Farmers in western Kansas need affordable, readily accessible crop insurance. Today’s stakes are too high not to have this important tool available to them.
That was the consensus of nearly 100 landowners, producers, suppliers and others vested in agriculture at two meetings held in Goodland and Ulysses sponsored by Kansas Farm Bureau.
Held Feb. 25, the two meetings were designed to allow producers to provide input and voice their concerns about the Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) proposed elimination of crop insurance on continuous planting of some non-irrigated acres. A part of U.S. Department of Agriculture, RMA has concluded this practice is too high risk to warrant insurance coverage.
RMA has proposed cancelation of insurance products that provide coverage for these second crops in 18 counties in western Kansas and also parts of eastern Colorado and western Nebraska.
“I would really like RMA to sit back and take another look at what they’re proposing,” says Maurice Miller, who farms in Lane and Scott counties in southwestern Kansas. “We must have the opportunity to put in that second (summer) crop and we need insurance on that second crop. Insurance is an integral part of our farming program.”
One of the younger producers at the meetings was Clayton Janicke, Cheyenne County. This northwestern Kansas farmer is 100-percent no till.
Janicke says he no longer drags iron through his fields and operates a more intensive rotation without any fallow periods. He believes minimum till and no-till farming will provide higher production yields on his farm which in turn make crop insurance all that much more important.
“With the potential for greater yields and more income, crop insurance is absolutely essential for my farming business,” Janicke says. "One hailstorm or another year of drought would be catastrophic for us. Without insurance for my crops, I’d be hung out to dry if and when I suffer a crop failure."
Like the other western Kansas producers who attended the two meetings, Janicke believes RMA has used data from too narrow a time period 1999 – 2008.
According to records this 10-year period was the second driest period dating back to 1895, second only to the dust bowl period of the “Dirty Thirties.” Western Kansas producers would like RMA to consider a 20 to 30-year period.
These same producers would also like RMA to consider the changes in more recent cropping practices in western Kansas including no till and minimum tillage, improving crop genetics and safer pesticides.
Another northwestern Kansas producer, Gerry Franklin from Sherman County, would like RMA to consider the current culture of farming in this region of the state.
“We must be opportunistic out here,” Franklin explains. “When we have enough moisture and the conditions look favorable to produce a crop, we need to be able to plant such a crop and know if we do have a drought, hail or some other act of God, we can protect ourselves.”
The protection he and the other producers were talking about is crop insurance. Western Kansas crop producers have always been quick to seek new cropping rotations that benefit their bottom line. This includes continuously planting non-irrigated acres.
“You can’t penalize these producers for hail, drought and Mother Nature,” says Steve Baccus, KFB president and Ottawa County farmer. “Because of their high input costs, machinery costs and cash rents, they cannot afford to let this land lay idle. It has to be placed into production throughout the year.”
Eliminating crop insurance will not work for producers in western Kansas, Baccus says. He pledged to take the suggestions and ideas of producers in attendance at the two meetings to RMA.
“We’re going to tell RMA not to make any changes immediately,” Baccus says. “Let’s hold the line for 2010 and 2011. We are committed to a workable solution for our farmers and RMA.”
