Page 42 - Ebook_CoverCrops2022_Final

USDA’s Risk Management Agency and research farmers who cut their cover crops for hay or
that has pulled together USDA and private data grazed cattle on them before Nov. 1 lost 65% of
on the impact of cover crops on the productivity their prevent-plant insurance payment.
of cash crops. On Dec. 1, RMA announced it was perma-
nently removing the Nov. 1 restriction and
There are still some barriers to cover crop adop-
tion left — the coverage isn’t available for har- accompanying penalty.
vestable cover crops, including some intended Insurance .barriers .remain:
for biofuel feedstocks, and some agronomic
practices can affect coverage. USDA is required by law to ensure that crop
insurance is actuarially sound, so there are
But temporary new premium subsidies for cover
crops are easing the cost of cover crop adoption, additional barriers linked to concerns about the
and a data-based proposal is coming in 2022 impact that some practices associated with cover
that could lead to reductions in insurance costs crops could affect the yields of insured crops.
for farmers who use cover crops. Cover crops that are harvested typically can’t
be insured, and harvesting a cover crop also can
What’s .fixed: create issues with insuring the cash crop that
follows.
For many years, farmers complained that RMA’s
termination guidelines for cover crops were Rye, for example, is insurable in some states but
too strict and that farmers were required to get not in places such as Iowa, where there has been
preapproval for deviating from the guidelines to one of the most aggressive pushes for cover crop
protect the insurability of the cash crop that adoption to address the state’s water quality
followed. issues.
Congress enacted a provision to address that For the most part, cover crops that are grown for
complaint in the 2018 farm bill, and RMA sub- biofuels aren’t insurable either. One prominent
sequently issued updated guidelines clarifying exception is camelina, which can be covered by
that farmers could insure the cash crop at plant- crop insurance under a pilot program in Mon-
ing and that the farmers’ cover crop manage- tana and northwest North Dakota.
ment would be reviewed under normal RMA CoverCress Inc., a St. Louis-based company
rules for good farming practices. The RMA that has developed a version of pennycress that
rules come into play when an insurer questions can be harvested for biofuels, plans to insure the
whether a farmer is entitled to an indemnity for crops grown by contract farmers.
a loss on the cash crop.
But there could be questions about the insurabil-
RMA’s updated guidelines make clear that they ity of the crops that follow the harvested cover
don’t “function as a substitute for locally adap- crops, depending on the rules for the particular
tive management for cover crop termination county where the producer farms, according to
timing, but rather serve as but one option avail- a statement to Agri-Pulse from RMA: “Producers
able to producers,” according to the National should always talk to their insurance agent about
Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which advo- what is an insurable crop and practice for their
cated for the fix. specific county.”

This year, USDA also removed a barrier to Another issue that depends on rules for the
planting cover crops during years when farmers farmer’s location are restrictions on “relay
are unable to plant their cash crops. Until now, cropping,” the practice of seeding one crop

42 www.Agri-Pulse.com