Farmers in Colorado are now preparing for the roll out of a new type of coverage for their businesses.
Local farmers in Colorado are now preparing for two different meetings that are being held on farm insurance by way of the Farm Service Agency and that are designed to be highly informative about the new kind of coverage that will be rolling out.
The new programs that will be starting through the 2014 Farm Bill will take over for previous broadly used plans.
The new farm insurance programs will provide a complete replacement of the current plans that are widely used throughout Colorado. Under the current coverage used by the majority of the counties in the states that have participated in the counter-cyclical and direct programs has now come to an end. It is being replaced by a price-loss coverage and agricultural risk coverage program that will soon be rolled out for farmers with oat, corn, barley, and wheat crops.
The meetings will be used to explain the new farm insurance coverage in far greater detail than has been provided so far.
This year, corn is likely to become eligible for insurance payments as a result of the drop in prices when compared to the national high (which had been around $12 per bushel), to arrive at $4 per bushel. This, according to the Delores and San Miguel County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director CED, Paul White.
Farmers who have been growing alfalfa will be interested in learning about the non-insurable assistance program, which has been broadened in order to provide producers with the opportunity to purchase coverage for up to as small a yield loss as 35 percent.
Agricultural and business management economists from Colorado State University will be present at both public meetings in the county and will be making presentations, along with county directors from the Farm Service Agency. The first farm insurance meeting will be held today in Cortez at the Lewis-Arriola Community Center. The second meeting will be tomorrow at the La Plata County Extension Office in Durango. Growers seeking to attend the meetings will not need to make any reservations.
