Michigan Crop Insurance Adjusters, Agents Play Key Role in Food Supply

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Larry Westerhoven knows apples.

As a crop insurance adjuster in Michigan, it’s his job to say what a crop is worth after hail or frost.

“If a guy has problems with his crop, I go out and appraise it,” he said. “I put a value on that crop. Most of these guys around here raise apples for the grocery stores, bagged apples or tray packs or this and that. So, I’ll make an appraisal on that and put a grade on the apples and then they make a decision what they want to do with it.”

Larry was one of several crop insurance adjusters and agents National Crop Insurance Services visited on our recent trip to Michigan.

Scott Colville’s family has been selling crop insurance since 1967. He takes pride in helping farmers stay in business after weather disasters.

“The reason crop insurance even exists is to help the American people and keep the food prices down,” he said. “And you can only do that if the farming community is able to farm and continue farming in a bad year. I would like to see Congress protect what we have in crop insurance and expand it.”

Colton Geiger, a field marketing representative, enjoys working with insurance agents to make sure they understand the latest products and the changes in the industry. He comes from a farming family.

“I think the work really matters in terms of working with farmers and making sure that they can keep farming for years to come,” he said. “Something that I grew up with, you know, in my family, just carrying that farming tradition on down the line.”

Back on the apple farm, Larry said its gratifying to help a farmer make a good decision about a crop because the margins have become so slim.

He hopes Congress will maintain and expand crop insurance in the next Farm Bill.

“Well, I just ask Congress, do they want to eat?” he said. “You want to put these guys out of business or we don’t grow food in this nation anymore? You know, we’re still a leader in food production. I’d like to see us stay there.”

Watch these stories and more at CropInsuranceInAmerica.org.

Celebrating America’s Farmers & the Policies that Protect Them

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Brett Anderson walked the rows on his Michigan farm and inspected a strong crop of apples. He grabbed one and looked closer at a small indentation with an eye informed by 100 years of family experience.

The little indentation probably won’t mean much by harvest. Brett has seen hailstorms that beat and bruised his apples to the point where the value dropped to a quarter of what this crop may bring.

“Thankfully, this year we’ve been really blessed,” he said.

Brett’s family farm is just one of approximately two million farms in the United States. On National Farmer’s Day, we celebrate the incredible contributions of American farmers, just like Brett, and the important work that they do to feed, clothe, and fuel our nation.

Each of America’s two million farms is unique, requiring a personalized risk management tool. Thankfully, crop insurance allows America’s farmers and ranchers to create a risk management plan tailored to their needs. Crop insurance insures farms in all 50 states.

“Crop insurance has become so vital…no matter what happens in this coming crop season, I will have the ability to pay my bills, to keep my workers employed, and to be able to continue this this family farm that has been here for over 100 years,” Brett told National Crop Insurance Services on a recent trip to Michigan.

Brett was just one of several farms that we visited to capture the Real Stories of America’s farmers and crop insurance agent and adjusters.

Shelly Hartmann enjoyed a handful of ripe blueberries while inspecting the bushes on her farm.

“The thing I love about blueberries is that, you know, it’s nature’s perfect fruit. There’s no waste, it’s 100 percent consumable,” she said.

Shelly believes Congress should maintain crop insurance as an affordable and available risk management tool in the next Farm Bill. She relies on it at her farm. “Crop insurance is really a big tool that we use here to help us offset any unexpected weather events, production losses, market loss as well,” she said.

Vegetable farmer Travis Horkey pulled the tractor forward as his crew harvested big green bell peppers, loading them bucket by bucket into the cart. Crop insurance is an important tool in helping him with the challenges of farming.

“You never know what’s going to come at us,” Travis said. “We could have a drought all spring and summer followed by a flood in the fall just before harvest. And that would be devastating to our business and also affect our employees and our customers, our suppliers, our community.”

“I like the seasonality of farming,” he continued. “I like the challenge of just bringing all the ends together and getting the job done.”

To farmers from Michigan to Mississippi, Maine to Montana, and every state in between: thank you for getting the job done, every single day.

