USDA To Work With Congress On Budget Baseline
USDA officials indicated last week they would work with Congress to somehow preserve 2012 Farm Bill budget baseline that could potentially be lost through the renegotiation of theStandard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The comments, delivered to CongressDaily on the record by a USDA spokesperson and in less official terms to Capitol Hill leaders, came days after 10 commodity groups, including […]
Rural Mutual: Crop Hail Insurance is Good Risk Management
With spring storm season underway, farmers may want to consider crop hail insurance as part of their risk management program, especially if they did not enroll in multi-peril crop insurance before the March 15 deadline. That’s according to Tom Thieding of Rural Mutual Insurance Company. He says each year, some farmers in the state are […]
Insurance Industry Questions Profit Numbers
The battle over future billions of dollars for crop insurance continued on Monday, with the crop-insurance industry questioning USDA’s profit analysis, saying USDA’s Risk Management Agency “understands too well that conclusions can’t be drawn from data representing such a narrow timeframe. A long-term view is essential when analyzing a program based on a private insurance […]
RMA Considers Standard Reinsurance Agreement Cuts
USDA’s Risk Management Agency has reconsidered its previous proposals as the Standard Reinsurance Agreement renegotiation proceeds. But at least 30 U.S. Senators have voiced concern to the agency. In a letter they wrote that despite a modest reduction in the size of the proposed cuts between the first and second drafts, they believe RMA’s proposals may undermine the […]
Check crop insurance before abandoning wheat
Cold, wet conditions at planting reduced emergence. Cooler than normal temperatures throughout the fall and winter have reduced tillering. Yield potential for this year’s wheat crop has been reduced and some growers are considering abandoning their wheat and moving acreage to cotton or full-season soybeans.
Private Industry Still Sees Wide Gap in SRA Negotiations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 24, 2010 OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS… Although modestly less severe than initially proposed, the funding reductions for the crop insurance program offered yesterday by USDA/RMA in the latest round of negotiations to revise the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA) remain excessive and unrealistic. In addition, the RMA’s latest proposal fails to reflect available reforms […]
Gene Grimsley Presented Crop Insurance Industry Leadership Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 24, 2010 OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS…Gene Grimsley, Agro National Insurance, Council Bluffs, Iowa, was presented with the Crop Insurance Industry Leadership Award at the 2010 Crop Insurance Industry Annual Convention. This award is given to individuals who are directly involved in the crop insurance industry and who consistently serve the industry by […]
Crop insurance carries the day for otherwise good crops
It wasn’t a bumper wheat crop, but the yields were respectable nonetheless. In some cases, in fact, they were darn good, beating out county averages. In something of an ironic twist, however, crop insurance was the icing on the cake. Bottom line, crop insurance is making up what farmers lost in the price of wheat, even though […]
Polk Farmers Get Federal Help for Freeze Damages
In the face of a ballooning federal deficit, Uncle Sam will come to the rescue of Florida farmers struggling to recover from last month’s brutal freezing weather. “This will certainly help,” said David Boozer, executive director of the Florida Tropical Fish Farm Association Inc. in Winter Haven, responding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently designating […]
Crop insurance cuts questioned
A proposed $4 billion cut over five years to the USDA crop-insurance program’s contracting agreement with private insurance companies has prompted 10 commodity organizations to express their concerns in writing to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. USDA’s crop-insurance contracting agreement is called the Standard Reinsurance Agreement. The draft reduction the USDA is considering would be in addition to […]
