Farming with his dad and his son, Bryan Sheets raises corn and soybeans on 1,800 acres across three Indiana counties just southeast of South Bend. The three men represent the fourth, fifth and sixth generations to work the Sheets farm, which has been in their family for 100 years.
While his family has been working with the Silveus Insurance Group agency to purchase federal crop insurance and hail insurance since the 1940s, with guidance from Scott Silveus, Sheets added PriceFlex to the family’s risk management portfolio in 2014, 2016 and for 2017. This private insurance product offers to lock in higher prices for the next year’s crop insurance revenue guarantee.
“We started with PriceFlex in December that first year, to set a higher price for our corn in Elkhart County. We have three counties of corn, so we hoped to capture a higher price for the Spring,” Sheets says. “Scott brought it to our attention, and 2013 had been a higher corn price year so we just felt it was good to lock something in.”
And it worked out. “That first year we got something like $6 a bushel,” Sheets recalled, “when without PriceFlex protection, it would have been around $5.15.” Since that first test, Sheets says PriceFlex has helped him manage price-risk challenges by locking in a higher price to start with.
While Sheets doesn’t consider himself an expert yet, he has an approach that’s working and some good advice for other farmers: “I rely on a lot on Scott Silveus’ expertise,” he says. “The best advice I can give to other farmers is to just try to stay in tune with the markets, and stay in touch with your agent.”
To find out more about adding PriceFlex to your crop insurance risk management strategy, or how a Silveus Crop Insurance agent can help you, click here to watch two short videos, or contact Silveus Insurance Group at 800-531-9909.