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Crop insurance better, farmer says

Crop insurance is keeping many farmers afloat during this historic drought and Missouri farmer Brent Rockhold tells Brownfield it’s working better than it did during the last major drought.

“Crop insurance is probably a big difference for us than it was in ’88. We carried crop insurance in ’88 but it wasn’t the revenue assurance type based that we have today.”  Rockhold says today’s crop insurance is much better but it is more costly and does have its limits, “Crop insurance is like most any kind of insurance. It keeps you from having a major fall back. You’ll get your crop expenses back but you’re probably not going to do very well making a living or making machinery payments or land payments.”

Rockhold – a former president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association – farms in northeast Missouri. His crops have not had any significant rain since June 20th. Because of mixed conditions due to the drought, Rockhold expects his overall corn yield to be 40 to 50 bushels an acre.

“You know the farmer always has that strong mentality of ‘We’ll be back stronger next year and we’ll have a better year next year.’ I hope everybody can just keep a positive attitude and have a safe harvest out there.”