CORTLAND, N.Y. — The deadline to insure spring crops in the northeast for the 2019 crop year is March 15. 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.
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. In 2018, Northeast producers purchased more than 20,000 crop insurance policies, protecting 2.6 million acres with $1.3 billion of protection in force. Northeast producers with crop insurance received more than $525 million in claim payments due to weather and market-related crop losses over the 2013-2017 timeframe.
“The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill maintained a reliable, affordable and sustainable crop insurance program for American farmers during a time of volatile markets and weather risks,” said Jeremy Forrett, Vice President, Crop Growers, LLP. “The Farm Bill also provides dairy producers with improved risk management options to mitigate the risk of market fluctuations by permitting the new Dairy Revenue Protection and the Livestock Gross Margin-Dairy (LGM-Dairy) crop insurance programs to be used in combination with the new Dairy Margin Coverage program authorized in the Farm Bill.”
To protect your investment in the 2019 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.
Crop Growers, LLP, is an independent agency that sells and services Crop Insurance for 34 different crops through a nine state territory. Crop Growers is owned by Farm Credit East, in conjunction with other Northeast Farm Credit Associations. Producers do not need to be a Farm Credit customer to purchase crop insurance. Contact the Crop Growers Customer Service Center at 1-800-243-7012 to learn more.
— Crop Growers, LLP