If Only They Listened
By Megan Vaith, Northbourne Organic Crop Insurance LLC
Published July 26, 2023
Part 3 of 3
Crop insurance is typically discussed in more of a rules and regulations format. Today, I am going to give you the inside scoop on what the life of a crop insurance agent is like. The highlights, the dirt, the ‘what could have been’ moments. You are in for it all!
Crop insurance started way back in 1938 when… oh wait, I promised this was going to be fun. I guess this all starts with the process of becoming an agent and learning the ropes of it all. It seems simple enough. Run quotes for farmers, report their planted acres and bushels, file a claim if need be, right? Nobody really talks about all of the fine details that happen to be crop and county specific. So, if you cover multiple states with a wide variety of crops like I do as a crop insurance agent, you need to know a lot of information, or at least know where to research it quickly. This could be as simple as a final planting date all the way down to not being able to receive insurance on crops that were planted two years in a row. The Midwest has experienced some crazy weather patterns over the last few years. Did you know that different states used to have different rules on prevented planting history? Having to know all the rules and regulations for each specific crop, area, and situation can be a lot at times. This is especially true when you’re working with a wide variety of farmers across multiple states like I do, but being a trusted resource for them is extremely rewarding.
One of the main duties of the job is to keep the farmer in line, especially in organics. Farmers tend to think up great ideas. Maybe something they heard at a conference or maybe something they saw on YouTube. Most of the time, they don’t think to call their crop insurance agent first to see if it’s even an option or if it goes against the crop insurance policy and could put their coverage at risk. So, when I say we need to keep them in line, I mean we have to be in frequent contact to make sure we’re always on the same page and keep experimentation within reason if they want insurance on those acres. We really should be more thought of as an insurance coach, rather than an agent, as we coach farmers through a lot of the decisions they make on the operation. Coaching can be a lot of things: instructing, disciplining, praising. All these techniques are used to lead a farmer through the crop insurance cycle.
Now to get to the dirt. When does a farmer need the most coaching? Usually this takes place whenever something goes awry on the farm. Maybe there was too much moisture and the farmer couldn’t cultivate, so his field was overtaken by weeds. Maybe he left the cover crop in the field a little longer than the rules allow in his area. Maybe she wants to plant a new crop or new variety of a current crop and thinks insurance will be the same as it always was. Maybe the farmer doesn’t meet the quality specifications required by the buyer and thinks he’ll collect an insurance payout. All of those situations involve coaching to figure out what the farmer’s options are, if any.
If a field has been overtaken by weeds early in the growing season, many organic farmers believe it’s best to destroy the field before the weeds go to seed and they are fighting problems for many years to come. The biggest struggle here is the insurance adjustment process isn’t perfect that early on. In fact, appraisals done by adjusters will always be more accurate closer to harvest. So when it’s early on, the appraisals usually come back pretty high, often higher than the crop insurance guarantee even though the field might not produce much of a crop. In this situation, it’s often best for the farmer to either leave the field as is until harvest time or agree on representative strips with the adjuster so he can still destroy most of the field. One of my favorite phrases in this industry is, when I’m done talking the farmer through the scenario and end it with, “so what I hear you saying is that you’re going to take the crop to harvest?” and the farmer instantly reacts with “that’s exactly what my plan was!”
A lot of the ‘what could have been’ moments are centered around when a farmer is making a change to his farming practices, such as planting a new variety of crops or maybe experimenting with inter-seeding. Most times, these practices either aren’t accepted by crop insurance or require a multitude of supporting documentation. The Risk Management Agency can’t insure an experiment, so there at least has to be some sort of evidence proving the farmer has a good chance of producing a crop under this new crop plan. Farmer’s don’t tend to realize this. They think they plant the seed and it should be insured, right? When these moments are discovered after the application deadline, it is often too late to do anything about it. So maybe the farmer could have had insurance, but since he didn’t tell his agent about the changes he was making, he is out of luck for the year. Not a good spot to be in, especially in an area with inconsistent weather patterns.
Crop insurance can be fun, frustrating and above all, exciting. Your crop insurance agent is on your side. Take the time to listen to the advice they are giving. Some of my best experiences as an agent have been sitting down with a farmer, going through some insurance options, and seeing the lightbulb go off. They finally understand the complicated world of crop insurance! I will leave you with one last piece of advice - Do yourself a favor and don’t fall into the ‘what could have been’ category. Agents want their farmers to succeed. Join the team by communicating with them to come up with the best possible risk management strategy. The last thing you want is to be part of someone’s ‘The Dirt on Crop Insurance’ article!