Important Crop Insurance Deadlines

I'm Susan Allen. Farmers face several important deadlines this time of year as they harvest crops and look ahead to next year. A key deadline to keep in mind during the rush of harvest is September 30. Laurie Langstraat, Vice President of Public Relations at NCIS, said that date is the deadline to modify existing crop insurance policies or buy a new policy...

LANGSTRAAT: It would be easy for them to miss the upcoming crop insurance deadline with everything that is going on, so we wanted to remind folks that September 30th is fast approaching. This is the deadline to make changes to existing crop insurance policies or for farmers to purchase coverage for fall planted crops like winter wheat, barley oats and forage production.

She said it's not a good time to skimp on risk management in a economic down cycle...tape

LANGSTRAAT:Net farm income has dropped by 56% and the USDA is predicted to decline for another year, making that three straight years. On top of that a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City indicates that ag credit conditions continue to deteriorate. This is a time when farmers will want to consider maximizing their crop insurance protection and understand all of the options available to them. Times like these also remind us why we have a farm safety net. And why that safety net must be affordable and widely available to all farmers in the country. Crop insurance has been able to provide some kind of certainty in uncertain times.

Again this important crop insurance deadline is September 30th.