Ted (00:00.078)

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our podcast. Today we have a special guest, Ryan Langenkamp from Farm Credit. And I’ve asked Ryan to join us today to talk about a topic that is something that many of us don’t really understand, crop insurance for our area farmers. Ryan, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Ted.

Give me a little of your background and tell me about your journey. How did, how did Ryan Langenkamp end up knowing so much about crop insurance? Well, it’s interesting. I’ve been in my, in the ag world for, since I graduated college and, and studied animal science at a farm at Ohio state. And, I’ve worked at, a couple of different companies. worked at a Land O’Lakes.

basically up until 2017. And in 2017, I decided to come to Farm Credit Mid-America to work on our crop insurance. And not really having any understanding of crop insurance, there’s a lot that I had to learn pretty quickly, but it’s been a great learning experience. And it’s actually something I’m very passionate about now, which is crop insurance. What is crop insurance? Well,

Crop insurance for those that may not know, it’s a financial safety net for our farmers. It’s the backbone of the farm bill. It also helps farmers recover and grow when times are tough and keeps them from ensuing revenue losses. helps them recover when we have bad weather events, events that we can’t control. But it also encourages them to invest

in their future and farming and continue to raise phenomenal crops. And it’s that financial safety net that we preach to our customers that allows them to do these things from a financial standpoint and pass down that farm to that next generation as well. So I know you’re based in the farm credit office in Versailles in Dark County and cover the surrounding area. As it pertains to our area farmers,

Ted (02:24.162)

do most purchase crop insurance? I would say a large percent of our customers do purchase crop insurance to varying degrees. There’s lots of different types of policies out there that they could buy when they buy crop insurance. They could buy individual coverage policies that cover their own yields and commodity prices, along with buying area county plans that ensure the county yields.

So, but a majority of the people do buy crop insurance that we find, but there are still a handful that don’t purchase crop insurance. Well, how does it work? Let’s start there. So the easiest way to describe how I go about selling crop insurance is really sitting down and talking to the customer about what do they know about crop insurance?

Um, and how does it work? works with, it works from a revenue standpoint, also a yield perspective. So we, we sit down and talk about, uh, how their yields, um, have been the last four or five years. Um, if they have a yield history that they can use, and then we take that policy and we ensure those, uh, county, those county yields that they have in that county. And, um, we use a, um,

a county-based price that is determined by our RMA, our governing house. And essentially, we use those yields and that price that we set in the spring, and we give ourselves the revenue. And that’s the basic revenue policy that we sell to probably 95 % of our policyholders. And that revenue is based on paper is what I always say. It’s never the revenue that they’re guaranteed, but it’s revenue that they are guaranteed on paper.

And we protect those yields not only on that policy. So if they have a year, a year where their yields aren’t great, that is protected on their yield policy. But also when we have a down revenue year, like this year, are having with decreased revenues. We are covered on those as well. it sounds like you’re covering, if I understand this correctly, both yields as well as prices. Correct.

Ted (04:49.966)

And… It’s a simple yield times price equation in our mind. It’s the easiest way to describe the policy of how it works. So, like most insurance policies, there are what we call or what I call covered events. And I guess this works similarly. A farmer who has a quote covered event can file a claim with the insurance company and receive a payment.

Yep. So, for example, this year we’re experiencing some, some yield losses in some areas, especially on soybeans, depending on when they are planted. so they’re able to submit a claim. we, we weren’t in the D3 drought area, but we were in a minor drought. but I also say, we had a very tough spring planting season. So, any of those perils from a wet spring to, to a drought.

is covered underneath these policies. So my understanding as you talked a little bit about that, we’re talking about grain crops as well as if you’re in the livestock or if you’re in the dairy, you can get insurance for those areas as well. Is that accurate? Correct. Yeah. So here at Farm Credit Mid-America, it takes a special license to be a livestock risk.

protection and DRP, have to have a additional license and test you have to take. So not every agent is able to sell those livestock policies, but at Farm Credit Mid America, we’ve dedicated a, a one person in our entire association to really sell those, tools because they’re embedded in that livestock world. his name’s Austin Robinson. he’s a great asset, with a lot of livestock in our, our area. He’s been out and about with a lot of our customers.

talking about those policies, especially with, I look at the livestock market and the cattle prices where they’re at right now. They’ve kind of taken a dive here in the last few days, but ultimately they could have protected some really good pricing from the livestock policy. And we at Farm Credit Mid-America have a dedicated person that solely does that. So in terms of the policies themselves, are they issued?

