The goal of this new strategy is to be able to offer producers in the state a way to mitigate financial risk.
A group of West Virginia livestock producers are now taking part in the pilot of an insurance program that has been designed to help them to be able to mitigate certain financial risks that they have been facing.
The program is based on an effort to broaden the information available to help when making payments.
The Rainfall Index Pasture, Rangeland, Forage insurance program bases its payments on a rainfall index instead of using individual rain gauges or single weather stations to provide the necessary data. The indexes have been created to help to better determine the level of the actual losses as well as to trigger indemnities. The goal is to be able to produce a more accurate and, therefore, more fair system to produce payouts that will give livestock producers the financial support that they need when conditions turn greatly unfavorable.
The deadline to sign up for this pilot insurance program has been announced as November 15, 2015.
For those who do sign up for this additional insurance coverage, the protection will start for them along with the crop year in 2016. The insurance policy is by no means obligatory but it is meant to help livestock farmers to be able to reduce the impact of the losses that can occur when rainfall does not occur in ideal amounts.
This has occurred as the Board of Directors of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation has opted to add 19 states, including West Virginia, to its program in order to test the waters, so to speak, and see if the coverage can provide an affordable and accurate way to overcome certain weather related obstacles to remaining profitable.
The insurance program is currently being offered by the Risk Management Agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That branch has been looking into a range of different types of coverage to help to make sure that farmers will be able to stay afloat in difficult years, while still keeping the program financially viable.