“The Most Successful Thing We’ve Done in Agriculture”

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Former Minnesota congressman Collin Peterson knows farm policy. As Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Peterson played a key role in several Farm Bills. Peterson recently spoke at an Agri-Pulse event about the critical role crop insurance plays in the farm safety net.

“The most successful thing we’ve done in agriculture, and clearly during my career was crop insurance,” Peterson said.

As farm disasters have threatened farms in recent years, Peterson also urged Congress to utilize the next Farm Bill to improve crop insurance and expand coverage where needed, rather than create a separate new permanent disaster program. Peterson warned that a permanent disaster program would “undermine crop insurance.”

Policy experts and politicians aren’t the only ones speaking out in support of crop insurance. We’ve spent the year talking to farmers on the ground about how crop insurance helps them manage their risks and gives them the tools to improve resiliency.

  • “[Crop insurance has] been a tremendous help. It is a very affordable tool that allows you to minimize or manage some risk and have a small return if the weather goes against you.” – Gayle Smith, North Carolina rancher
  • “We use crop insurance for the fact that if something bad happens, we don’t want to lose our livelihood.” – Jim Carroll, fourth-generation Arkansas farmer
  • “Crop insurance helps me relieve the stress knowing that if something happened, disaster happened on the farm, I do have something to fall back on. That I won’t… lose everything.” – Michael Moore, third-generation North Carolina farmer
  • “Crop insurance basically ensures that the growers are going to be farming next year.” – Landrum Weathers, fifth-generation South Carolina farmer and crop insurance agent
  • “Without crop insurance… this farm would not still be here. It would be gone.” – Brian McClam, seventh-generation South Carolina farmer
  • “We put so much money into the crop that we can’t afford to miss a crop. Or not to have a safety net if we do.” – Scott Flowers, Mississippi farmer

These testimonials represent the immense trust that farmers place in crop insurance. Crop insurance is the cornerstone of the farm safety net, insuring 445 million acres in 2021.

It is critical that crop insurance remain affordable, effective, viable, and adaptable. This ensures that farmers have a risk management plan to prepare for the unexpected and the confidence to plant again after disaster.

“It’s going to give us more backstop against the ups and downs of agriculture,” Peterson said. “And that’s always going to be there. You know, it’s just a dangerous business.”

Crop Insurance Basics: Specialty Crops

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When you think of farming, you might first think of fields of corn sprawled across the Midwest. But America’s farmers grow many different types of fruits and vegetables, requiring a crop insurance program that is as diverse as the crops it protects.

Crop insurance is a customizable tool that allows America’s farmers and ranchers to create a risk management plan tailored to their needs. That means growers can be covered:

Crop insurance has become the cornerstone of the farm safety net and provides every farmer with access to an affordable risk management tool. A new report from the Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that over the past two decades, the value of specialty crops protected by crop insurance has tripled. Total specialty crop liabilities have grown from $7 billion in 2000 to $21 billion in 2020. As ERS points out in their report, all farmers face risks, “but the nature of specialty crop production and marketing may heighten exposure to some of these risks.”

Crop insurance has expanded and improved over time, particularly for specialty crops or growers not adequately served by other risk management tools. For example, the 2014 Farm Bill included a new policy specifically meant to expand coverage options for diversified farming operations: Whole-Farm Revenue Protection. The introduction of Whole-Farm Revenue Protection offers diversified farmers – such as fruit and vegetable growers, and organic growers – more flexible, affordable risk management options.

Brian Campbell is a diversified produce farmer in Pennsylvania who credits crop insurance and the protection afforded by Whole-Farm Revenue Protection for his success. “If it wasn’t for whole farm revenue protection today, you know, I may not be at the size that I am,” Brian told National Crop Insurance Services.

Across the country, Lupe Guzman in California also relies on crop insurance to protect his family farming operation, which includes 1,300 acres of certified organic crops, such as avocados, lemons, mandarins, and Valencia oranges.

“By having the crop insurance, we’re able to guarantee that if for some reason we do have a bad freeze, we’ll be able to fall back on that insurance so that we can keep farming the following years,” Lupe said.

