While at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays got to talk with Francie Tolle with USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) about some of the new tools that USDA has to offer.
Tolle related that while producers everywhere are anxious for a farm bill, it is fortunate that RMA tools don’t fall under its jurisdiction but rather are authorized by the Crop Insurance Act.
“We continue with business as usual and the focus has been on getting as many crops and livestock insured as possible,” Tolle said. “We’ve had to move our focus from weaned calves to controlled environments to shellfish and everything in between, along with tweaks to the current programs. The ways those changes come along is basically us talking to producers: commodity groups, farm organizations, asking what is and isn’t working, then going back and making those changes.”
According to Tolle, the growth of LRP has been a great opportunity for producers to obtain protection for the exact number of calves they have, as opposed to the futures and options program most commonly used before. The program’s subsidiary helps producers with costs, and payment isn’t due until coverage expires.
Further advancements to LRP will come from cattlemen and women themselves. “We listen to producers about what needs to happen, and right now, there are a few ideas, but I think it is in a really good place,” Tolle commented. “It has grown exponentially, and for the most part, we are just hearing good things right now.”
The programs, including LRP, the Livestock Gross Margin program, the Dairy Program, and all others, really took off in 2018 when the max coverage cap was removed from Livestock Programs.
“That really provided us an opportunity to give crop insurance to livestock producers in a way that we had never been able to do before,” Tolle stated.
She also said that now is the time to talk to a crop insurance agent about the Pasture and Range Program because the deadline to apply is quickly approaching. She said that a local agent can walk producers through the process and explain exactly how the program can work for each operation.
“The benefit to crop insurance is that you can tailor it to your operation,” she said. “If a producer is interested, I would find a crop insurance agent by asking around, but also, there is an agent locator on our website.”
She added, “RMA is like no other agency with the public-private partnership. We are a very small agency of only about four hundred people, but we have the largest program of $207 billion in liability. That delivery system is completely private through the crop insurance companies. We have a little over thirteen thousand agents so producers can pick who they want to work with. The price is the same regardless of which agent you go to, so producers should find someone they like and want to work with.”