Ted (07:12.386)

by the government or are they issued by a private insurance company or is it a little bit of both? Who issues the policy and who backs it up? Yeah, so it’s a little bit of both. So the policies are wrote by… It’s a great tool to show how industry and the government work together. We have a governing house, RMA, that kind of dictates our rules and how we manage things and the prices that are set. But the individual…

Insurance companies are the ones that are actually taking on the liability. They’re the ones that are actually paying the claims. So we work with about four or five key insurance companies across the US. Give me the names of a couple of them. Who do you work with? Yeah, some of our top ones are NAU country. And then you have Great American, right, based out of Cincinnati. We’ve worked with a newer one as…

American Farm Bureau. And then we also work with RCIS, which is Rural Community Insurance Services, I think. And then I’m trying to think of the fifth one. But those are the main ones that we use. In my area, I use NAU and Great American the most. What does the conversation, when you meet a farmer and sit down and have this conversation, what’s that all about? Tell me a little bit about

that conversation and what somebody should expect.

Yeah, so every conversation that I have with customers is very different. I’m not a big one size fits all kind of policy holder. I take the approach of looking at it from, let’s sit down and review what kind of policy you had a year ago, what worked, what has changed in your operation, what is changing in the market. I also sit here and like to…

Ted (09:13.442)

to provide them with tailored solutions or tailored coverages that could change from year to year. Sometimes it’s not changing, but also, you know, whether they need an individual policy covering their yields with additional county-based plans on top of it to kind of improve their guarantees. But at Form Credit MidAmerica, we use a proprietary tool that can analyze their yields.

and look at how it looked in the past, how it would have this policy would perform today if a 2012 type of environment happened. And it’s a good insight of helps us give that navigation and back that data for that customer that says, yeah, I feel comfortable that if 2012, which is a drought year that everybody kind of sticks out in their mind. if that happens again, I know I’m, covered for.

this dollar amount, and I know I’m going to have a payment come out to me to protect me, and help me pay my bills. and then I also sit here and say, I ask a lot of questions when I sit there and talk, do you know, understand what policy you’re purchasing? Sometimes, what I find is insureds that, they just don’t understand how the policy works. And it’s my job as the agent to kind of help them facilitate and understand that it’s a complicated, but simple policy is what I always say.

There’s a lot of moving parts to it. But that’s kind how the conversation goes. And then we kind of go from there of what policy they’re thinking they’re needing. We look at cost of production, those type of things. So it’s never a one size fits for me. It’s kind of a customized solution for each individual person. most insurance policies, I assume that an individual farmer’s risk tolerance enters into the picture a little bit, right?

Yeah. So I have lots of customers that have father son operations, right? They’re, sharing the crop. They have one has 50 % or one has 20 % and one has 60%. And those policies could very look very different. Not oftentimes do they, do they, because customers like to kind of keep things consistent, but it also could matter, you know, dad’s getting closer to retirement. He has a little bit less financial.

Ted (11:38.222)

risk involved at this point. He’s taken maybe 20 % of the crop. Where as son, he’s essentially taking on a little bit more risk. I think it’s a good time to sit there and say, but he’s also got some land that he’s own, owes some debt on. So looking at that individually, they’re very different in their, in their policy and their style of what they’re going to look for. One may look at a 75 and say, Hey,

I want to take advantage of my subsidy by a 75 % policy because I’m fine. If I have a total complete disaster, it’s going to pay me. That’s what I need. And it’s going to protect my retirement versus maybe sons a little bit different and says, I need to cover those small price loss years that I’ve just had average yields on because I got bills to pay. I got a debt on a farm ground that I want to pay off early. And this is something that, will help me do that.