Another organic grower, Michael Sahr in Michigan, agrees that crop insurance is important to protecting his farm and our food supply. “Without crop insurance, we’d have so much devastation that the farmers would go out of business, and you would be paying a lot more money for your food,” he said.

“You could have a beautiful crop one day, and the next day, a big weather event happens, and you don’t have that anymore,” Michigan blueberry grower Shelly Hartmann said. “Crop insurance is really a big tool that we use here to help us offset any unexpected weather events.”

An untimely freeze, for example, can destroy a crop of table grapes growing at the Kirschenmann Brothers Farming Company in California. “Crop insurance gives us a little safety net,” Kenneth Kirschenmann said. “It doesn’t solve all the problems if we had a 100 percent wipeout, but it does keep us in business.”

California grower Devon Yurosek farms several tree crops, including pistachios, cherries, and pomegranates. The nature of these crops means that Devon and his family have one shot to make a good crop each year, stay in business, and keep their workers employed.

“We have to be able to pay the bills. In bad years, it’s difficult to do if you don’t have a crop on the trees. That’s where crop insurance has been a huge help to us,” Devon explained.

Produce and other specialty crops aren’t the only non-traditional crop that is covered by crop insurance. Pasture, rangeland, and forage (PRF) insurance helps farmers when they don’t receive the expected rainfall needed to keep their pastures productive for feeding livestock.

Pennsylvania farmer John Ligo turned to his PRF policy when a drought reduced his grass yield on the acres he uses to help feed his 600 head of cattle. “One of those things that we can do to manage crop production risk is crop insurance,” he said.

Farmers trust crop insurance to help them manage the highly specialized risks of farming they face today.

Farmers Praise Crop Insurance at Field Hearings

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The House Agriculture Committee recently handed farmers in Minnesota and Ohio the microphone to ask them what rural America would like to see in the next Farm Bill. A common refrain? Protect crop insurance.

We’ve compiled several highlights from these field hearings – check them out below.

Growers in both states stated that a strong crop insurance program is key in the next Farm Bill. It was named as the top Farm Bill priority for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association.

As the cornerstone of the farm safety net, it’s clear that crop insurance has earned the overwhelming trust of America’s farmers.

“Crop insurance has demonstrated itself to be an invaluable tool for wheat farmers in Ohio and across the country where we see more frequent weather disruptions and unprecedented increase in prices for inputs,” Ohio farmer Paul Herringshaw said.

The uncertainty of the current farm economy and the financial stress of high input prices were common themes in the hearings.

“High fuel, high crop inputs, economy-wide inflationary pressures, these are all chipping away at margins. Given this, the Farm Bill safety net and crop insurance are… very key to creating a predictable operating environment for these farmers,” explained KC Graner, the Senior Vice President of Agronomy at Central Farm Service, headquartered in Minnesota.

Minnesota’s hosting farmer, Bruce Peterson, cited a number of reasons why crop insurance is important, including the premium discount provided for young farmers. This additional discount for young farmers not only makes crop insurance affordable, but it also allows them to secure an operating loan.

“Once they can take that that crop insurance coverage to their lender, that’s a key point and especially important now with our costs continuing to ratchet higher, much more expensive to put a crop in now than many years ago,” Peterson explained.

Eric Hokanson deals with both sides of the farm and finance equation, growing soybeans in Minnesota while working at farm credit cooperative Compeer Financial. “[Crop insurance] is vital to all sizes and scopes of farms here in the U.S. This allows farmers to hedge their risks and market their crops. This is especially important to young farmers like myself to be able to have a guaranteed source of repayment when disaster strikes or Mother Nature decides to not cooperate,” he testified.

Congress also heard from organic farmers, including Ohio grower Eli Dean, who praised the individualized and responsive nature of crop insurance. “[Crop insurance] works great for our farm. It works great for our communities… if we have a disaster, we are compensated for it quickly.”

We appreciate Congress taking the time to travel the country to hear directly from America’s farmers. Want to learn more about crop insurance? Visit CropInsuranceInAmerica.org to watch more Real Stories from America’s heartland.

