Select Producers Allowed to Insure Dual-Use Wheat

(WASHINGTON, DC) USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) announced updates to the Annual Forage insurance program for the 2020 Crop Year. Changes under the 2018 Farm Bill, now allows for a Dual-Use Option in select counties of six Great Plains states in the Annual Forage pilot program. Producers who select this option can insure their small grains crop with both an Annual Forage Policy for grazing and a multi-peril Small Grains Policy for grain. The Dual-Use Option may be ideal for producers planting a small grain by October 15, 2019, to use as a grazing crop over the winter and to harvest for grain in 2020. The option is available where RMA considers “grain/graze” a good farming practice in select counties of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The Annual Forage pilot program provides coverage to acreage that is planted each year and used as forage by livestock. This pilot program uses the Rainfall Index, based on NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center weather data, to correlate to this acreage. Annual Forage is a private product maintained by AgForce.