New Smart Technologies Give Farmers More Data and More Control

ELCA contributor and Lutheran Church member Ray Grabanski serves as president of Progressive Ag, one of the Midwest's leaders in commodity marketing and brokerage, and as an attorney at the company's law firm. As a lifelong member of the agricultural world, Ray Grabanski maintains a professional interest in new developments in farming with implications for his industry.

In farms across America, new smart farming technologies are reshaping agriculture as we know it. Smart farming relies on automated processes, intensely precise control of crops, and, most importantly, collecting vast quantities of data out in the fields.

With so much information available, agricultural analytics can now aid farmers in their decision making on a day to day basis. They can finely tune the air temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and humidity around their crops. For example, moisture sensors can report on soil conditions around the clock, automatically feeding data into a cloud-based computer. This data is then automatically shared with the smart irrigation system, which can deliver the perfect amount of water.

Progressive Ag Offers Crop Marketing Webinars and Informational Videos

Ray Grabanski grew up on a small farm near Inkster, North Dakota, and his experiences with grain-harvesting and livestock-rearing greatly contributed to his passion for agriculture. A skilled professional in agriculture law and marketing, Ray Grabanski founded Progressive Ag in 1992. The North Dakota-based company operates as a national leader in crop insurance and marketing, and offers complimentary webinars and informational videos through its website. 

The webinars and informational videos cover a wide variety of topics related to crop marketing, such as farm risk management and planting reports. Key employees from Progressive Ag act as hosts for the videos and share their knowledge and valuable insights through in-depth discussions. Additionally, the video library includes monthly reactions and analyses of the US Department of Agriculture Crop Report and the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report. Hosts also share updates on current lawsuits currently being handled by Progressive Ag Law, an affiliate firm that provides legal services to farmers and agribusinesses. 

To learn more about available webinars and informational videos, visit progressiveag.com/webinars-videos.

Crop Insurance: A Look at the Importance and Types of Insurance

 


Ray Grabanski leads Progressive Ag in Fargo, North Dakota, with a focus on developing crop-marketing plans that reduce risk and help farmers land prices in the top half of the market. Additionally, Ray Grabanski’s firm entered the crop insurance industry in 2000 and aligns with highly qualified agents throughout Minnesota and North and South Dakota. Crop insurance helps farmers protect their investments and serves as an important part of ensuring a future profit.

One of the most important risk-management tools for farmers, crop insurance mitigates the financial impacts associated with decreased market prices for crops, and protects farmers against crop loss due to harsh weather conditions. A number of weather phenomena and natural disasters pose a threat to crops, such as floods or drought, hail, and fierce storms, including tornados. While weather forecasts can provide an estimate of future conditions, they cannot account for the unpredictability of nature or predict the length of droughts with complete accuracy.

Crop insurance providers offer two kinds of insurance: yield insurance and revenue insurance. Also known as multiple-peril crop insurance, yield insurance delivers comprehensive protection against unavoidable loss and harvest quality due to naturally occurring events, including disease and insect outbreaks. It is based on the farm’s production history. Revenue insurance compensates farmers for lost revenue due to drops in market prices and bases payments on the farm’s average revenue.

Sponsor a Child with Compassion

 

The president and chief market analyst of Progressive Ag in North Dakota, Ray Grabanski maintains membership in the Lutheran Church and contributes to a non-ELCA seminary. A committed philanthropist, Ray Grabanski has sponsored several children through Compassion International.

Since its establishment in 1952, Compassion International has obtained sponsors for more than 1.8 million children across the globe. A Better Business Bureau accredited charity, the organization continues to bring encouragement and hope to children internationally through its sponsors.

If you would like to sponsor a child, visit Compassion International's website at www.compassion.com. Choose the tab marked Sponsor a Child and browse through photos of children waiting for sponsors. The list includes a special marking system for children who have waited more than six months for sponsors, those who live in areas affected by AIDS, and those who live in areas with high risks of abuse and exploitation.

Compassion International wants to connect you with the unique child you want to provide with love and support. You can search for children by age, location or gender. You can even search for a child who shares the same birthday as you.

Cross-Cultural, Local Christian Missionary Practice through ILT.org

 

Ray Grabanski founded Progressive Ag in 1992 as a risk management firm with branches in insurance, marketing, and law. Ray Grabanski has supported many charities and organizations over the years, including pledging $1.1 million for scholarships at the non-ELCA Institute of Lutheran Theology, or ILT.org

ILT.org is an online seminary where interested students can learn about Lutheran theology from anywhere in the world. Students from ILT’s Doctor of Ministry program recently met with pastor Roland Wells from St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Minneapolis to learn about his research into a form of missionary service that works locally rather than globally.

Christian missionary practice is a tradition of traveling the world to bring the philosophies and ideals of Christianity to various populations. As the world changes, however, more and more people are immigrating to the United States, including many from countries that do not allow Christian missionaries to visit. Pastor Wells provided the ILT students with a five-day course on reaching out to people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds living in the United States. The course fulfilled one of the Doctor of Ministry program’s two required “Missionary Journeys” to learn about Christian outreach.

Progressive Ag Marketing Named Best by op Producer Magazine

A seasoned agribusiness professional and agricultural attorney, Ray Grabanski established Progressive Ag in 1992 and leads in providing services for crop marketing, insurance, and risk management. Ray Grabanski’s company serves as a leading authority in the industry, and its marketing arm received recognition from AGWEB-Top Producer as the best agricultural marketing firm in the country.

Top Producer tracks the ranking of marketing firms nationwide through its Market Advisor Track Records, and over the past decade, has continued to focus on creating accurate company profiles. The accuracy of advisory services is tested by basing reports on actual trades made using the advice of each firm, with adjustments for storage cost and basis. Top Producer releases its reports on a monthly basis to provide farmers with the most up-to-date information and ensure they receive crucial advisory statistics before the conclusion of the market year.

For more information on Top Producer’s Adviser Track Records or to view advisor records, visit agweb.com/top-producer/marketing/adviser-track-records.

Types of Crop Insurance

Ray Grabanski graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in agricultural economics from North Dakota State University. He is now the president and lead market analyst of Progressive Ag, a risk management company. At the company, Ray Grabanski helps clients with his expertise in many areas of agricultural business, such as crop insurance.

In general, farmers purchase crop insurance to protect themselves in the event of a loss of crops or a drop in the price of agricultural commodities. These losses can be caused by natural disasters such as hail and floods or by economic forces. There are two general categories of crop insurance: crop yield insurance and crop revenue insurance.

Crop yield insurance comes in the forms of hail insurance and multi-peril crop insurance. As the name suggests, multi-peril insurance covers crops that are damaged by disasters other than just hail. Hail insurance is covered by the private sector, while multi-peril insurance is provided by the federal government.

The second type of crop insurance is crop revenue insurance, which guarantees a price for crops using a market- and commodity-based formula. If crops fall below a certain price, crop revenue insurance will cover the difference for the farmer.