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Crop Insurance

Is Your Tackle Box Full?

December 22, 2012 by Summer

With below freezing temperatures and a fresh blanket of snow it must be ice fishing season. Time to put on the long underwear, Kick on your boots, pull down your stocking hat, and grab your fishing rod and bait.  Ice fishing is a lot like farming.  Every year there are new tools and technologies that come out to make your time spent fishing, or farming more productive.  Every year brings great anticipation in where and when the fish will be biting, but one thing is always certain, year after year it’s never the same.  To be an exceptional ice fisherman or woman you need to have several lures in your tackle box.  Similar to farming, you need to be willing to change when something is not working. I’m Jim Dumdei with Corn Capital Innovations and we are here to bring the right lures to your operation, from production to crop insurance, or grain marketing to financial analysis, we will make sure your tackle box is fully loaded to help you land that big one you always hear about. See you on the ice!

Get the latest fishing report here!

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Categories: Fishing Report, General, Mindset | Tags: , , , ,

First Edition of the Corn Capital Extra

December 19, 2012 by Steve

I hope this first edition of the Corn Capital Extra finds you wrapped up with your farming and looking forward to next year. It was amazing how fast another growing season occurred and the pace at which the crop came out. This past season had another set of variables that we were all able to observe. This, in turn, challenged our mindsets and ability to tough out another growing season. For the most part, compared to the majority of the Corn Belt, our growing region that we farm in turned out to be one of the most successful areas in the corn growing region. We survived the worst drought since the 1950’s and were able to produce a crop that exceeded most people’s expectations. There are still many questions that most of you have that are fresh in your minds. In this edition, our fall field observations article will discuss some of those questions, along with the agronomic observations that were seen. Also in this edition, our crop insurance team will be discussing the importance of a risk management plan tailored to a grower’s specific operation. Hopefully, the information you find in this newsletter will help challenge some of the areas you have been thinking about, and provide some ideas for success in the future.

Thanks again for another successful season and Happy Holidays to All! 

 

Categories: General | Tags: , ,

Farming Profitability is like taking Vitamins vs Aspirin

December 13, 2012 by Steve

Vitamins are used to ensure adequate nutrients and taken daily will ensure overall health for years to come.  While aspirin is used as an analgesic (painkiller) to relieve minor aches and pains temporarily.

With the New Year just around the corner, resolutions and goal setting traditions are coming fast.  Have you thought about what you want to accomplish in 2013? Have you set a goal to lose weight (the quick fix- aspirin) or to set a goal of overall health (long term – vitamin).

Today is the day to start looking at the things that are going to make a small difference over the years to come; like taking vitamins for overall health.   If you need to take aspirin, it may be solving the short term problem, but you will probably have to keep addressing the same issue.

Any good health plan can apply to your farm operation as well!  As you design and/or reanalyze your operation’s business plan for next year, using the right tools can make all the difference. If you are spending a lot of time being reactive and addressing many issues that came up last year, it’s time to look at things that you can do in 2013 to be proactive and incorporate pieces to your farm that contribute to the overall health, instead of just feeding the “pains” of the operation.

If the goal is to have a “healthy” operation, start giving it vitamins today to reduce having to use aspirin later in the year.

Vitamins can include:

It’s when you don’t have these things in place that you will find yourself needing to take more aspirin; that ends up being a reactive approach and ultimately can hurt your operation. When we have the right things in place from the beginning and maintain them through the year (acting as vitamins), we have less “illnesses” that strike from year to year. For most of us, big goals are overwhelming, so sit down and consider the easy mini-steps that you can take to get to where you want to be.

When we take the vitamin approach, we are able to have a more consistent operation with steady growth; which in turn, makes the long term goals for our operation more attainable. Once we start reaching those small milestones, we get much closer to that ideal big picture we are reaching for.

Sure there will be times that we may need a little aspirin; we just don’t want to rely on it on a regular basis.

