We just received information last week about insuring crops following cover crops. With all of the discussion on the importance of cover crops in recent years, there could be crop insurance issues that need to be addressed that may impact your coverage.

Cover crops help minimize soil erosion and loss of crop nutrients. As the general public increasingly scrutinizes agricultural production practices, the use of a green crop to protect soil is viewed as a plus, especially near open water courses and on sloping acreage. With fertilizer prices challenging the budget, farmers are also looking for cover crops to produce nutrients and/or hold onto nutrients to be more available when grain crops actually are ready to access them during the growing season. Some producers utilize cover crops to out-compete weeds, provide a source of forage for livestock or some additional benefits specific to their operations.

If you grow corn or soybeans, federal crop insurance allows a producer to plant those crops after a cover crop as long as the cover crop growth is terminated before it reaches the headed or budded stage and is not harvested. If the cover crop growth is not terminated before reaching the headed or budded state or the cover crop is harvested in the same calendar year, insurance may not be available through a written agreement provided certain criteria are met.
To request such an agreement, farmers should visit with their crop insurance agent. The crop producer must complete and submit a Request for Actuarial Change form and an Actual Production History (APH) form with separate databases for the “following a cover crop” practice. The location of the acreage where the practice is being used, the type of cover crop being grown and the method of cover crop termination (if the termination has occurred at the time of the request) must also be submitted.

If approved by the Risk Management Agency (RMA), the written agreement will specify a rate, a transitional yield (by crop) for the acreage, and that the cover crop growth must be terminated by May 15 of the current crop year. Producers will then be able to consider the offer and accept or decline coverage. 

Learn more by contacting your crop insurance agent or download RMA publications/facts sheets  at the following website:  www.rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/fields/il_rso/

Please mark your calendar for a couple of meeting dates, with more details to follow in future Ohio Farm News columns. Feb. 24-25: Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference in Ada, Ohio. This annual event will host 65 presenters or panelists, with an expected attendance of over 800 farmers and Certified Crop Advisors.

March 12: The 20th annual Farm Forum hosted by Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio) at Edison Community College in Piqua, Ohio. Speaker of the House Boehner continues to provide a great venue for not only constituents of his 8th Congressional District, but anyone interested in Ohio’s No. one industry, agriculture.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Roger Bender may write to him in care of this publication.