{"id":9631,"date":"2018-05-15T08:13:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T13:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/72.52.184.4\/~cropinsuranceina\/?p=9631"},"modified":"2018-05-31T13:31:34","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T18:31:34","slug":"farmers-in-ohio-kentucky-advocate-for-crop-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iripreviewsite.com\/cropinsuranceinamerica\/farmers-in-ohio-kentucky-advocate-for-crop-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers in Ohio, Kentucky Advocate for Crop Insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of soybean farmers in America\u2019s heartland are urging Congress to leave crop insurance alone as it debates the 2018 Farm Bill with columns published recently in newspapers in both states.<\/p>\n

Scott Metzger, who farms with his family at Metzger Family Farms in Williamsport, Ohio, offered his story of decades of heartbreak that came from a single storm in a piece published<\/a> in the Circleville Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

His family has been farming in south central Ohio for six generations, he said in the piece. He is proud of his heritage and knew from a young age he wanted to farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 5, on a July day in 1980, a storm tore through our community in Williamsport,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe things I remember about that day are the memories of a child: My toy tractor blown down the road. The roof ripped off the house. The shop flattened. All of that could be repaired. But in our fields was a disaster that I\u2019ve been dealing with now for my entire adult life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family ended up with crushing debt that year. They had to sell farm land to stay in business. It took 36 years to buy all of it back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the story is sad enough, there\u2019s a tragic piece of irony to add,\u201d Metzger noted. \u201cThat year, back in 1980, a man came by the farm selling crop insurance. He was one of the first in our area to offer it. My family declined. We had never needed it before and didn\u2019t see a reason to spend on it then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, crop insurance is part of the Metzger family farm\u2019s business plan. He said modern and effective products like Harvest Price Option allow his farm to forward contract and not be as concerned if they have a short crop in the summer and need to buy back contracts.<\/p>\n

Metzger is on the Ohio Soybean Association Board of Trustees and is a director with the American Soybean Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Congress debates the Farm Bill, I hope lawmakers will remember my family\u2019s story and continue to support the modern crop insurance farmers have come to rely on,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

In Kentucky, farmer Caleb Ragland penned an op-ed that was published<\/a> in the News-Enterprise<\/em> in Elizabethtown not far from where he farms.<\/p>\n

His family has been farming in Kentucky for nine generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 31, I\u2019m already a lifer,\u201d he wrote in the piece. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing I\u2019d rather be doing than growing soybeans, corn and winter wheat and raising pigs in a pretty part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Ragland explained that the business of farming has been tough in recent years.<\/p>\n

Nationally, farm incomes are down 50 percent compared to what they were 5 years ago putting everyone in a financial pinch.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrain prices are down,\u201d he said. \u201cSo are beef, pork, poultry and milk. Couple all of that with the fact that most of your farmland operations, on any scale, have substantial debt loads, and it\u2019s easy to see how people are struggling in farm country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ragland is optimistic, though. The growing population will mean a good future for farmers if smart policy decisions are made in Washington, he concluded.<\/p>\n

And, leaving crop insurance unchanged in the 2018 Farm Bill, including Harvest Price Option, is a smart choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHPO lets us forward market our crops,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt protects revenue, not just yields, offering the equivalent of \u2018replacement value\u2019 coverage on a car.\u00a0And as farmers, we\u2019re willing to pay extra for the protection HPO offers because it gives you the faith you need put your borrowed money in the ground and know you\u2019ll be able to pay it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ragland\u2019s request of Congress was simple: Don\u2019t fix wasn\u2019t isn\u2019t broken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pair of soybean farmers in America\u2019s heartland are urging Congress to leave crop insurance alone as it debates the 2018 Farm Bill with columns published recently in newspapers in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":9632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farmers","category-whats-cropping-up"],"yoast_head":"\nFarmers in Ohio, Kentucky Advocate for Crop Insurance - Crop Insurance Keeps America Growing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A pair of soybean farmers in America\u2019s heartland are urging Congress to leave crop insurance alone as it debates the 2018 Farm Bill with columns published recently in newspapers in both states.\" \/>\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\/farmers-in-ohio-kentucky-advocate-for-crop-insurance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Farmers in Ohio, Kentucky Advocate for Crop Insurance - 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