Crop Insurance Keeps Farmers Fighting

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Weather is one of a farmers’ top concerns. Just enough sun and rain will power a plant, resulting in a good yield. But too much sun and not enough rain, or too much rain and not enough sun, and a farmer might soon be counting his losses.

The challenges presented by weather volatility was something that we heard repeatedly from farmers in hurricane-prone South Carolina. Fifth-generation farmer Landrum Weathers said that “every year that we don’t get a named storm that hits here is a good year.”

Landrum farms corn, peanuts, soybeans and cotton while also working as a crop insurance agent with the Agriliance Insurance Group. He said choosing to purchase crop insurance is not a difficult decision. It helps sustain his farm, so he can keep producing food and fiber.

“Crop insurance basically ensures that the growers are going to be farming next year. That means that our country doesn’t have to call somebody else, I don’t care who, to get food,” Landrum said.

J.C. Carroll, who founded Agriliance Insurance Group alongside Ben Tillman, echoed Landrum’s comments on food security, explaining “it’s important for farmers to protect themselves with crop insurance. I think that crop insurance is our best safety net… It gives us food security.”

Weather was also top of mind for Johnny Watts, a fourth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans and raises cattle. “Every time a storm makes up out in the Atlantic, you kind of hold your breath and, you know, is this going to be it.”

Each storm brings with it a feeling of hopelessness. Farmers can prepare for every scenario, but they can’t hold back Mother Nature.

“You could have a great crop today. Tomorrow, you may not,” Johnny said.

“No farmer wants to have a loss,” explained Brian McClam, a seventh-generation farmer. Brian grows cotton, soybeans, and corn, and has had a couple close calls when it comes to natural disasters.

“Without crop insurance… this farm would not still be here. It would be gone,” Brian said.

Several years ago, seventh-generation farmer Neal Baxley watched as a foot and a half of rain washed away the crops he was about to harvest. An entire growing season, and the expenses and inputs and time that went into that season, gone.

Crop insurance helped soften the blow. Neal said there is a misconception that crop insurance covers a farmer’s entire loss. “It’s not going to make him completely whole but it’s a tool that can try to help him get him through to the next year.”

As Johnny Watts said, “You live to fight another day because of crop insurance.”

Watch these stories and more at CropInsuranceInAmerica.org.

American Farmers Feed the World

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“If you really want to get in the weeds or, in a lot of cases, in the dirt with crop insurance, you need to go out to the field.”

National Crop Insurance Services recently did just that, traveling to North Carolina to capture the real stories of both the farmers who rely on crop insurance and the people who provide coverage advice. That’s where we met Ruth Fulford, a crop risk advisor and care consultant with Flatlands Insurance Group.

Ruth, who was the recipient of the 2022 Crop Insurance Outstanding Service Award for outreach to limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers, is one of the many agents who write crop insurance policies in North Carolina. These policies protect crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, cabbage, sweet potatoes, sage, peanuts, produce and more. Collectively, crop insurance protects 3.5 million acres and more than $2.1 billion worth of crops in North Carolina.

Farmers across the state trust crop insurance to help them manage their risks. Farmers like Rena Eure, who owns a family farm with her husband and son. “What I love about farming is just being able to be out in nature and put a seed in the ground and watch it grow.”

The work of farming is the easy part, Rena told us. It’s the weather risks, financial stress, and supply chain challenges that make farming difficult. And there is a lot riding on the line.

“If we don’t have farmers, we don’t have food or the fiber you know, for the world basically,” Rena said.

Cattle rancher Gayle Smith pointed out that farmers do what they do because they love it. “We feel good about what we do because we provide a quality product for a world, and we willingly make those sacrifices.”

Even though she raises livestock, Gayle considers herself a grass farmer, first and foremost, with the cattle acting as large lawnmowers. But when Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, and Gayle doesn’t have enough grass or hay to feed her cattle, that’s when she turns to crop insurance.