So in terms of the cost of the insurance, how is it priced and how do people pay? Yeah, so it varies from year to year. I always say I came from the seed and agronomy world when I first came to Farm Credit to work with crop insurance. And it was so easy to give them a quote and say, hey, here’s your price. The price I give you today is the price you pay whenever I need the money.

And crop insurance is not really like that. I can give you a really good quote, that gives you the nuts and bolts of what it’s going to cost you. but ultimately it determines on when you plant, what you plant, what field you plant. so it really, I always say the best case scenario that you can have for me, to give you the most accurate quote is to sit here and say, I reported all my production already. So from the previous year.

So my APHs are up to date. My approved history is up to date. Um, I know I’m going to plant these three fields to corn and let’s just plan on having them planted timely. And then I can give you a really good quote. Um, it’s hard to, I can give you a general range of quotes is what I always to kind of tell people. So I always say, Hey, it’s going to be around 10 to $15 an acre give giving the year. Um, but also, also, um,

Ted (14:03.294)

know, planting date, if we get later in the planting year, we lose coverage, which then affects your price as well. And then they also will get a bill in August, but it’s not due till September. And then they pay that bill to the insurance company, essentially is when it’s due. the last couple of years, they’ve extended it, but this year they have not. So that bill comes late, early fall, I should say.

So the conversation that you want to have, what time of year do you want to be sitting down and talking to folks? What is your recommendation in terms of getting this locked in?

Yeah. So I’m, my customers are really used to me kind of getting in front of them around the first of the year. the sooner the better. March 15th is our deadline to make those, those coverage decisions. It’s not deadline to get everything planted and stuff, but it’s a deadline that we have to make to, to select our coverage. And essentially I always say the sooner you can have those conversations, the sooner you can have production. And for me, the better off we can.

have those conversations sooner. I always say March 1st is when we finally get our final pricing for that spring price that we set. We don’t want to wait till March 1st because ultimately we can decide, yeah, that final decision can be on March 1st, but we wanted to have a lot of conversations, especially in 2026. There’s a lot of changes coming. The one big beautiful bill that was passed

here, this past fall, early summer, I should say, it has a lot of changes that they wanted to make in the farm bill in it. so there’s lots of changes coming in 2026 and I can’t strive or preach to someone soon enough that the sooner we can have those conversations, the better. And most times we’re already having those conversations, if we’ve gotten the chance to talk about them.

Ted (16:15.778)

What is a couple of things that you wish more farmers knew about crop insurance? The big thing that I would say I would wish is that having conversations sooner would be the best thing is don’t be afraid to include me and things that you wouldn’t think to include your crop insurance agent with. Succession planning is a big one.

I am often sometimes included after they’ve already made those decisions. some of the best ones that I’ve been a part of have been a part of where, my son’s going to be taking on some ground. What do we need to do from a crop insurance standpoint? And, how do we need to set things up? and then bringing that next generation in, I can’t preach enough, making sure those young kids come in.

and understand what crop insurance means because what we’re finding is the last four to five years, we’ve had phenomenal yields that some of these, parents haven’t seen in decades. So sitting here and they’re, they’re feeling really secure in the yields that are, they’re always going to be there. And understanding crop insurance for me would be a big part of including that next generation to help them understand that there are

2012s and 2008s happen. We just, and your crop insurance policy’s there when you need it. Does it help to do an annual review? All the time. Yep. I really recommend every year reviewing your crop insurance every year. We used to do a no change renewal and it would be fine because those policies roll no matter what.

They’re everlasting until that person passes away or doesn’t farm for four years. And we need a cancellation to sign. So to cancel it, we need to get a signature. But I am a big proponent. And since 2017, when I came to Farm Credit Mid-American Did crop insurance, I don’t know a year that there’s not been changes. There’s always been new policies. There’s always been replant policies that have been added to the market.

