His Story

Derrick grew up on his family’s farm and always wanted to be a full-time farmer, but it wasn’t until 2007 that Derrick quit college to take over the family business with his dad, who left his public works job to join his son in the fields.

Derrick and his dad farm 2,000 acres of corn and soybean row crops and have 130 heads of cattle for which they farm 150 acres of hay.  With acreage split between two different counties about 10 miles away, Derrick and his dad face growing challenges of different soil types and variable weather.

“I’m an overachiever and want to be perfect, but thanks to the weather, I can’t. Since farming is how I make my living, I really thrive on an excellent planting job, but planting is my biggest stress, because despite doing the best job I can, the weather can really foil my efforts.”

Farming in two counties, Derrick was very interested in trying Total Weather Insurance (TWI) on several hundred acres in each region. Attracted to the flexibility to customize policies to match each location with protection from different weather events such as drought and early season rain, TWI gave him a lot of freedom to pick and choose where he wanted coverage.  Using it in conjunction with MPCI coverage, TWI has already played a large role in his cash flow for the season with the Early Season Rain component payout; he’s been able to continue plans to expand the operation this year.

“The past few years have been pretty wild- nothing has been easy. Hurricane winds in 2008, a record corn crop with 184 bushels per acre in 2009, and then a loss of 100 bushels an acre in 2010. With the way technology has come along, we just didn’t expect to see such a loss. We’ve really been through a bit of everything.”

With the ever-changing climate, Derrick plans to take out a TWI policy on more acres next year so that he can protect his family’s expanding business from the variability of Mother Nature.