{"id":4210,"date":"2013-04-12T10:21:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncis.staging.wpengine.com\/?p=4210"},"modified":"2013-04-12T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T14:21:10","slug":"crop-insurance-in-action-whitney-blodgett-shoreham-vermont-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iripreviewsite.com\/cropinsuranceinamerica\/crop-insurance-in-action-whitney-blodgett-shoreham-vermont-2\/","title":{"rendered":"CROP INSURANCE IN ACTION: Whitney Blodgett, Shoreham, Vermont"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whitney Blodgett has been farming in the family\u2019s Vermont apple orchard, commercially known as \u201cSentinel Pine Orchard,\u201d his whole life. Blodgett says that the family purchased the orchard in 1964, and have since grown, adding the abandoned dairy farm next door.<\/p>\n

Sentinel Pine Orchard, is comprised of 220 acres of apple trees, mostly planted in the Macintosh variety. When harvest time comes, Blodgett along with his wife and farm hands, store, pack and ship fresh fruit to market. \u201cThat is our niche market because we can grow those apples very well in this climate,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Blodgett explains that because of the nature of the business \u2013 there aren\u2019t a lot of ways to protect an orchard from the whims of Mother Nature \u2013 his chief risk management tool is crop insurance. \u201cWe had crop insurance claims in 2004, 2007 and 2011,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd all of them were because of hail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hail has always been dreaded in the orchard industry because it hits later in the summer, with the coming of the severe summer thunderstorms, and can damage the apples to the point that they\u2019re no longer marketable as fresh fruit. But 2011 was a very different story.<\/p>\n

The hail hit in the early spring, just as the blossoms had fallen from the fruit and the small apples were beginning to form. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing we can do against hail because we can\u2019t build a roof over the whole orchard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very odd in 2011, the hail hit early in the development of the apples and deformed them,\u201d said Blodgett. \u201cWe had to wait and see how they developed and then decided if they would be able to be sold as fresh fruit,\u201d he explains. The other option, if the fruit formed but wasn\u2019t marketable as fresh, was to sell the apples for cider.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Blodgett says they held their breath and said their prayers for months as the apples slowly developed, keeping their fingers crossed that the hailstorm didn\u2019t alter the apples beyond the point of marketability. But in the end, with the apples looking dented and battered, they were forced into the cider market.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we reluctantly decided to put the apples into cider,\u201d he explained, which in financial terms, is a six-fold reduction in the value of the year\u2019s harvest.<\/p>\n

Luckily for Blodgett, he had purchased a \u201cfresh apple\u201d crop insurance policy that had a 50 percent coverage level. Blodgett explains that immediately after the hail incident, he had contacted his crop insurance agent who sent an adjuster out to the orchard within days. \u201cThe adjuster did a preliminary determination, but there would not be a final determination until final harvest,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s a nail biter right to the very end, since you don\u2019t know how bad things are going to be right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this wasn\u2019t the first time he had looked to his crop insurance policy for a lifeline.<\/p>\n

Blodgett explained that he took over the business from his father shortly after they had a large fire in their storage facility, which was full of apples. \u201cThe facility burned down, and that was the start of some very lean years,\u201d he said. And although his father had always shied away from crop insurance, Blodgett decided that he needed the risk protection it afforded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI purchased a crop insurance policy in 2004, when things were pretty lean and we couldn\u2019t withstand a lot of loss,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were stretched very thin at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, that also happened to be the first year they experienced a large hailstorm, which stole their harvest and would have left them in very desperate times. \u201cWithout a doubt, when that first hail storm hit in 2004, we would have been knocked out of business for good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father had never purchased crop insurance but thankfully I had decided to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout crop insurance, I wouldn\u2019t own an apple orchard right now,\u201d he says. Blodgett explains that while crop insurance has kept his family in business, it has also had a positive \u201ctrickle down\u201d effect on many of the areas businesses, where he buys his crop protectants, fertilizers and equipment. \u201cIf we went out of business, it would impact a lot of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Blodgett notes that crop insurance is essential for his business because even if you get a damaging storm at the beginning of a season \u2013 and your lose your entire crop \u2013 you still have to spend the money to take care of the trees and manage the orchard in preparation of next spring\u2019s crop. \u201cEven when we lose the crop early in the year, as we have done in the past, we still have to maintain the orchard for the rest of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise, your orchard will be a mess the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And despite the disappointment of sending his whole 2011 crop into the cider market, Blodgett is still farming this year, hoping that what started off as an \u201ciffy\u201d year with a late freeze will still produce a respectable, and marketable, crop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are looking up, although we have some damage and loss, \u201c he says. \u201cBut this year, we will have a fresh crop of apples to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be better, it could be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whitney Blodgett has been farming in the family\u2019s Vermont apple orchard, commercially known as \u201cSentinel Pine Orchard,\u201d his whole life. Blodgett says that the family purchased the orchard in 1964, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-testimonials"],"yoast_head":"\nCROP INSURANCE IN ACTION: Whitney Blodgett, Shoreham, Vermont - Crop Insurance Keeps America Growing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iripreviewsite.com\/cropinsuranceinamerica\/crop-insurance-in-action-whitney-blodgett-shoreham-vermont-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CROP INSURANCE IN ACTION: Whitney Blodgett, Shoreham, Vermont - Crop Insurance Keeps America Growing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whitney Blodgett has been farming in the family\u2019s Vermont apple orchard, commercially known as \u201cSentinel Pine Orchard,\u201d his whole life. 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