What is in the federal crop insurance pipeline?
Washington Ag Today November 25, 2011 What kind of crops might we see new federal crop insurance policies for? Dave Paul of the regional office of the USDA’s Risk Management Agency says they are working on a couple of items. Paul: “Some things going down that there is a possibility, the board is looking at a camelina product. That may come up here in the next year. We are actually contracted out to do a triticale. We are starting a project to add triticale to the small grain provisions. Had a lot of interest in Washington on that. No real significant changes. We added soybeans actually in couple of counties this year, Walla Walla and Umatilla counties for the first time ever.” Paul says the soybean acreage is not huge but is enough that RMA had sufficient data to put an insurance program together. He recalls a meeting on soybeans held a few years ago in Walla Walla. Paul: “We pulled into the fairgrounds and I thought there was a gunshow going on or something. There were pickups all over. They had 120 farmers show up. It was all talking about growing soybeans. They had guys from North Dakota State come up and talk about how to grow soybeans and how it works out here. So we are kind of excited. We really worked hard to get that program out here so if they do decide to plant it they have some coverage.” RMA’s Dave Paul. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
