Today is the deadline for farmers to buy crop insurance for spring-seeded crops. Agents say you need to be prepared, pointing to last year’s near-record coverage.
“Last year, about 550 million acres of farm and ranchland nationwide were covered by crop insurance. That’s roughly nine out of ten acres that are eligible for coverage, which is up dramatically from just five years ago when fewer than 379 million acres were covered,” said Tom Zacharias with Nationla Crop Insurance Services.
Farmers and ranchers spent more than $6 billion last year out of their own pockets to buy 2.4 million policies. Zacharias says those policies then provided nearly $160 billion in protections.
Other crop insurance deadlines are on the horizon but there is still time. ARC and PLC decisions are due next month, which is a month later than normal. When making those plans, ag economists say PLC will likely pay less for most of the Corn Belt.
“Obviously, we don’t know all the prices and yields that will happen in 2025. If we have extremely low prices, PLC will pay more, but that’s a pretty remote case yet,” said Economist Gary Schnitkey.
Schnitkey and his team are leaning toward ARC county over PLC for corn, soybeans, and wheat this year, adding federal farm safety net programs are free of charge.
While the agriculture industry hoped details on proposed “bridge” payments for farmers would be released this week, Ag Secretary Brook Rollins said the USDA is still working with the White House on the finer points.
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