‘Quiet’ changes come to crop insurance

One difference in crop insurance for 2023 will allow producers to get a head start on their crop, if Mother Nature allows them.

Overall, it is a quiet year for changes for crop insurance, says Doug Yoder, a crop agency manager at Country Financial in Bloomington, Illinois. The only year he remembers having fewer changes is in 2022, and that has been nice to see for producers who are looking at their options ahead of the looming insurance deadlines on March 15. If no new decision has been made by that deadline, the coverage is the same from 2022.

The biggest difference in policies this year are based on planting date. For many states, the covered planting dates have been moved up, allowing farmers to get in the field earlier and retaining the ability to have any replant covered.

"There's been a trend going on in soybean country for a while now where we are seeing earlier and earlier planting, and it's working," Yoder said.

He said the initial planting date possibility for soybeans has moved up 10 days, to April 5, in southern Illinois and to April 10 for central Illinois. In the northern third of Illinois the first initial planting date is 9 days sooner at April 15.

"They can plant earlier and still qualify for federal crop insurance replant provision," he said.

The other major change for those toward the southern Midwest is the double crop soybean initiative. It is an effort to support farmers who may plant wheat in the fall and after harvesting it in June, may opt to plant soybeans to get another harvestable crop out of the year. This has been available to some growers, but now are available to those who may live further north.

"They had to go through a pretty strenuous paperwork process called a written agreement with the government and seek approval to insure those double-crop beans," Yoder said. "When the war in Ukraine broke out, that put the wheat supply in jeopardy and our government made it more available. They don't have to prove anything like they used to and now they can purchase it if they want to."

He said that has led to more winter wheat acres planted this past fall than in previous years.

Jon Strohl with Farm Credit Illinois said said most producers are using crop insurance in some capacity, saying more than 90% of corn and soybean acres throughout Illinois are insured. In a year where input costs are being watched very closely, Strohl said to not neglect some of the guarantees that come with insurance.

"We've seen costs almost double for some operations," Strohl said. "We understand crop insuarnce is an expense, but yet it's still one of the cheapest marketing tools you have in your operation."

With 2023 creating talk about an updated farm bill, Strohl said he doesn't expect many changes to the crop insurance program. He hopes most members of Congress can recognize its importance to the agriculture industry and the stability it brings to many farmers throughout the country.

"From what I've heard and read and talking to people is that we don't expect a lot of changes, hopefully," Yoder said. "Hopefully, we just keep it where it's at and both sides of the aisle can come together and create a farm bill that works for what it is designed for, the American Farmer."