Do you have ways to stay your “healthiest, most profitable” throughout the year not mentioned above?  Tell usin the comments below!

Categories: Mindset | Tags: , , , ,

Don’t Focus on Obstacles, Focus on Possibilities

December 3, 2012 by Steve

Obstacles don’t have to stop you.  If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”  Michael Jordan

Obstacles are simply what a person sees when they take their eyes off the goal.  How do you avoid obstacles in farming each year?  Do you stump them by setting goals and having a plan in place to meet them?

One of the best ways to set goals and to be prepared for those obstacles is to set up a Risk Management Plan that will keep the focus on maximizing your production and farm profitability.

Obstacles defined by others are not setbacks as you might expect.  When you have a plan in place, situations like the horizon of black clouds that threaten our crop with hail or strong winds won’t keep you up at night.  You will be able to sleep knowing the appropriate multi-peril protection is in place!

Common known obstacles for the farmer such as hail, drought, fungus, green snap and about 100 other possibilities won’t threaten your business with a Risk Management Plan in place.  You have peace of mind knowing your goals will be met no matter what happens throughout the farming year.

Crop Hail Insurance offers several options:

  • All or a portion of your crop acres can be insured. You decide how much risk that you want to handle and then we write the policy to manage that risk.
  • Crops can be insured at any time up to a specific harvest date.
  • Protection for loss due to fire or loss in transportation is available.
  • Additional coverage is available to protect your revenue, profit, or to cover costs when you are faced with the need to replant, when these benefits are not protected by multi-peril crop insurance.

This fall’s revenue prices came in at $7.50/bu for corn and $15.39/bu for Soybeans.  Even though we cannot plan the 2013 base price just yet, we can discuss how tools like multi-peril crop insurance, crop hail, wind, green snap and total weather insurance will help you plan for a successful year in 2013.

Corn Capital Innovations will help you

  • Understand the role of crop insurance and how it should tie into your marketing strategy.
  • Pick a policy based on what is best for your operation, not simply based on the cheapest cost.
  • Understand that crop insurance can be used for much more than just catastrophic yield loss.

Remember not to focus on obstacles, but to focus on the possibilities!

Contact us to set up a Risk Management Audit with you to determine the appropriate plan for your 2013 season.

Categories: General | Tags: ,

A Reflection On What We Are Thankful For in 2012

November 21, 2012 by Steve

Every November, we reflect back on what we are thankful for.  It is easier to get caught up in the things that did not go right throughout the year then what did go right.  Agriculture is a profession that many feel fortunate to work in, and can find many things to be thankful for.

Whether it was the June hail storms or the August wind storms that rolled through our territory it was gut wrenching to see a great looking crop get shredded by hail and wind.  It was here that growers where thankful for the risk management plan they had in place to manage such an event.

“Having the proper MPCI, hail and green snap coverage allowed growers to continue to move forward realizing 2012 may not have been a bin busting year, however, with these tools in place, your financial situation will be left intact and able to prepare for 2013 with a very optimistic outlook.” Says Alyssa Hammerschmidt ,  Crop Insurance Specialist.

No matter what your crop produced, growers with Corn Capital Innovations witnessed the power of integrating the four components of profitability together and they understand they can only control a minute number of the thousands of variables the crop is faced with each year.

“Our clients that had a production plan, risk management plan, and marketing plan all realized that the variability of Mother Nature could only impact their operation so much.  These plans brought comfort and thankfulness that they were proactive instead of reactive after weather events.”  Says Joel Mathiowetz,  Director of Grower Development.

The team at Corn Capital Innovations is Thankful for all our clients. Whether you worked with us on production, risk management, or grain marketing we enjoyed the journey we took in 2012 and are very excited for the plans we have in place for 2013.

For more of the latest information on how the Corn Capital Innovations team is a Great Hand in Farming, Click Here to contact us.

Categories: General | Tags: , , , ,

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