His Story

David and Joe Stephan (father and son) farm over 1,700 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat. Joe also works a full-time job in sales. He feels that while farming gives him credibility in his role as a district sales manager for a local seed company, he also enjoys it because of the freedom it gives him to make his own decisions.  

David and Joe are both big proponents of risk management and the importance of considering all tools at their disposal to help manage their farming businesses. Having utilized crop insurance for 10 years, Joe was interested in using Total Weather Insurance (TWI) from The Climate Corporation as a companion tool, because it offers what Joe considers a unique risk management solution that specifically addresses the variable yields that local farmers expect. 

And David, who has been farming for 40 years, says, “The reason I went with Total Weather Insurance (TWI) is that the inputs were so much higher this year, and the value of the crops is so much higher, so the risk was higher. Seems like every year the risk just gets higher. Even though you can’t control the weather, you have an opportunity to minimize the risk. TWI is a safety blanket – I’m not farming for the insurance, I’m farming for the crop. But I think TWI is just something you want to have in case you really need it.”

The value of Joe and David’s crops and their input costs were higher than ever this season, making their risk for loss far greater than they’ve experienced before. “It seems like every year the risk gets higher, but TWI helped us ‘weather the weather’ and if we didn’t have it, we would have been really discouraged. With such a horrible season – it really worked great.”

According to David, “It helps us through this tough time. It was the best thing my son and I could do.”