There are always two parts to any business transaction:
- A need – the prospective clients must have an open opportunity
- A solution – The salesman must offer a solution and be able to communicate how the widget solves the need
Alliance offers you, the client, a service second to none regarding your farm risk management. Your need is simply to maximize profitability while minimizing risk and our solution is to apply our experience from all angles, identifying the potential hazards and helping you avoid them. Our Total Farm Risk Management Plan is designed to help you be financially prepared for any disasters and to help you make the best budget and crop decisions.
KNOWLEDGE OF ALL PERILS THAT THREATEN YOUR BUSINESS
The Plan
Every season is started with a plan. Sometimes it can be a very complicated, well thought out plan, and sometimes it’s as simple as “the same as I did last year” plan. Alliance partners with our clients to put together a plan that considers crop budgets, crop mix, marketing plans, and crop insurance without losing sight of their agronomic goals (i.e. crop rotation, land improvements, etc.).
Alliance Ag Risk Management uses technology and experience to help you manage ALL of the perils that threaten your operation. We look at all of these combined risks in order to see the WHOLE PICTURE and help you make decision that will lead to WINNING!
The Tools
Crop Insurance
Our current crop insurance policies are more affordable and go the farthest to protect your investment than any other single area of our risk management plan. The key to making crop insurance work for your operation is to select the correct policy and coverage, thereby maximizing return on investment (premiums). At Alliance we have a wealth of experience doing insurance right, while making sure you are protected. Many times, instead of giving you the maximum coverage, we recommend a lower coverage level based on your individual situation. Our most commonly utilized crop policy is Revenue Protection (RP). This policy protects producers from losses due to yield as well as marketing and also provides a true financial net when utilized properly.
Crop Marketing
Marketing strategies are indented to minimize the risk of falling prices for a particular crop, but so many times producers increase their exposure and are not better positioned in the market. Marketing Strategists have formed their business around “predicting” where the market will peak or bottom out in hopes of selling high. We view those strategies about the same as a weatherman because the markets are just about that predictable. At Alliance, our marketing strategy is based on locking in profit and minimizing risk, while leveraging those decisions against our crop insurance policy. This approach truly “guarantees” your ag business a minimal amount of revenue to be realized, no matter what the weather or the board of trade does during the course of the year. In 2014 Alliance began recommending Top Third Ag Marketing for clients that wanted additional help marketing their crops.
Crop Budgeting
Business, in its simplest form, revolves around producing more capital than is spent. The farm budget is the key to making a good risk management strategy a success. We sit down and discuss and manage your input cost factors with you in order to give you the best estimate possible for crop costs. This budget number is used to calculate the true risk in an operation and is then used to identify the best crop insurance policy and marketing strategy. Alliance partners with producers to develop a budget and also encourages you to constantly be updating that budget. We realize that not everyone has the same budget or needs, so we do our best to provide personal, individual service to help you save more. We know that a budget is a living, breathing organism within your business and must be constantly maintained and updated.
Crop Mix Selection
Crop mix selection involves strategically identifying what crops you will produce and where those crops are best suited from an agronomic and risk management standpoint. We take all of the information and compile it together within our Alliance Advantage Technology (AAT) software to form a personalized plan for each crop you intend to plant. This area of your strategy has the potential to reap some of the best rewards for your business’s economic health. Alliance has found time and time again huge swings in net revenue, based solely on switching crop mix around between farms based on changing yield histories, budgets, and insurance policy availability. The combination of our economic/risk management experience coupled with our agronomic background allows Alliance to help you make the most informed decision for your business.
The Commitment
In a word, “commitment” is the unwavering dedication to a cause. At Alliance, our cause is to provide you the best service, through the best people, using the best tools and approaches there are, period! We are committed to you, and that’s WHY you should choose Alliance for your Ag Risk Management needs.