“It’s been a tremendous help. It is a very affordable tool that allows you to minimize or manage some risk and have a small return if it if the weather goes against you,” Gayle said.

This message was echoed by Charlotte Vick, who grows row crops alongside her parents on the farm they started with just 25 acres in 1975. “That’s really the main reason that we carry the crop insurance. To try to protect against the weather because you know, we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature.”

America’s farmers and ranchers are the foundation of our food supply and critical drivers to the farm economy. The Moore family understands this better than most. Michael is a third-generation family while Antoine is a branch loan officer at AgCarolina Farm Credit and farms with his father.

“Crop insurance helps me relieve the stress knowing that if something happened, disaster happened on the farm, I do have something to fall back on. That I won’t lose, completely, lose everything,” Michael said.

Antoine, on the other hand, pointed out that having a solid risk management plan is a critical consideration for lenders, giving them more certainty when approving farm loans. “Certainly, that makes a huge impact, not just on that farmer, but also on that rural community that relies on that farmer to produce a crop,” Antoine said.

Watch these stories and more at CropInsuranceInAmerica.org.

A Farm Disaster – Now What?

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The unthinkable has happened and torrential rain has prevented a farmer from planting, or an unexpected hailstorm has destroyed a growing crop. Now what?

Unlike other farm aid programs, crop insurance provides assistance as determined by an individual farmer’s actual loss, not by the severity of the overall disaster event. So, following a disaster, private-sector crop insurance claims adjusters quickly and accurately assess damages and calculate losses. Delivering aid based on actual losses protects farmers, ranchers, and taxpayers while adhering to one of the key principles for an effective farm safety net.

When a farmer files a claim with their agent, its first stop might be the desk of Danny Thomas, a claims supervisor with Crop Risk Services. Danny joked that although he loves helping his farmers, he always hopes that he doesn’t have to see them a second time.

“Our job’s not only to get the indemnity paid correctly, but to give the insured peace of mind that everything is done correctly on time and that they’re taken care of,” Danny said.

The helping hand provided by adjusters is critical to helping farmers navigate the stress that comes with a crop loss.

“As adjusters, we can try our best to give them peace of mind and we try to let them know that it’s going to be okay,” said Kelsey Eskrigge, an adjuster in Proctor, Arkansas.

“Farmers will tell you I have crop insurance for a peace of mind, you know, farming is a gamble and it’s part of their risk management and helps them sleep at night. So, I think it’s very vital to keep U.S. agriculture in a stable and safe place,” Kelsey added.

Jeff Ray, a regional claims manager, has a long history in agriculture and he wasted no time in explaining just how vital crop insurance is to the farmers that he serves.

“The Federal crop insurance program is a must with the high cost of inputs, the uncertainty of the markets, the uncertainty of the weather. These farmers have got to have risk protection and a risk plan in place for them to be sustainable.”

Thanks to the unique public-private partnership that is the foundation of crop insurance, agents, adjusters, and crop insurance companies work together with the federal government to quickly deliver aid to America’s farmers. This is important when you consider the high-stakes nature of farming and the incredible investment that farmers put into growing our food and fiber.

That’s why crop insurance must remain affordable, widely available, economically viable, and adaptable to the changes of tomorrow.

Watch these stories and more at CropInsuranceInAmerica.org.

People Behind the Policies: Crop Insurance Agents Keep America Growing

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We’ve been sharing the stories of the farmers who rely on crop insurance, but there’s another part of the equation that helps make crop insurance a success: private-sector agents.

Before planting a crop, farmers work with private-sector crop insurance agents to tailor a customized risk management plan that fits their unique needs. This individualized approach is one of the essential strengths of crop insurance.

Dustin Faulkner, a crop insurance agent in Jonesboro, Arkansas, starts the crop insurance conversation with his farmers by outlining the basics of crop insurance and how yield and coverage levels can affect policies.

It’s always difficult to have a farm hit by disaster, but Dustin takes pride in ensuring that his customers are covered should the worst happen.

“To be able to make that phone call in that time of need and let them know that the policy is there for them…you almost feel them sometimes have a little relief knowing that that process is in place. And they did have adequate coverage for their needs.”

