His Story

Clay Kelsey is a part-time farmer who farms about 100 acres on his parents’ 800 acre operation, growing corn, soybeans, and winter wheat. When he isn’t tending to his crops, Clay works at a local prison.

“What I love about farming is that I get to use it as a release from my other job. Farming lets me take time for myself and relax.”

Like many growers, Clay is challenged by the variability of the weather that affects his operation.  “Around here, it seems like we go from one extreme to another. Some years, we have droughts that last the entire season and it seems like once in every three years we have great weather all year long.”

Clay and his parents had never insured their crop before. “My parents always say that insurance is a way to bet against yourself.” Clay heard about Total Weather Insurance (TWI) at an informational breakfast that mostly covered federal crop insurance programs. “They discussed TWI only briefly, but I really liked that I didn’t have to produce records to get coverage. We had never had any insurance for our crops before so I couldn’t show anything for past production – yet I was still able to benefit.”

“I ended up convincing my parents to try it out on 100 acres so that we could have at least a little bit of insurance without being whole hog into it. My TWI coverage did everything it was supposed to do. It gave me the peace of mind that I’d get something back even if everything else goes wrong.  It’s worth checking into even if you’ve never insured your crop in the past.”