Ted (18:39.114)

There’s always something to talk about and I feel like if we’re not having those annual conversations, it’s not going to Your policy isn’t going to be up to date in my mind Yeah, it sounds like very similar to what we talk about with respect to estate planning and making sure that you do an annual review there as well What are some of the mistakes that you’ve seen farmers make with respect to crop insurance and

and planning in general.

Some of the biggest mistakes I’ve probably seen is just assuming that you didn’t just because I didn’t have a claim or I’ve never had issues with my policy that it’s not it’s a hundred percent right. I found some of these policies that I’ve either a audited from another agent or just reviewed myself from transition of people. What you find is.

If they’re left undone for several years, phone numbers are wrong, emails are wrong, let alone if we have one APH database or approved history database that has one yield wrong from 2012 or 2010, that throws that whole history off and could have thrown you out of a claim in some instances. So assuming that everything’s perfectly fine because

Nothing’s ever been wrong. is probably one of the biggest mistakes you can make. And then being, isn’t not being afraid to, to leave your current agent. that’s another big thing for me is make sure I’m being held accountable. Hey, Ryan, I don’t, you’re not doing enough for me. How can I improve that? but I often find is. Customers are loyal to their agent, which is great, but also.

Ted (20:41.866)

it, what I find is that is something that can be a big detriment to their policy as well, trusting that they’ve been doing their job.

Ted (20:56.078)

How does Farm Credit do things differently?

Ted (21:04.236)

Well, like I said, we, we are non-commissioned agents. we’re, we are, what I always tell people is I’m paid to not really care about what I sell you. my job is to make sure that the farmer is buying the right policy for their operation. Oftentimes, what we find is a lot of policy holders will be buying 85 % coverage.

with as many options on there as possible and they’re paying optional unit pricing, is by the farm or by the section. And what we find is they don’t need that. They don’t need that individual type of coverage. They need to cover them in a year that is just below average. So what we find is often people are overpaying for their crop insurance.

And that’s what I pride myself on is I don’t care if you were buying an 85 and it’s not going to affect my commission if I take you down to a 75. But I also, use proprietary tool that a proprietary tool that we use, that we like, that shows them the data of why they should be buying an 80 or 75 % policy versus an 85. So for me,

It’s about thinking through and having that more, more relationship conversation about, their data, their policy and how they want their operation to look like using crop insurance.

One of the things that we like to do with our clients is talk to them about having different entities involved in the farm operation. And oftentimes we’ll create an operating company and then we’ll create a holding company to reduce the exposure on the land in particular with respect to the operations. How does

Ted (23:08.802)

When somebody comes in to do planning and wants to create a trust or a limited liability company or something like that, how does that impact somebody who already has crop insurance in existence and what should that conversation look like? Yeah, if they’ve set up an LLC or a limited liability company, ultimately what we need to know is how they’re going to sell the grain, how they’re going to operate.

And ultimately, they can have as many LLCs as they want. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, if they’re selling their grain in their name at the elevator and their grain tickets are going to come in their name, that’s how we insure it because of the rules that crop insurance have. We need to show that they have proof of ownership of that grain and the way they do that is how they sell it. So ultimately.

We, if they’re operating underneath an LLC, we want to have that LLC as the policy holder. And that’s not a problem. Yep. And if the LLC is owned by a trust, whether revocable or irrevocable, that’s not a problem. Correct. Yep. We can sell it how we can have the policy set up and, but it’s very important. if it’s not happened, those trusses and those LLCs haven’t been set up by March 15th.

And you do it halfway through the year and sign up and you start selling grain in the fall, come September, in that LLC or entity. Essentially we want to know that because if you get in a claim, we can actually change, the rights of coverage to that entity. So it’s very important to let us know when that changes because if they were in a claims situation, they could be denied the claim because technically.