It’s no wonder that Arkansas’ farmers trust crop insurance. Last year, crop insurance covered 5.5 million acres in Arkansas, and Arkansas farmers collectively paid $58.9 million out of their own pockets for coverage.

Agent Sam Walker in Brinkley, Arkansas, enjoys knowing that he is making a difference in the lives of his farmers and the economic health of his community. “Everything in Brinkley revolves around agriculture one way or another,” he said. “That’s the only way that we can make it around here is with farming.”

In many of these rural towns, agents are an integral part of the farming community.

“Crop insurance is something I enjoy,” said Lenny Adams, an agent at the Bank of England Insurance Agency in England, Arkansas. “I enjoy going out and sitting on the tractors and the combines and talking with the farmers and gathering data as well as taking care of them on their crop insurance needs.”

The Bank of England is the only bank left in the small town of 3,000 people. That’s why Lenny is passionate about ensuring that farmers have a strong farm safety net. He knows first-hand the financial risks that come with farming as well as how much farmers give back to their rural community.

If the farmers went under, “we’d probably lose every business we have in town.”

Watch these stories and more at CropInsuranceInAmerica.org.

Farmers, Congress Agree: Crop Insurance Works

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Members of the House Agriculture Committee gathered yesterday to hear from farmers, crop insurance agents, and industry representatives about the key role that crop insurance plays in the farm safety net. Crop insurance is built on a unique public-private partnership between the federal government and the private sector, making the program efficient, affordable, and adaptable to farmers’ needs.

Each witness spoke to the strengths of crop insurance, and how it works to protect farmers and ranchers.

  • “Uncertainty and volatility are probably two words that describe the countryside right now… Crop insurance is one thing that can give us some stability, some predictability. That’s why it’s really important now, more than ever.” – Lee Cromley, 6th generation farmer, National Cotton Council and American Cotton Producers
  • “Federal crop insurance is a major pillar of risk management for the vast majority of corn growers.” – Tom Haag, 4th generation farmer, First Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association
  • “Crop insurance is one of the best tools available to farmers to protect against Mother Nature because crop insurance is a rapid response solution to disasters.” – Bob Haney, Executive Chairman of Agri-Sompo North America
  • “Crop insurance does more than just cover losses, it enables the producer to secure credit, to better market their crops, and to make the needed investments to improve their farm and ranch and build their soils.” – Kathy Fowler, independent crop insurance agent, Crop Insurance Professionals Association
  • “Crop insurance today is a critical part of the agricultural safety net. It’s relied on by farmers, by lenders, and by rural businesses in every part of the country. No USDA program reaches more farmers, and more crops, and more counties than crop insurance.” – Alex Offerdahl, Watts and Associates, Inc.

With a Farm Bill on the horizon, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle also praised the crop insurance program.

  • “Throughout the last two Farm Bill reauthorization processes, the message I heard loud and clearly was ‘do no harm’ to crop insurance. The program has been, and continues to be, central to risk management for producers across the country and it has continued to grow and evolve to address the challenges and risk our producers are feeling.” – Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.)
  • “I’ve heard firsthand from numerous farmers how crop insurance saved them from bankruptcy following a disaster. But its purpose goes well beyond helping producers in the wake of a loss, crop insurance provides a base level of reliable risk management that [helps keep] the economic engine of rural America running in good years, and quite frankly, in bad.” – Rep. GT Thompson (R-Pa.)
  • “By leveraging the private sector and incentivizing competition among companies, producers now have access to a dynamic system that provides our producers with the highest level of service.” – Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)
  • “Federal crop insurance is an incredibly successful public-private partnership that stands as the primary safety net for U.S. producers.” – Rep. Al Lawson (D-Fla.)
  • “It’s a successful public-private partnership that I would argue to my last breath to anyone is good for producers, it’s good for rural communities, it’s also good for consumers to have a constant food supply all over this country.” – Rep. Tracey Mann (R-Kan.)

 From Congress to the countryside, the message is clear: crop insurance works.