His Story

Farming part-time since 1983, Ron Schwartz started on his own and has worked his way up to owning 175 acres of land.  Along with his wife of 21 years, a daughter and two sons, he manages his farm in a 50-50 corn and soybean rotation.   When asked what he likes about the job, Ron says that “it’s just enjoyable spending time on your land.  You’re your own boss, just doing what you like to do.”  Even though he loves farming, it presents some tough challenges – in particular the increasing costs of inputs and the weather.

“Controlling input costs are a big concern.  They keep increasing and increasing, and don’t seem like they’ll come down ‘til the price of the crop does.  The other problem is the weather, maybe even more so.  Those are the two factors you don’t have control over.”

Having seen an advertisement for Total Weather Insurance (TWI) on a farm show, he asked his agent about it as a way to manage his risks. “Both input costs and the weather are nothing like they used to be when I started farming back in ’83.  I looked at last winter and the weather wasn’t right so I talked to my agent about TWI and tried it on a portion of my land.  I’m actually very pleased with the outcome. The weather and inputs are something I can’t control, but TWI provides good insurance and takes a lot of concern off your mind.” 

Ron found TWI easy to understand and found it to be “a whole lot different than federal crop insurance.  With no adjusters, there are no ifs, ands, or buts – you can go online and find out what’s going on.  If I didn’t have crop insurance, I’d go in 100%.”  And with the payments he received from his policy, Ron was able pay off some bills sooner than he had planned.

“The rain comes all at once and quits, then comes again and quits.  Now we’ve had extreme heat all summer.  But with TWI I received two checks that I didn’t expect – and that makes you feel better when it’s so hot outside.  How can you be mad at that?”