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SW KS, near Dodge City | I don't have any problem with it at all... I just want people to realize the risks that really aren't there... Because it looks to me like crop insurance is in the cross hairs, and that will change ag in a big way. People need to be ready for that, and I'm afraid a lot of people won't be. Take away crop insurance and you take away a lot of people's ability to borrow. That's not a good thing for anybody.
None of our livestock borrower's have crop insurance, and they understand the system. Obviously right now it's not much fun for them, but you just have to work through it.
As a lender, I'm not ever going to try to be anybody's "friend". I'm going to look at a balance sheet, past performance and give a very clear, unvarnished opinion of what I think needs to happen. If somebody doesn't agree with my assessment, that's fine, they need to point out the mistakes I've made. And it's happened. When I've had to turn a loan down for cash flow reasons, I give it to them and tell them to find the mistakes I've made in putting it together. I'm not going to give marketing advice or tell anybody how to run their operation. It's their operation, I really don't care how they run it, as long as it works for them. But if they're running it in such a way that all they're doing is eating equity, I will point that out to them. I'm not going to make decisions. I'm going to just put up a few guidelines and say "If your balance sheet and/or tax returns do X, then we have to have Y happen here." That way they understand going in the ramifications of what has to happen here... And a few of those not-so-fun banker decisions are driven by banking regulations. | |
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Agriculture's image problem
