News

RMA: Companies ready for prevent plant claims

The Administrator of the USDA’s Risk Management Agency says they anticipate a lot of claims for prevent plant acreage because of flooding but those will be handled by insurance providers contracted with RMA, not the agency itself, “We’ve been in contact with those companies. They’re all fully prepared for the 2019 claims conditions upcoming. All are fully aware of all the “pp” (prevent plant) that’s possibly going on around the country,” says Martin Barbre.

Barbre says those providers are prepared to move teams of adjustors around as needed and have made many improvements. He tells Brownfield Ag News, “One of the things that many have told us is, they have the ability now with modern technology to use GPS equipment for acreage calculations so that way they can just do a quick and accurate acreage calculation on a producer’s field if they have split fields.”

Barbre reminds farmers of the extended window for planting once the first crop insurance deadline has been reached. At his farm in southeast Illinois, the cut-off is June 5th with the latest planting date of June 20th, “Producers CAN go ahead and plant during that late plant period should they desire. They take a one-percent cut for each day past June 5^th (in this example) on their insurance coverage which basically is translated into the higher risk of planting later.”

Barbre says growers should be in close contact with their crop insurance providers about any decisions involving prevent plant coverage.