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Crop insurance: Take a closer look at ECO

A crop insurance advisor says farmers should take a closer look at the Enhanced Coverage Option this year. 

Mike Boen with Compeer Financial tells Brownfield the ECO subsidy increased from 44% to 65%. “Most private products in the market today are somewhere from I spend a dollar in premium, I get two dollars to two and a half dollars in liability. Well, with ECO this year, I spend one and I get roughly five dollars back.”

Boen says this option lets farmers cover an additional 9% of revenue and triggers based on county levels.  He says the ECO option helps protect farmers when commodity prices drop like they have in each of the past two years. “As soon as you get to a 14% loss, you’ve got 100% of that indemnity coming and when prices are dropping like that and looking at what things look like this year, there’s a great opportunity here to take advantage of this ECO product and get a 95% coverage.”

Boen says corn priced dropped roughly 11.5% on corn and 13.7% on soybeans last year, and in 2023, corn dropped 13.5%.  He says with another year of low prices expected, the ECO option is worth considering as part of the farm’s crop insurance program.