SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) reminds Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio producers that the final date to apply for insurance coverage on spring barley, Burley tobacco, cabbage, corn, cucumbers, dry beans, forage seeding, grain sorghum, green peas, hybrid seed corn, oats, popcorn, potatoes, processing beans, processing pumpkins, processing sweet corn, processing tomatoes, soybeans and sugarbeets is March 15.
Current policyholders who wish to make changes to their existing policies also have until the sales closing date to do so.
A number of important changes have been made to crop insurance for the 2016 crop year that producers may want to consider as the sales closing date approaches.
The Actual Production History (APH) Yield Exclusion has been expanded to include more crops. The provision allows farmers to exclude eligible yields which occur from exceptionally bad years (such as a year in which a natural disaster or other extreme weather occurs) from their production history when calculating yields used to establish their crop insurance coverage.
More protection
The Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) is now available for alfalfa seed, canola, cultivated wild rice, dry peas, forage production, grass seed, mint, oats, onions, potatoes and rye in select counties for the 2016 crop year.
SCO is a county-level policy endorsement that covers a portion of the deductible of the underlying crop insurance policy. For 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has expanded Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) nationwide.
Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) provides a risk management safety net for all commodities on a farm under one insurance policy and is tailored for any farm with up to $8.5 million in insured revenue, including farms with specialty or organic commodities (both crops and livestock), or those marketing to local, regional, farm-identity preserved, specialty, or direct markets. Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents.
