Maryland Farmers Reminded March 15 is Deadline to Act on Crop Insurance

MDA Secretary Buddy Hance reminds farmers that the sales closing date to purchase crop insurance for spring seeded crops and to make changes to policies is March 15. Spring seeded crops include corn, soybeans, oats and grain sorghum.

A new option available for Maryland producers in 2013 is the Trend Adjusted Yield Option (TA) that adjusts historical Actual Production History (APH) Yields in our crop insurance data-base(s) to reflect improvements in crop genetics and production technology. This option may give you the opportunity to increase your crop insurance protection at a much lower cost than increasing the level of coverage.

“I encourage farmers to be on top of their risk management decisions going into this season,” said Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Buddy Hance. “A little time with your crop insurance agent now, will pay off later.”

In 2012, farmers invested more than $12 million in premiums for more than 6,600 crop insurance policies covering $359 million in liabilities. Close to 80 percent of corn acres, 70 percent of soybean acres and 50 percent of wheat acres are protected by crop insurance.

Producers insuring multiple or large farms may also be able to insure using “enterprise units” to receive up to a 50 percent premium discount. Enterprise unit participation in 2012 increased to 270,000 acres or 30 percent of net acres in Maryland.

Producers 2013 spring planted crops must sign up for federally insured crop insurance, or make any changes to existing polices by March 15.

A list of agents can be found at: http://www3.rma.usda.gov/apps/agents/

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