Farming in Central Ohio, much like the rest of the traditional corn belt, tends to be a business that\u2019s very even keel.\u00a0 The soil is great and the climate is just about perfect for growing corn, soybeans and wheat.\u00a0 Because of this, bushels per acres are fairly predictable from year to year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat whole equation was turned on its head in 2012, which was the worst year that I had ever experienced as a farmer and will be forever seared in the minds of those of us who work the land as the Great Drought of 2012,\u201d said farmer Matthew King.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThankfully, like me, most farmers here in Central Ohio purchase crop insurance every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
King notes that they\u2019ve purchased crop insurance his entire life, as do most farmers he knows.\u00a0\u00a0 He says folks who are not involved directly in farming don\u2019t understand the enormous economies of scale \u2013 the prices of fertilizer, seed, machinery, labor and herbicide \u2013 that must be paid by farmers in order to get a crop in the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou literally have to lay out tens of thousands of dollars and then pray for good weather, and if that all comes together, you\u2019ve got a bountiful harvest and you\u2019re set for the next year,\u201d he explains.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t come together, then hopefully you have crop insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n
King notes that crop insurance is also no small expense.\u00a0 \u201cIn fact, in 2013, our farming operations crop insurance premium totaled more than my wife\u2019s annual salary as a local school teacher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In most years, crop insurance is just a net cost of doing business for us, since we rarely make a claim.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like homeowner\u2019s insurance in that you don\u2019t insure your home in the hopes that it burns down but rather in the hope that it never burns down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so aggravating that during the 2012 drought, some outside groups opposed to farm policy charged that \u2018farmers were praying for drought, not praying for rain,\u2019 implying that we\u2019d rather collect an indemnity check than get a decent harvest,\u201d noted King.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLet me set the record straight on that one:\u00a0 I would take a better crop than a crop insurance payment every time, because well-marketed grain can make me far more money than any crop insurance indemnity ever would,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
King notes that during the 2012 drought, farmers in the area talked about how awful things were in their fields, how much their harvest was down due to extreme heat and lack of moisture, but curiously, none of them mentioned the possibility of losing their farms.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s because they had all purchased crop insurance, knowing that if the bottom fell out, they had a backup plan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Farming in Central Ohio, much like the rest of the traditional corn belt, tends to be a business that\u2019s very even keel.\u00a0 The soil is great and the climate is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,22,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-real-stories","category-testimonials"],"yoast_head":"\n