Give yourself extra peace of mind by brushing up on these crop insurance policy rules and regulations that can affect your ability to collect insurance claims timely and without major hassles.
File your paperwork timely – Deadline for acreage reports is 7/15. You should have already received a paper report in the mail to fill out, sign, and return to us. If you would prefer to sign electronically, please contact our office.
Check your Schedule of Insurance – After your acreage report is completed and sent to your insurance provider, you should receive a schedule of insurance in the mail that tells you your coverage, acres, and guarantees for the year. Please verify that the acres and plant dates are correct and let our office know ASAP if you see something wrong. Errors are easier to fix the earlier you catch them. They can be extremely difficult to fix if you have a claim already open.
Certify at FSA – It is not mandatory that you certify at FSA, but if you do, please make sure to include that information along with your acreage report. The FSA report is helpful to verify your entity, acres, plant dates, and share. Ideally, the information at FSA and crop insurance match.
Failed crop procedures
If you are thinking of switching to another crop due to dry weather, keep the following rules in mind.
- You must wait until after the end of the late planting period before planting any other crop (insurable or not).
- You must have the first crop appraised by an adjuster before you can switch plantings. The appraisal is what your claim, if any, is based on.
- If you wish to plant that ground to another insurable crop, you have a couple of options to consider.
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- Option 1 following a failed crop– You choose to insure the 1st crop only: You are paid 100% of the 1st crop loss and pay 100% of the 1st crop premium.
- Option 2 following a failed crop – You choose to insure both crops:You are paid 35% of the 1st crop loss and pay 35% of the 1st crop premium. You pay 100% of the second crop premium. If the 2nd crop has no loss, you may go back and pay the other 65% of the 1st crop premium and collect the other 65% of the 1st crop loss. If you have a loss on the 2nd crop, you may collect whichever claim gives you the greater benefit.
Silage chopping procedures – Make sure you contact our office BEFORE you chop silage or beanlage. An adjuster will need to give you permission to chop and also do an appraisal on the chopped acres to be able to pay any claim.
Final claims deadlines – For yield losses, claim deadlines are within 72 hours of initial discovery, no later than 15 days from the harvest of the unit for each crop/county. Please do not hesitate to turn a claim in if you see a problem. It is much easier to withdraw a claim than it is to turn in a late claim. There is no penalty for turning in too many claims.