New insurance protection offered
PONTIAC – A new crop insurance option aims to protect a farmer’s margin.
Margin Protection is a big topic at ag meetings this winter as farmers brush up on their insurance choices. This is available in 97 Illinois counties for corn and soybeans and coverage levels range from 70-95 percent.
“Instead of insuring your yield or revenue, which is yield and price, they can now consider protecting their margin which is yield and price minus input costs,” explained Doug Yoder,
COUNTRY Financial crop agency manager, during a meeting at the Pontiac Elks Lodge.
This is a county-based product so it will not be for everyone. Yoder considers adequately protecting margins a big win for farmers.
“We’ve already seen a fair amount of Illinois customers step up and use it the very first year.”
Margin Protection can be purchased alone or with Revenue Protection or Yield Protection in the spring from the same approved insurance provider. Like all area policies, MP will not include replant or prevented planting coverage and written agreements are not allowed.
Yoder also covered other changes for the year which include the conservation compliance certification deadline. The Risk Management Agency has removed the June 1 certification deadline date from the conservation compliance provisions. Policyholders must have a completed form AD-1026 on file with the FSA by the premium billing date, which is Aug. 15 for spring planted crops, in order to receive premium discounts. A negative change to crop insurance includes the removal of the 10 percent buy-up option.
Crop insurance remains a large part of the farm bill debate. In the previous farm bill program, most growers took the ARC-CO (county) option while only a small percentage took advantage of PLC (price loss coverage). ARC-CO may have been an appropriate choice in recent years, but may not be suitable for many if these low crop prices continue.
“If (the poor farm economy) continues, this program does no good moving forward,” added Yoder.
More insurance information can be found at www.countrycrop.com. The site includes a complete listing of meeting locations and times throughout Illinois.
