Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal Farmers who want to insure this fall’s and next spring’s crops will have some decisions to make regarding crop insurance choices according to Amy Jackson, vice president of insurance for Farm Credit Services of Mid-America. “The new guidelines combine previous yield and revenue plans into one standardized plan and will be known as the COMBO plan,” she said.
For example, the new program combines Crop Revenue Coverage and Revenue Assurance policies into a new Revenue Protection policy. Actual Production History coverage is now called Yield Production. Additionally, price-setting methods and recordkeeping requirements also have changed.
Farmers will still be able to purchase individual policies for their farms. The new plan merely simplifies the process. The important thing to keep in mind, notes Jackson, is a policy automatically converts to the like-kind policy for 2011 if no action is taken. “However, farmers have the opportunity to make changes to their policy type and coverage levels through September 30, 2010 for fall wheat and March 15, 2011 for spring crops,” she said.
Coverage is sold through crop insurance agents as well as Farm Credit Services, an agriculture lending cooperative serving over 85,000 customers throughout Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. Farm Credit’s team of crop insurance specialists will host meetings throughout their territories to discuss the changes and how those changes might impact farm operations. Dates will be published on the Farm Credit website in September. Meanwhile, to learn more about the changes to coming to crop insurance coverage, go online to www.e-farmcredit.com, and click on the Crop Insurance Link on the homepage.
