09/11/08 Crop insurance and barley

Farm and Ranch September 11, 2008 USDA's Risk Management Agency has made some changes in federal crop insurance for malting barley. Dave Paul, Director of the regional office of the RMA says several changes had been proposed in a rule that is pending publication in the Federal Register but RMA has gone ahead with a significant change anyway. Paul: "Essentially what that means is we implemented a change in the special provisions that was going to be implemented in the policy but that was held up. And that change is the protein quality standard for 2-row malting barley is now 13.5% maximum. That was a change the malting barley industry had recommended to RMA over a year ago and we were able to implement that for the 2009 crop." Paul says RMA also added the winter variety "Charles" to the list of acceptable varieties for Idaho. The sales closing date for spring barley won't be until March but September 30th is the closing date for 2009 Barley with Winter Coverage Endorsement. Paul: "And if a producer is in a county that doesn't offer fall barley coverage in that particular county, they can petition their insurance agent to request that coverage as long as they do that ahead of September 30th and we can provide some insurance via a written agreement to cover their barley in those counties as well." The initial established price election for yield based Multiple Peril Crop Insurance for barley is $4.60 a bushel. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.