Friday, March 11, 2022
CapitalPress.com
11
WSR Insurance Services:
Personalized crop insurance
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
WSR Insurance Ser-
vices began in 1917
with the merger of three
independent
insurance
companies.
More than a century
later, WSR is still jointly
owned and has become
one of the largest inde-
pendently owned insur-
ance agencies in North-
ern California, offering a
full range of products that
include farm and ranch
insurance for crops, live-
stock, apiculture, per-
sonal insurance and gen-
eral business needs.
They are also sponsor-
ing the seminar program
that will be offered at the
brand-new Central Ore-
gon Ag Show.
WSR is based in Wood-
land, Calif., with 13 agents
scattered around multiple
states that include several
regions where ranching is
the primary industry. The
website is wsrins.com.
“We like to conduct our
business
face-to-face,”
Matt Griffith, co-owner,
said. “With what we do it’s
important to sit down with
a customer so everybody
has a good understand-
ing of what we’re doing
together and enabling us
to set realistic expecta-
tions of how our products
can perform.”
Bobby Alexander, with
a background in the live-
stock industry, manages
WSR’s crop insurance
products, specializing in
the risk management tools
put out through USDA’s
Risk Management Agency
(RMA) that include pas-
ture, rangeland and forage
(PRF) and livestock risk
protection (LRP) tools for
ranchers and hay produc-
ers geared to protect their
Bobby Alexander
Matt Griffith
bottom line.
“Most ranchers have
considerable expense in
raising their cattle,” Alex-
ander said. “LRP lets
them lock in a price to
insure against declining
market prices.”
PRF insurance allows
farmers and ranchers to
insure the amount of rain-
fall they’re supposed to
get in their area and off-
set costs when water is
scarce.
“Everybody is look-
ing for all they can do to
manage risk and make
ends meet,” Alexander
said. “When you are in
an inconsistent weather
pattern, people can end
up having to sell their
herd down or make big
adjustments.
“They’re also very
vulnerable in a fluctuat-
ing market,” Alexander
said. “If something hap-
pens globally, even if it
has nothing to do with the
cattle industry, it can tip
their market upside down
and ranchers can end up
getting less out of their
cattle than it costs to raise
them.”
Two of WSR’s five
owners, Griffith and Jim
Vann, grew up in the
ranching industry and
understand the perils that
operators face and want
to make sure they know
there is help available that
they may not know about.
“The lines the USDA
offers change quickly with
new products popping up
on an annual basis, and
there are a couple that are
being overlooked, such
as whole farm revenue,
which protects an oper-
ation’s income based on
what commodities they
have and their size,” Grif-
fith said.
“Agriculture is unique
in that the producer doesn’t
set the price; we’re at the
market’s mercy when it’s
time to sell our commodi-
ties,” he said. “We’re try-
ing to relay the message
that there are products to
help you stay in business
and that’s a new mindset
because up until 10 years
ago crop insurance at
the ranching level didn’t
really exist.
“Many of our products
have been of real ben-
efit to the Central Ore-
gon agriculture commu-
nity and we are happy to
spread the word by par-
ticipating in the new Ag
Show.”
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