Crop insurance or crap insurance

[sumdumguy]

Aida, Cais and AgriStability were good programs when Liberals were in power. A lot of beginning farmers had their margins created and were protected from sudden shocks. The programs got fryed by the Harperites and the provinces wrestled them away only to take away most legitimate expenses and reduce margins by screwing with the formulas, including the Olympic Average. For instance I saw farmers who did really well with chickpeas or organic hits, only to get those years thrown out of the margin. This actually punished farmers for hunting for niches. I hope the Liberals will repair the damage. The feds need to take it back. Just my opinion and I know some of you will disagree with a true support program but why shouldn't farmers get some of the stress relieved. After all, we've been great sports going along with the cheap food policy.

[iceman]

Insurance is insurance its insurance.
You don't take out home insurance to hope your home burns down. The company is betting you will have that home and pay insurance for 50 years. But some one in your area will loose a home in those 50 years.
Farming if you go out and take insurance to fail you will eventually fail.
Now yes new farmers are penalized with area coverage or they have to take their fathers coverage. But funny if fathers coverage is high they have to take area coverage.
Its a premium you pay to sleep a little easier at night.
Crap insurance isn't a basket like GARS. Its a basket per crop. So if you get hailed out on 5 and have 60 bpa on 5 you probably will get nothing. But you have hail coverage for hail damage and its not a basket.
So again if you have savings or two years of grain stored in bins on the farm don't take it. If you have debt or just a little scared take and pay the premium its a tax deduction.

100% agree with you. It's not perfect but nothing is in this life.

Ice out

[JDGreen]

Great to be so called self insured with grain in bins, deferral etc. What I don't understand is on a 5000 acre farm roughly 1.5 million of cash at risk yearly. Even if you have it why would you risk pissing it away. Personally don't need any insurance however still carry it to protect what we worked hard to earn. Anytime I can protect my investment for 3-4 percentage points is a no brainer to me. Before I would risk the engine that drives everything I do, I would drop insurance on house, buildings, bins. Big deal if your house burns down. Few hundred thousand your back in biz. So you had some bins blow over, oh well make a couple bags etc. Knock a couple mill out of your cash and equity position and its a whole nother story. Have seen far more crop wrecks than houses burning down in my lifetime yet we religiously buy the shit. Lived thru some lean times where didn't think would make it and under no circumstance will I ever put myself or family thru that stress again due to plain old mismanagement

[Guest]

had it since we started , dont need it now but wouldn't be without it! people in the northeast are good and fair to work with . have never tried to screw them and they have never tried to screw us . necessary expense for me

[furrowtickler]

Most likely dropping gars and going full on crop insurance. It was a costly experience to do 50% with crop insurance and getting nothing from gars even with 1/3 crop wipeout in 2014. If we had 80% crop ins on peas we would have got an additional $200,000. All GARS we still would have got zip.
We need crop by crop insurance, Gars only would pay out in a virtual total wipeout.
If gars goes to crop by crop we may look at it again.

[pgluca]

I started farming the first year Crop Insurance was offered in Alberta around 1974. My father said take it, the governments are paying 1/2 the premium and it is supposed to be operated at cost, non profit so you should average out a little ahead, you will get some of your taxes back. I have never had a compelling need for it but have been totally in for 41 years. It worked exactly that way I always insured for the maximum 80% so little drops in production would reclaim my premium. Always carried the hail rider. In the end I have more or less broken even on the crop part and received about double my premiums on the hail rider. When on rare occasions things went really badly it paid and I have never spilled any red ink, or lost much sleep.

[Richard5]

To add to your good comments JD green

For house insurance especially and even vehicle insurance, take as high of a deductible as you can.

For your house, you should be able to get a $10,000 or higher deductible and save yourself a few hundred per year.

I only want an insurance agent at my place if the house burns down. Not for shingles in a hail or windstorm, not for theft (because I would only have 10% of contents S3 has, definitely no farm webcam)

[LEP]

From the discussion here, I wonder why I farm where I do.

When I get a wreck it is a severe wreck. Could be hail or drought but we are talking big payouts.

I have had three since I started farming 27 years ago. I always take 70%, but this year I am bumping up to 80.

My son is starting farming and they have a three year phase in program wherein the first year he gets 50%, the second year 75 and finally a 100% of my yield premium and experience discount.

Personally, I wouldn't farm without it.

You buy life insurance, but you don't want to use it.