New insurance option for post-applications

GIFFORD, Ill. — Details of a new federal crop insurance program for post-applications of nitrogen were recently unveiled.

The Post-Application Coverage Endorsement program provides supplemental coverage when a producer is prevented from post/split applying nitrogen in the two- to three-week V3 to V10 corn growth stages due to wet weather and field conditions, resulting in crop yield loss.

PACE is available for non-irrigated corn in select counties in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Forty counties from west-central to east-central Illinois and into the northwestern part of the state are eligible for the PACE. Nine counties in northeast Indiana are also eligible.

The producer must make the decision to add the endorsement by the March 15 sales closing date, the same deadline applicable to the underlying plans of insurance.

Eligibility

To be eligible, farmers must:

• Have an underlying insurance policy of Yield Protection, Revenue Protection or Revenue Protection with Harvest Price Exclusion with coverage at the additional coverage level.

• Use a split application of nitrogen practice.

• Have documentation supporting the purchase of nitrogen for the split-application of nitrogen practice.

• Record on the PACE acreage report: the acreage on which a split application of nitrogen practice was intended and the acreage on which the pre-application of nitrogen was actually applied.

• Have been physically prevented from applying the post-application of nitrogen during the insurance period due to weather and field conditions to make a claim.

PACE coverage levels offered range from 75% to 90% in 5% increments.

Additional Records

The program requires a Producer Nitrogen Report to be submitted in the event of a possible loss, regarding nitrogen practices and applications. Acceptable records must be kept that support the information from the Producer Nitrogen Report.

The acceptable records include sales receipts that show the insured’s name; date fertilizer purchased; type of fertilizer purchased; the brand name of the fertilizer, if applicable; percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium; and the total amount of fertilizer purchased.

Records should document the dates the fertilizer was applied, the amount of fertilizer applied per date and the acreage of fertilizer coverage per field on which the fertilizer was applied.

PACE was developed by the Illinois Corn Growers Association, National Corn Growers Association, Ag-Analytics Technology Company LLC, Meridian Institute and others submitted to the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. under provisions in the law allowing for private development of new crop products.

Continuing Programs

Blake Hoveln, Loman-Ray Insurance Group insurance executive based in Broadlands, and Charlotte Smith, Loman-Ray Insurance Group crop insurance customer service representative based in Hoopeston, said other programs such as federal crop insurance and hail insurance are basically unchanged to 2022.

“There are the typical products like yield protection products, county products. There’s a supplemental coverage option that’s based off of the county yields, and there’s also an enhanced coverage option that piggybacks off of that,” said Hoveln at the Midwest Ag Expo.

Smith noted a recent growth in the number of farmers participating in crop insurance.

“It seems like we’ve seen some farmers that have not carried previously and now with the higher costs of inputs they’re looking for new ways to spread the risk. Crop insurance is one of the tools in their toolbox they can use to offset some of that risk,” she said.

“So, they can at least cover the cost of their inputs,” Hoveln added.

“We deal with a lot with hail insurance products. There are a lot of different options out there for hail such as the supplemental replant that you can get where you pick up your replant acres from the first acre instead of having to wait until that 20% kicks in. There are a lot of new little details on the hail side this year,” Smith said.