SD Corn

As the drought continues to affect farmers and ranchers across the country and now well into South Dakota there are various issues that will need to be addressed depending on each individual farm.

A great local resource is the South Dakota State University Extension. On their website: http://igrow.org/agronomy/drought/ you will find pertinent information in their resource library including: crop conditions, an updated drought monitor along with feed and forage options.

On a national level, the United States Department of Agriculture has an excellent site: http://usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=DISASTER_ASSISTANCE providing farmers and ranchers with disaster declaration maps, drought specific news and updates, crop insurance information, livestock losses and future farm planning materials.

Dealing with crop insurance is something on the mind of a majority of farmers this year. To answer some possible questions, Iowa State University’s Steven Johnson has a new column: 11 Key Crop Insurance Questions and Answers. In this column, Johnson goes beyond the basics to inform farmers on how to handle insured crops affected by disaster.

Even with crop insurance, the drought still has a number of long lasting, negative effects on the entire ag community, some far worse than others. But American agriculture is resilient and will continue to thrive well into the future using technology and innovation to continue producing affordable and abundant supplies of food, feed, fuel and fiber for our growing population.

With the wheels of the new Farm Bill currently in motion in D.C., out have come the attacks on Federal Crop Insurance. While the usual misleading arguments are thrown around from one newspaper to the next, the truth remains: Federal Crop Insurance works for all farmers and it is the best risk management tool available for our country’s food producers today.

Believe it or not, America’s farmers carry a lot of weight on their shoulders when it comes to food. Our farmers continue to be the most productive in the world as they meet demands domestically and abroad. That story of success carries a large amount of financial risk due to their inability to control Mother Nature who can either make or break their crops.

That is why Federal Crop Insurance was put into place, to ensure that the people growing our food can weather the storms and remain ready to continue feeding the growing world. If producers weren’t protected financially, many of them would simply have to try to make a living doing something other than farming, hurting rural America, our country’s agricultural infrastructure and long-term ability to continue producing abundant crops.

The program does come at a cost as farmers pay for Federal Crop Insurance. Federal Crop Insurance resembles that of auto insurance. The more car wrecks you get into, the riskier you become to insure, costing you more to maintain that coverage. With crop insurance, the more disaster claims you have, the bigger risk that farm becomes, lessening its coverage benefits in the event of disaster.

As progress on the Farm Bill continues with certain cuts coming to farm programs, Congress needs to ignore the one-sided analysis and support Federal Crop Insurance, a vital and working program that continues to protect our nation’s food supply.

South Dakota is privileged to have the head of the U.S. Risk Management Agency here as a headline speaker for the Corn Growers’ annual meeting.

Administrator William Murphy, who has spent more than 30 years with RMA, will share his insight into crop insurance, Actual Production History policies and the Prairie Pothole Region.

Members of the audience will be among the first in the nation to hear directly from the administrator himself about the recent re-rating of crop insurance.

Murphy also will discuss new technology and how that helps accurately track crop insurance losses. He’ll talk about trend adjusted yields, corn test weight charting, policy compliance and enforcement, and he’ll touch on the writing of a new farm bill.

Murphy said he’ll set aside time to answer questions that people have about RMA programs and policy changes.

The Pennsylvania native was appointed administrator by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in 2009.

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You must pre-register for the SDCGA annual meeting and can do so online by clicking here or by calling the office at 605-334-0100.

It’s getting down to the wire for making a decision on crop insurance with the March 15 deadline less than a week away.  With commodity prices down and cash rent on the rise, margins are thin. Crop Insurance brings farmers a lot of questions including: the level of base prices, coverage levels, differences between policies, etc, which makes for a difficult decision when finding the best fit for your operation.

Crop insurance is not something you buy to make money on, it is something you buy to protect your hard-earned assets.

“Crop insurance is another way to protect the value of your crops, whether they are used as feed for your dairy or sold on the open market,” says Steve Bodart, a financial analyst with Lookout Ridge Consulting, Baldwin, Wis.

Farmers need to approach crop insurance decisions from a risk management point of view. How much risk can your family and operation handle if you have to go through damaging weather or lower grain prices?

Keeping detailed track records of previous yields will help in determining what level of protection is needed. Make sure you are comparing “apples to apples” when comparing crop insurance premium costs for various options or types of crop insurance policies and recognize the limitations of the various crop insurance products.

The average crop revenue election (ACRE) and the supplemental revenue assistance payment program (SURE) were added as part of the 2008 farm bill. The ACRE and SURE farm programs do not replace good crop insurance coverage.

The ACRE program offers an alternative method of calculating farm program payments triggered by crop revenues (yield x price), as compared to the traditional price-based counter-cyclical payments (CCPs).

The SURE program is the so-called permanent disaster program. It is also based on crop revenues in a given year and requires crop insurance coverage.

If you don’t know, ask. A reputable crop insurance agent is the best source of information to find out more details of the various coverage plans, get premium quotes and help finalize 2010 crop insurance decisions.

Also, check your intended seed against USDA’s acceptable hybrids. Enter your state and crop, and then search by hybrid name. USDA has also made some changes in the requirements for enterprise units, dealing with minimum acreage. Your choice may fall toward enterprise units because of a substantial drop in premiums, thanks to lobbying efforts of the National Corn Growers Association.