Michigan - Saginaw County | I do not buy insurance currently. I'm not against it and I may insure in the future. Taking the high moral ground that you are pure and standing on your own two feet may feel good but might not be an intelligent business decision (or might be, depending on YOUR situation)
Discussed this with my neighbor recently. His position (and I agree) is that he will be burying one million dollars worth of seed and chemicals into the dirt in just a few short weeks from now (31st season for him). If he has a wipe out this year he does not have a spare one million dollars in his back pocket to pay off this years lost inputs - plus a spare one million dollars to plant next year. Insurance is an absolute necessity for him.
I think what we mostly, as farmers, rebel against is the convoluted and complex web of insurance, federal regulations, marketing your grain, financing inputs, and on and on. When all we want to do is make good decisions on seed, fertilizers, tillage practices, etc. and just go bust dirt. Unfortunately, if we do not force ourselves to dig into the morass of arcane and confusing bureaucracy and make good decisions (try) we very likely will not be planting after another year or three. The world is changing and we adapt or we become extinct. Money talks and being bull headed walks (to town to get a job, usually)
A related discussion to be had is that we wear two hats. First, farming is a trade. On your rented acres you are a tradesman plying his trade. On your owned acres you are an investor (renting that ground to yourself). The decisions necessary to ply your trade and the decisions necessary to manage your investments are not symmetrical. But I will blather on about this at some other time. |
Loading the bases - continued
