. This does a disservice to everyone.

If such proposals succeed, it would only serve to increase the costs to farmers and undermine their ability to manage risk. As my husband and I can attest, premium support has helped us to afford crop insurance, which, in turn, has helped our overall farming operation.

Each new farm bill ushers in new changes to farm policy. We’ve experienced those changes firsthand, but the one part that should remain constant going forward is crop insurance. It is the key to a steady, safe food production system in the U.S. The beneficiaries of crop insurance are not just farmers but also consumers.

Cathy Scherler is the president of the Colorado chapter of Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE), a national non-partisan organization committed to improving the profitability and production of the agricultural industry. She and her husband grow wheat, grain sorghum, sunflowers and corn on their farm in the Eastern Plains. This op-ed appeared in The Pueblo Chieftain on April 11, 2015.

It’s up to us to explain the importance of crop insurance

It was 2010 and I was expecting to harvest my best crop. I had done everything right and the weather had been kind. Or so I thought. Then on a late October night, it hailed for six hours and what was anticipated to be my best crop year turned into nothing. But the worst of it was yet to come. It stopped raining. It stopped for 336 days straight. It kicked off what would be the worst drought since the 1950s. The conditions would improve slightly, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that for the last five years, my part of the world – West Texas – has essentially been on fire.

Mother Nature is the toughest, most unpredictable boss. Farmers are resilient and they adapt, but a safety net is crucial to their survival. And, it’s not a safety net if it’s not affordable.

That’s what today’s crop insurance offers farmers. A safety net that is both affordable and widely available.  It’s what’s helped me make it to the next year.

That hasn’t always been the case. When crop insurance got its start in the 1930s, it was a poorly run government program. It hobbled along through the 60s and 70s, but the premiums were too high so the participation was low with limited available coverage. Farmers mainly relied on costly ad hoc disaster assistance when natural disasters wiped out their crops. It was so ineffective that the Secretary of Agriculture, Bob Bergland, told Congress in 1977 that disaster programs “are for the most part…a disaster.” This gave birth to the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980 that created a successful public-private partnership that remains today.  Since then there have been other pieces of legislation along the way that have made additional improvements to the delivery and mechanics of crop insurance with the most recent being the 2014 Farm Bill.

Sadly, there are some who don’t know or understand the history and improvements that have taken place to make crop insurance what it is today. Meanwhile, there are others who are bent on attacking farm policy regardless.

I was reminded of this on a recent visit to Washington, D.C. where I met with lawmakers and staff on behalf of producers across the country. Each time I visit I am struck by how important outreach is to ensure agriculture remains successful in this country and that crop insurance remains a viable, affordable, and widely available safety net for farmers and ranchers.

I tend to walk away both encouraged and discouraged by my visits. I am encouraged because there are some who understand the challenges that we face; and discouraged because there is always more to be done. The battle never ends and we need more voices in support of American agriculture.

Our form of government requires participation.  When we don’t show up and tell our story, without a doubt, someone who doesn’t understand or care about production agriculture and the importance of crop insurance will fill the void.

We all sit on the tractor or the combine and talk to ourselves about how to make things better, but sometimes you have to get off the tractor and find your voice. We can’t assume policymakers understand the anxiety we feel when we’re days away from harvesting a good crop and it’s destroyed in matter of minutes by something beyond our control. We can’t assume policymakers know the one thing that enables us to start again is crop insurance. It’s up to us to tell them.

Wade Cowan is the president of the American Soybean Association. He farms soybeans, guar, cotton, wheat, and grain sorghum in West Texas.

It’s up to us to explain the importance of crop insurance

It was 2010 and I was expecting to harvest my best crop. I had done everything right and the weather had been kind. Or so I thought. Then on a late October night, it hailed for six hours and what was anticipated to be my best crop year turned into nothing. But the worst of it was yet to come. It stopped raining. It stopped for 336 days straight. It kicked off what would be the worst drought since the 1950s. The conditions would improve slightly, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that for the last five years, my part of the world – West Texas – has essentially been on fire.

Mother Nature is the toughest, most unpredictable boss. Farmers are resilient and they adapt, but a safety net is crucial to their survival. And, it’s not a safety net if it’s not affordable.

That’s what today’s crop insurance offers farmers. A safety net that is both affordable and widely available.  It’s what’s helped me make it to the next year.

That hasn’t always been the case. When crop insurance got its start in the 1930s, it was a poorly run government program. It hobbled along through the 60s and 70s, but the premiums were too high so the participation was low with limited available coverage. Farmers mainly relied on costly ad hoc disaster assistance when natural disasters wiped out their crops. It was so ineffective that the Secretary of Agriculture, Bob Bergland, told Congress in 1977 that disaster programs “are for the most part…a disaster.” This gave birth to the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980 that created a successful public-private partnership that remains today.  Since then there have been other pieces of legislation along the way that have made additional improvements to the delivery and mechanics of crop insurance with the most recent being the 2014 Farm Bill.

Sadly, there are some who don’t know or understand the history and improvements that have taken place to make crop insurance what it is today. Meanwhile, there are others who are bent on attacking farm policy regardless.

