Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with Dakota Moss, Livestock Risk Services President, to discuss the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) Protection Program because the time to sign up is now as the opportunity ends on December 1.
The PRF program is a federally subsidized insurance program that protects against yield losses due to low precipitation for grazing and haying land. Click here to see a list of frequently asked questions about the PRF program.
“For that program, I like to sit down with a producer and look at them on a case-by-case basis because there are some areas where it works very well for a producer and some areas where it doesn’t work at all just because of what their climate situation is and how the rains come in that area,” Moss explained.
He explained that the coverage covers acreage in two-month periods with the producer choosing the number of acres, the months, and the amount of coverage they want.
Moss said, “It is one of the most flexible programs that federal crop insurance offers. As a rule of thumb, the premium is usually about ten percent of their coverage.”
The level of drought is determined by the analysis of more than seventy years of rainfall data to determine rainfall averages for a 16-mile by 16-mile grid that every producer falls in. There is a rainfall index average for each grid, and rainfall is measured for each two-month period. Moss provided the example of a producer who has insured over 90 percent of average rainfall, and the total rainfall for the two-month period of coverage within his entire grid comes in under 90 percent, he has a coverable claim.
“With the La Nina pattern, we are moving into, we could see a very dry start to next year,” Moss added. “If we have a tough start without those spring rains, you are not going to have much grass going into spring and summer so that PRF program could be very valuable.”
He emphasized how crucial spring rains are for cattle producers, and how bleak the current and foreseeable situation appears. While the deadline to sign up is December 1, producers won’t be billed until September 2025. He said, “If we do have an extremely dry start to 2025, that policy could pay for itself or pay its premium down, and then generate indemnity payments.”
Moss invited interested producers to contact either himself or Jake Grossnicklaus by using the contact information found on the Livestock Risk Services website’s contact page.
Hear what Moss had to say about LRP and its alternatives here.
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