The Department of Agriculture has now given its approval for coverage in all South Dakota counties.
A new decision has been made with regards to the availability of crop insurance in South Dakota, as growers in all counties of the state can now obtain coverage for winter wheat, which is good news to them as well as other industries, as well.
In fact, pheasant and duck hunters may also be quite pleased by this new insurance coverage decision.
The departments of Agriculture and of Game, Fish, and Parks, in South Dakota, recently made the announcement about the decision that was made between them to petition the USDA for this crop insurance change. The Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture then gave its approval for the coverage throughout the state. Before that recent change was made, the coverage for winter wheat was available in only 47 of South Dakota’s counties.
This means that there are now 19 new counties that have crop insurance available for winter wheat.
Those counties are now all eligible for insurance for winter wheat. This is making a particularly large difference in the northeastern and north central parts of the state in which the majority of the 19 counties are located.
That said, for farmers who wish to take part in this coverage, there are some deadlines which must be observed. For instance, growers who want to make sure that their winter wheat has insurance coverage for 2016 will need to enroll in a policy by September 30, 2015.
The decision was driven forward, to a large degree, in response to the Pheasant Habitat Workgroup in the state. That group was founded in 2014, following a considerable reduction in the population of the population of pheasants in the state, the year before.
The group released a report last fall, which listed eight different recommendations. Among them was the expansion of the availability of crop insurance for winter wheat, so that farmers across the state would be able to purchase it. The terrestrial wildlife chief of the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department, Tom Kirschenmann, explained that “Several wildlife research projects showed that cereal grains, winter wheat in particular can be unique nesting habitat for pheasants … and waterfowl.”