I was reminded of this on a recent visit to Washington, D.C. where I met with lawmakers and staff on behalf of producers across the country. Each time I visit I am struck by how important outreach is to ensure agriculture remains successful in this country and that crop insurance remains a viable, affordable, and widely available safety net for farmers and ranchers.

I tend to walk away both encouraged and discouraged by my visits. I am encouraged because there are some who understand the challenges that we face; and discouraged because there is always more to be done. The battle never ends and we need more voices in support of American agriculture.

Our form of government requires participation.  When we don’t show up and tell our story, without a doubt, someone who doesn’t understand or care about production agriculture and the importance of crop insurance will fill the void.

We all sit on the tractor or the combine and talk to ourselves about how to make things better, but sometimes you have to get off the tractor and find your voice. We can’t assume policymakers understand the anxiety we feel when we’re days away from harvesting a good crop and it’s destroyed in matter of minutes by something beyond our control. We can’t assume policymakers know the one thing that enables us to start again is crop insurance. It’s up to us to tell them.

Wade Cowan is the president of the American Soybean Association. He farms soybeans, guar, cotton, wheat, and grain sorghum in West Texas.

Crop insurance important for state’s ag industry

Pop quiz: Next to tourism, what Florida industry is the state’s largest employer?

The answer isn’t health care, transportation, technology or even government. Agriculture is Florida’s second-biggest job supplier, according to the University of Florida.

“Two million jobs can be traced to the state’s agriculture, natural resources and related food industries — and not just on our 47,500 farms. Income from $142 billion in annual sales gets spent around the state to create jobs in restaurants, department stores and car dealerships, too,” Jack Payne of the University’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said during a recent media interview.

Despite their importance, farmers and all they support are at the mercy of a multitude of uncontrollable forces.

A year of hard work and investment can be wiped out in an instant by a late-season hurricane, an early frost or an unexpected outbreak of insects or plant disease.

And the ever-looming prospect of a changing climate could be “potentially catastrophic,” according to Payne, as it wreaks havoc on water supplies, soil conditions and land use.

So how do farmers gain some control over the uncontrollable and add stability to the region’s economy?

Crop insurance is key.

Read more here.

Crop insurance important for state’s ag industry

Pop quiz: Next to tourism, what Florida industry is the state’s largest employer?

The answer isn’t health care, transportation, technology or even government. Agriculture is Florida’s second-biggest job supplier, according to the University of Florida.

“Two million jobs can be traced to the state’s agriculture, natural resources and related food industries — and not just on our 47,500 farms. Income from $142 billion in annual sales gets spent around the state to create jobs in restaurants, department stores and car dealerships, too,” Jack Payne of the University’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said during a recent media interview.

Despite their importance, farmers and all they support are at the mercy of a multitude of uncontrollable forces.

A year of hard work and investment can be wiped out in an instant by a late-season hurricane, an early frost or an unexpected outbreak of insects or plant disease.

And the ever-looming prospect of a changing climate could be “potentially catastrophic,” according to Payne, as it wreaks havoc on water supplies, soil conditions and land use.

So how do farmers gain some control over the uncontrollable and add stability to the region’s economy?

Crop insurance is key.

Read more here.

Crop Insurance Important for State’s Ag Industry

Tom ZachariasPop quiz: Next to tourism, what Florida industry is the state’s largest employer?

The answer isn’t health care, transportation, technology or even government. Agriculture is Florida’s second-biggest job supplier, according to the University of Florida.

“Two million jobs can be traced to the state’s agriculture, natural resources and related food industries — and not just on our 47,500 farms. Income from $142 billion in annual sales gets spent around the state to create jobs in restaurants, department stores and car dealerships, too,” Jack Payne of the University’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said during a recent media interview.

Despite their importance, farmers and all they support are at the mercy of a multitude of uncontrollable forces.

A year of hard work and investment can be wiped out in an instant by a late-season hurricane, an early frost or an unexpected outbreak of insects or plant disease.

Read more…

This op-ed by Tom Zacharias, president, National Crop Insurance Services, appeared in the Fort Myers News-Press on February 6, 2015.

Crop Insurance Important for State’s Ag Industry

Tom ZachariasPop quiz: Next to tourism, what Florida industry is the state’s largest employer?

The answer isn’t health care, transportation, technology or even government. Agriculture is Florida’s second-biggest job supplier, according to the University of Florida.

“Two million jobs can be traced to the state’s agriculture, natural resources and related food industries — and not just on our 47,500 farms. Income from $142 billion in annual sales gets spent around the state to create jobs in restaurants, department stores and car dealerships, too,” Jack Payne of the University’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said during a recent media interview.

Despite their importance, farmers and all they support are at the mercy of a multitude of uncontrollable forces.

A year of hard work and investment can be wiped out in an instant by a late-season hurricane, an early frost or an unexpected outbreak of insects or plant disease.

Read more…

This op-ed by Tom Zacharias, president, National Crop Insurance Services, appeared in the Fort Myers News-Press on February 6, 2015.