Reminder: Spring Crop Sales Closing

February 18, 2020

The deadline to insure spring crops in the northeast for the 2020 crop year is March 15, 2020. Insurable spring crops include field and vegetable crops such as corn, soybeans, barley, oats, fresh market sweet corn, cabbage, processing beans, processing sweet corn, dry beans, green peas, fresh market beans, tomatoes, tobacco and potatoes. Coverage availability varies by county. Visit CropGrowers.com to view individual crop fact sheets for more information.

Producers who had a payable prevented planting indemnity related to flooding and excess moisture in 2019 automatically received a “top-up” payment in fall 2019. As of January 20, the Risk Management Agency (RMA) has paid roughly $4.29 billion in claims nationally related to prevented planting for the 2019 crop year.

“With unpredictable weather and market variability, crop insurance is an important tool to help growers insure against damage caused by weather, disease, insects or wildlife,” said Jeremy Forrett, Senior Vice President, Crop Growers, LLP. “Crop insurance played an essential role last year supporting producers across the northeast when faced with severe spring weather conditions,” he added.

Additional new RMA offerings include: Apple Tree Crop insurance—sales closing April 15, 2020 for the 2021 crop year; Nursery Value Select (NVS)—sales closing date of May 1^st, 2020, and is only available in select southern New Jersey counties; Hurricane Insurance Protection (HIP) endorsement—sales closing date April 30^th, 2020, an option to add coverage for hurricanes to an already existing Multi-Peril Crop insurance (MPCI) policy and covers the deductible portion of the MPCI policy up to 95% of the crop value.

To protect your investment in the 2020 crop, spring crop producers should contact their Crop Growers agent well in advance of the March 15 deadline. Let your agent know of any changes in your entity and your agent will inform you of any changes to the crop insurance policy.