International Ag Insurance Solutions issued the following announcement on Dec. 7.
Senator Hoeven announced USDA is providing flexibility for farmers with crop insurance who are unable to get into their fields to harvest by the December 10 deadline. The USDA Risk Management Agency has provided guidance to crop insurance companies to work with these farmers on filing claims and reporting harvest even with the delays caused by excess moisture and snow.
Extremely wet or snowy conditions have delayed harvest for a number of farmers nationwide. In some cases the moisture content is so high the crop cannot be physically harvested with normal harvesting equipment. With the end of the insurance period December 10 for most spring planted crops, farmers need to know actions they can take with regards to their crop insurance coverage.
“Farmers have been dealing with low prices and bad weather, and to face a deadline to harvest while they are prevented from getting to their crops is making things worse for them,” said Senator Hoeven. “The Risk Management Agency assured me they have procedures in place to help these farmers so that their hard work can make it to market and their losses accounted for appropriately.”
Farmers should contact their agent to discuss more time to attempt to harvest so claims can be settled based on harvested production. Their approved insurance provider may allow additional time to harvest when the following conditions are met:
Farmers need to give timely notice of loss to your crop insurance agent;
The approved insurance provider determines and documents that the delay in harvest was due to an insured cause of loss;
Farmers demonstrate to their approved insurance provider that harvest was not possible due to insured causes; and
The delay in harvest was not because farmers did not have sufficient equipment or manpower to harvest the crop by the end of the insurance period.
“I appreciate Chairman’s Hoeven’s focus on the needs of our farmers and his efforts to get this guidance to them so they can continue to farm even after bad weather hurts their operations,” said USDA Farm Production and Conservation Under Secretary Bill Northey.
More information on requesting assistance due to delayed harvest is available on RMA’s website.
Original source can be found here.
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