“July is when we get busy. July 15th’s our deadline,” says Jessica Skaggs, a crop specialist with Country Financial. “Farmers are busy, we’re busy. All the work has to be done.”
Sound familiar? Spring planting is wrapping up, and farmers are ready to plow ahead into summer. But first, farmers have to collect their planting data, go to the FSA office to certify their acreage, provide the same information to their insurance agent and sign their acreage report, and then, maybe, they’ll get their wish for summer to arrive.
For many farmers, data collection itself is a hurdle. They make handwritten planting notes, then, they’ll spend days certifying their acreage. At each step in the process, there’s a chance for errors to delay things further.
Until MyAgData.
“For federal crop insurance, accuracy and timeliness are pre-eminent over all the other considerations” when reporting planting data, says Ron Gray, a Country Financial crop insurance agent in southeastern Illinois. Skaggs and Gray were early adopters of MyAgData.
“MyAgData allows us to assemble the information directly from the farmer without manual, or limited, manual entry, which reduces the opportunity for errors. It’s timelier and allows us to give our client more time to review their planting report to make sure it is accurate for their farm.”
For farmers using tractors with wireless capability, MyAgData helps reduce human error by eliminating the need to manually enter handwritten planting data on to a computer.
“Farmers can take care of getting their planting information to FSA and to us while they’re sitting in the tractor,” Skaggs says. “It’s awesome.”
Even without wireless data transfer equipment, farmers who transfer their data on a USB or by hand can still connect with FSA and their insurance agent with MyAgData. By uploading to MyAgData, which connects to insurers and the FSA, everyone saves time and effort. That means happier customers and getting back several hours in the day at a critical time of year.
“Without MyAgData, we would be working early mornings and late nights every single day until it’s done,” Skaggs says. “I’m working normal days during July with MyAgData. I think MyAgData at least saves me at least four hours a day, five days a week, all of June and all of July.”
Looking for a way to streamline the reporting process and time spent in the FSA county offices for your clients? Watch this agent testimonial video from happy MyAgData customers.
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