I started farming and ranching with my father and grandfather in southwest Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle 40 years ago, and I am the fourth generation to farm cotton, peanuts, wheat, corn, milo and cattle on our family\u2019s land.<\/p>\n
I was 17 when I started farming on my own, and although I have four decades of experience under my belt, the many issues we face today on the family farm \u2014 worked by me, my son, my brother-in-law and my son-in-law \u2014 are no less challenging than they were when I began. In most careers, things get easier as you move along. In farming, since the weather and prices are so unpredictable, it really never gets easier.<\/p>\n
With few risk management tools available in the early days, it could take years to recover from a hailstorm, an early freeze or any of the many other natural perils that could be thrown at you. When I first learned of crop insurance, I didn\u2019t purchase it because premiums were unaffordable and margins were too slim to afford it. Thankfully, Congress made crop insurance more available and affordable \u2014 by partially discounting the premium \u2014 and now I wouldn\u2019t farm without it.<\/p>\n
Since the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, crop insurance is the best tool farmers have to manage risks and revenue. It\u2019s not cheap, but it is something that we budget for annually and can\u2019t imagine not having.<\/p>\n
The key to crop insurance\u2019s success has been its affordability, its availability and its viability. Last year, farmers spent nearly $4 billion on crop insurance policies that protected 90 percent of planted cropland in the United States. I\u2019d bet that many of the farmers in our area wouldn\u2019t be surviving the current drought \u2014 which started in 2011 \u2014 if it wasn\u2019t for crop insurance.<\/p>\n
Despite the fact that agriculture\u2019s safety net programs took a huge cut in the last farm bill, some in Congress seem to think we need to give more. I wonder if some of those people have any idea where their food and clothes come from or what it takes to get it from the farm to their plate or closet.<\/p>\n
It seems almost daily that someone in Congress is proposing a bill to cut the premium support on crop insurance. It would not serve anyone to cut these risk management tools to farmers, as they allow farmers to concentrate on producing higher-yielding, better-quality crops that reduce the costs to the consumer.<\/p>\n
Crop insurance is not a gift but insurance, just like homeowner\u2019s insurance, that farmers buy. And like homeowner\u2019s insurance, we don\u2019t collect a dime without a verifiable loss and paying a deductible. Without crop insurance, many farmers couldn\u2019t get financed and it would be almost impossible for a beginning farmer to get started.<\/p>\n
Crop insurance is critical in meeting these challenges, and guarantees the American consumer a safe, affordable supply of quality food and fiber that is unsurpassed anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n