The LLC owns the grade and we didn’t have the LLC set up. So it’s kind of a, it’s a timing situation on that one. do you recommend, you know, for instance, for my clients, do you recommend that I just reach out to you and have that conversation with the client? Yeah. Yeah. Either reach out to me, have the insured reach out to us too. To me, it’s about what works best for them. And if they’re

Ted (25:34.264)

going to start moving it forward and bring us into that conversation and we can make sure we have the policy set up before March 15th or shortly after that we can do a coverage change to that LLC. Now, a real basic question in terms of the actual policy itself, do you actually issue that to the insured and do they get a copy of it? Oftentimes when I’m talking to my clients, you know, they

They don’t have copies of their life insurance policies. They don’t have copies of their farm liability policies. They usually have their car insurance, but maybe not the farm or the crop insurance. What’s the standard practice? Yeah. So there’s a few things that, I, I joke to our insureds that it’s very, you’re going to get a lot of mail, from the insurance company. It’s kind of like if you were to

Biolife Insurance Policy, you’d get a lot of things in the mail. Sometimes you open it, sometimes you don’t, right? But they’re gonna get a couple things. They’re gonna get a coverage, what coverage they bought shortly after March 15th. And then they’re gonna get an acres report. And an acres report for us is what we use to attach coverage. So coverage attaches as soon as they plant the field, but we need to know where they planted it, when they planted it, and what…

to what crop. So they get an acres report that they have to fill out or we help them fill it out. And then the next thing they get is a schedule of insurance in the mail from the insurance company. And that is what we call what is what they’re covered on from the, from, what’s in the field. And ultimately, I always, my biggest preach is make sure you read that because if we get into a claim situation, we can’t fix any of those mistakes.

And there’s humans behind that keying those acres and those dates and we can make mistakes and it’s best to find them before we get to a claim scenario. But they’ll get a copy of that schedule of insurance, insurance, and then they’ll get a bill in the mail in September. And then we typically report production, but sometimes we do it. We don’t mail that out, but yes, they do get things in the mail, but they can also opt to digitally get them via email.

Ted (27:56.27)

So if somebody hasn’t looked at their policy in a long time, or maybe they don’t have coverage at all, let’s help them get things started. What’s the first step? What do they do? Reach out. There’s never too late to reach out. We’ve had conversations already with policyholders a year ago about they want to move. They want to make sure…

that they get coverage this year. So the first question is, and if you don’t understand how crop insurance works, we’re always, anybody at Farm Credit Mid-America on the crop insurance team is willing to sit down and have a conversation with them and explain how it works. There’s a lot of changes since it first came out. It’s evolved. So just reach out to any of us at Farm Credit Mid-America and we’ll gladly sit down with you.

Do have a phone number or an email that they could reach out? Yeah, it’s, my phone number is 937-467-5276. And you can reach out to me via email at ryan.lingingcamp at FCMA.com. What’s your thoughts about the future, in terms of farming here in the Buckeye state? You optimistic or not? I am. I’m.

I’m a pretty optimistic guy, but I also look at what we got going on. We got a lot of livestock. We have a lot of grain farms in our area. And what I feel is a younger generation that’s coming to the top in the leadership of ag. And it’s hopeful. These young beginning farmers are excited about technology. They’re excited about the use of technology on the farm. And.

I think it was a couple of weeks ago I seen that we had in our area, we had a self-driving tractor, an autonomous tractor, pretty cool stuff. And I think that’s what we’re gonna see in our state in the next future. And I’m very optimistic about our young farmers and the farmers that are wanting to retire. that’s a great insight you have and that’s encouraging. Any final thoughts?

Ted (30:22.506)

Not really, but I do have one ask of our people, our listeners is go ask your agent to sit down and talk about the one big, beautiful bill. There’s a lot to unpack in it from a crop insurance standpoint. And make sure your agent, you’re holding your agent accountable for what they’re doing and what they’re writing with your policy. that sounds great, Ryan. I appreciate your time. We’re out of time today.

I will tell you this, it would be helpful, I think in a future episode to use a case study. Maybe have two case studies you and I could go through and we could walk through it in detail where we could maybe drill down on some of the specifics so you could illustrate this further. That’d be good. I would love to do that. Awesome. Well, we’ll look forward to that. Ryan, thanks for being with us today. I really learned a lot and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Thank you, Ted.