In many parts of Oklahoma, it seems like wheat farmers just can’t catch a break.

Not a one.

A late spring freeze, combined with excessively dry or extreme drought conditions throughout the winter and into spring have left many of the state’s wheat fields badly stressed or a complete bust. In fact, I’d say this is the worst I’ve ever seen, and I started farming here in the mid 1950s.

With the wheat harvest set to begin in about a month, farmers are expected to harvest about 40 percent less wheat this year than they did in 2013. The low soil moisture as we head into the hottest and driest months of the year has left many farmers wondering what they are about to go through.

For the state’s farmers who purchased crop insurance – and nowadays that’s nearly all of them – that will be their only saving grace. I don’t know of a farmer anywhere in Oklahoma who doesn’t buy crop insurance. It’s just like buying diesel fuel today…you don’t farm without it.

With the passage of the new Farm Bill, largely gone are the days of the Federal government stepping in and helping farmers who have been hit by a calamity.

Such bills cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in the past, and were not only expensive but also slow to deliver the help to the farmers who needed it. Today, when a farm crisis hits, farmers turn to their crop insurance policy, not the Federal government, for help. The public-private partnership that is today’s crop insurance ensures that farmers get the financial help they need in weeks, not years.

As a crop insurance agent, I can tell you firsthand that crop insurance is no small expense for most of the state’s farmers, who spend north of $20,000 a year purchasing policies that they pray they will not need. Of course there are smaller farmers and larger farmers, whose premiums exceed $70,000, but the point is that it isn’t cheap.

Farmers buy crop insurance today just like they buy homeowners and car insurance. And when what looks like a promising year turns into a bust, the only thing standing between some farmers and bankruptcy is their crop insurance policies.

Last year, Oklahoma farmers spent more than $91 million out of their own pockets to purchase the peace of mind and protection of crop insurance.

Crop insurance allows individual farmers to purchase the coverage they need, tailored to their farms, their financial standing and their tolerance to risk.

For farmers who rely on loans to operate – and that’s a lot of farmers – crop insurance has become a bank’s best friend. In fact, the best collateral you can take to a bank when you are seeking a loan is your crop insurance policy. The bank will often co-sign the policy with the farmer, and in doing so, they are assured that part of their loan is covered, regardless of weather or price swings.

Crop insurance is not only smart farm policy, but smart consumer policy as well. American consumers have come to see our affordable, abundant food supply as a birthright. In fact, most of us alive today have never seen wide-scale hunger in this country. But much of what we take for granted could quickly disappear if we allow our farmers to fail and were forced to import our food, fiber and fuel. That is not a position many of us would choose to be in and it underscores the fact that having a strong farm sector is a national security issue.

While this might be the worst drought I’ve ever seen, I have to say that my faith in the resilience and work ethic of Oklahoma’s farmers is undying, and I know that with their crop insurance policies as a backstop, our farmers will bounce back from this. When Congress addresses crop insurance in the next Farm Bill five years down the road, I hope it is to protect the public-private partnership that has made it successful and to further improve and expand its protection.

Max Claybaker is a farmer and a crop insurance insurance agent from Blackwell, Oklahoma.  This op-ed appeared in The Oklahoman on June 1, 2014.

By Tim Totheroh

I’ve been a farmer all my life. I’m also a crop insurance adjuster, which means last summer was a busy time for me.

By the end of harvest claims last year, I visited more than 200 farms, meeting with the farmers, inspecting their losses and adjusting their crop insurance claims. It was sad at times because farmers take crop losses personally.

I’ve never seen anything like what I witnessed last summer in Illinois. In one field, I walked a half-mile through the field and walked the half-mile back in another part of the field, and I never saw a single ear of corn. Not one ear.

Some varieties of corn did better than others, and Mother Nature was kinder to some farmers than to others. When all was said and done, we ended up with about half of a normal corn crop at harvest. Even with half of a harvest, farmers still had a full tab of bills to pay.

I’ll never forget the faces of young farmers shaken by the sight of their year’s income slowly withering in the…

By Steve Umlor

The affordability and bounty of the American food system did not occur by happenstance. It took wise policies supported by dedicated officials, hardworking farmers willing to risk their fortunes and a first-rate transportation and distribution system.

Many of the policies that underpin food production chiefly support the major food and feed commodities like corn, wheat and soybeans. But for those of us raising specialty crops – those fruits, vegetables and nuts that are an important part of our diet – there’s only one major risk management tool available: crop insurance.

Crop insurance is a public-private partnership whereby farmers purchase their own policies to cover the risks they choose to pay for. Michigan’s farmers face a huge amount of risk on a daily basis, including early frosts, drought, floods and market…

By Andrew Bowman, Oneida, Illinois

Hearings have started in Washington on the next farm bill. I count myself as one of the many farmers who will stand together and urge Congress to “do no harm” to crop insurance, which has become the front line risk management tool for American farmers.

Crop insurance is a public-private partnership whereby farmers like myself put “skin in the game” by purchasing policies to manage the many risks we face in this line of work. It does not guarantee profits, nor does it ensure farmers cannot fail. It protects farmers against circumstances beyond their control but does not prevent poorly managed farms from going under. Essentially, it allows market forces to work. Farmers gladly purchase crop insurance, and last year spent $4.1 billion out of their own pockets to do so.

How well is crop insurance working? Last year, most of the Midwest sizzled under a heat wave and drought that cut harvests in half for some farmers and virtually destroyed entire…