John Michael Pillow is a fourth generation Mississippi farmer and spent the first part of his career managing his family\u2019s farm.\u00a0 In 2011, Pillow decided to strike out on his own and become a full-time farmer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the 3,500 acres I planted that year were in corn, which is a crop whereby most of the cost is right up front,\u201d he says.\u00a0 By the time the entire field was planted, Pillow estimates he had not only his family\u2019s future invested in the crop, but also\u00a0 $2.5 million that he had borrowed from the bank to put the crop in.<\/p>\n
\u201c2011 started out exceptionally dry for us, and by mid-summer, the crop was already starting to show the signs of drought stress,\u201d said Pillow.\u00a0 But then Pillow\u2019s luck changed drastically as the drought was broken by rain.\u00a0 And then more rain, and then some more rain.<\/p>\n
And although Pillow\u2019s farm and homestead are protected by a sophisticated levee system, the levees simply weren\u2019t high enough to accommodate the unending downpours.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cBefore I knew it, the Yazoo River was knocking on my front door.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, Pillow suddenly realized the value of crop insurance, and why it was worth buying every year. \u00a0\u201cCrop insurance, for me, not only proved to be essential, it\u2019s the reason I\u2019m in business today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Just as luck would have it, Pillow\u2019s crop insurance agent had approached him at the beginning of the crop year prior to planting to discuss various high-loss scenarios with him.\u00a0 \u201cOut of the blue, my crop insurance agent floated the worst-case scenario by me about how well I\u2019d handle a crop loss of 80 to 85 percent,\u201d recalls Pillow.\u00a0 \u201cI told him that a loss that high was simply inconceivable, that it would never happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Pillow notes that, given the fact that this was his first year of farming on his own and that he would require a $2.5 million operating loan from the local bank to put his crop in the ground, he decided the prudent thing to do would be to plan for the worst.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to cut a check in excess of $60,000 in February to purchase the level of coverage the agent suggested for a level of loss that I didn\u2019t really believe was possible,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
And then it happened.\u00a0 Roughly three months after writing that check, the Yazoo River had spilled over its banks and most of Pillow\u2019s farm was underwater.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost 80 to 85 percent of my crop that year,\u201d said Pillow.\u00a0 \u201cAnd to add insult to injury, after the waters receded, although most of the corn was completely washed away, the corn that was left had been severely damaged by drought,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pillow said that just like car insurance, crop insurance gives you a degree of stability in times of disaster.\u00a0 \u201cIf you wreck your car, the insurance will replace it and you can still go to work the next day,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cWhy would you not have insurance on your food source, since it\u2019s the most important thing we have?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pillow notes that through the whole process, his crop insurance agent and company were by his side.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I found out that we were going to flood, the first call I made was to my crop insurance agent,\u201d said Pillow.\u00a0 \u201cHe was very reassuring that it would be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pillow said that when the flood was at its height, his agent, the adjuster and the supervisor were all on his farm at some point surveying the damage and assuring him that his indemnity check would be on the way so he could bounce back from this.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeedless to say, I would be doing something else other than what I love besides farming, and I would be repaying the bank for the $2.5 million I borrowed to put the crop in for the rest of my life,\u201d said Pillow.\u00a0 \u201cIn fact, me, my wife and my kids would have been paying the bank back for a generation or more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Michael Pillow is a fourth generation Mississippi farmer and spent the first part of his career managing his family\u2019s farm.\u00a0 In 2011, Pillow decided to strike out on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":6175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weather","category-whats-cropping-up"],"yoast_head":"\n