Improvements made to forage seeding and forage production crop insurance provisions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – USDA’s Risk Management Agency has announced changes to the Forage Seeding and Forage Production crop insurance programs starting with the 2021 crop year. Changes include expanding coverage to new regions and counties, expanding coverage to fall-planted forage and changing the method for loss adjustment.

“These changes will expand coverage to new places, better reflect current agricultural practices and better protect forage producers from losses,” RMA Administrator Martin Barbre said. “This will also enable forage producers to better secure loans and provide continuity to their forage production operations.”

Specifically, the changes:

• Establish coverage of forage seeding for producers in 186 more counties.

• Expand coverage to fall-planted forage and align forage seeding cancellation • and termination dates with the dates for other fall planted crops in each state.

Revise loss-adjustment procedures to rely upon the number of live alfalfa stems rather than the number of live plants for making loss determinations for forage containing more than 60 percent alfalfa.

These changes are further described in a final rule, now available on the Federal Register at regulations.gov. Interested parties are invited to comment on the rule for 60 days.

These changes take effect for crop year 2021 with policies that have a contract change date of April 30, 2020, or later. Sales closing dates follow the contract change date and vary across the country. Producers should contact a crop insurance agent for their specific sales closing date. Crop years reflect the normal growing season and are identified by the year of harvest.