His Story

Jon Kenady comes from a long line of farmers.  His dad started farming as a kid in Texas and Jon has one son who also farms.  Jon finished tech school in 1982 and immediately bought a few acres and has been “buying dirt ever since.”  Now, they have approximately 4,400 acres of minimum tillage, high residue farm consisting mainly of corn with some soybeans, hay and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) areas. 

Jon loves the freedom of farming and says, “The idea that when I get up in the morning I can look out the window and I can see my boss, the sunrise and the sunsets is what I like.  I can work as hard as I want, can stop when I want. I like looking at my crop.  I’m not supporting anyone else but myself.”

After farming his whole life, Jon says he has definitely noticed how unpredictable the weather has gotten.  “The weather’s totally unreal.  For the last three years, we’ve had extremely hot weather, a lack of moisture, wind, and snow in the winter time.  We got it pretty good last year.  The weather has just changed and I don’t know what it is or what to expect.”

Weather used to keep Jon up at night before he got Total Weather Insurance (TWI). He says, “I used to look out and see lightning, thunder, and heat bouncing around and I would think, ‘Gee, how am I going to raise my crop?’”  Jon has had multi-peril crop insurance for the past 12 years but says now “since TWI came out, even when we have had some screaming 100 degree days, the weather doesn’t bother me anymore.  It’s easy to sleep – I know I’m going to get my bills paid regardless of the weather.”

Jon continues about the relative cost of TWI, “I’d lose that much running out the back of the combine.  TWI is not an expense because I sleep good at night now, that’s a good thing.”  He particularly values the extra protection and peace of mind and says, “TWI is the extra tuck in the cover that your mom used to do when you were a kid.  It stops the grey hairs from coming on.  You know you’ll make ends meet.” 

“I can’t afford, with the money I owe on this land I bought, to have a bad year.  I can afford it but I don’t really want to afford it.  TWI made it so I didn’t have to go to my banker to borrow money to pay my bills.” 

When it came to working with The Climate Corporation, Jon says he was pleased at how easy it was and appreciated how everything was clearly stated in the paperwork.  His agent walked him through the website and showed him how to watch his policies throughout the season.  When it comes to the 2012 growing season, Jon says he already knows what he’s going to do.  “I’ll be putting in more acres.  Every acre I farm is going to be covered by TWI.”