News

Lower prices affecting crop insurance decisions

A specialist says farmers should factor in lower commodity prices when making their crop insurance decisions.

Doug Yoder, crop agency manager for Country Financial, says if current prices hold through February, coverages will be impacted…

“We’re at $4.74 average for the month of February thus far for corn, that’s about a little over $1.00 cheaper than we’ve been the last two years,” he says. “So that means that farmers going to see much lower guarantees per acre than they’ve been used to the last couple of years.”

He tells Brownfield producers can also look at federal supplemental coverages…

“They have several options through federal crop SCO – Supplemental Coverage Option that allows them to add a county-based supplement on top of that that starts at 86% of their counties yield or revenue,” he says. “Another option is ECO – Enhanced Coverage Option that allows them to add a county supplement on top of their RP at either 90 or 95% coverage level.”

The deadline to sign up for crop insurance is March 15th.