Ray Grabanski | Blogger: North Dakota

Thursday, September 8, 2016

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.

Friday, August 19, 2016

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.

About Ray Grabanski

Ray Grabanski draws on extensive experience in the agricultural sector to provide professional consultation and legal services to northern midwestern farmers. Before launching his career, he earned a BS and MS in agricultural economics while gaining valuable experience on his family’s Inkster, North Dakota, grain and livestock farm, helping to triple its acreage despite an industry-wide economic downturn. During this time, Ray Grabanski also began to develop an interest in agricultural law and completed a legislative internship at the House Committee on Agriculture. In 1992, he formed Progressive Ag, an agricultural marketing, insurance, and commodity brokerage firm that now ranks as the top national firm for corn and soybean marketing.

In 2010, Ray Grabanski decided to pursue his passion for agricultural law and embarked on his JD at the University of North Dakota. After passing the bar in July 2013, he formed Progressive Ag Law, PLLC, with four UND classmates. In addition to maintaining his responsibilities as president and chief market analyst at Progressive Ag, Mr. Grabanski now represents the agricultural community in cases including the Syngenta lawsuit and issues related to the ARC-CO Farm Bill.

Outside of his professional activities, Ray Grabanski is an active member of the Lutheran Church, and he supports institutions such as the Norman Lutheran Church and the Institute of Lutheran Theology.