More insurance crop adjusters; milk production down
Washington Ag Today September 23, 2009 The state insurance commissioner’s office and Rural Community Insurance Services have found a solution to a situation that threatened to delay thousands of crop insurance payments to wheat growers across Eastern Washington. State Rep. Laura Grant brought the situation to the attention of the Office of the Insurance Commissioner. With thousands of crop claims pending, she said, it was important to have as many crop adjusters as possible on hand to settle claims this fall. For Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS), this meant bringing in some of their crop adjusters from other states. Initially it was thought these out-of-state workers would have to pass Washington’s general licensing requirements, which just wasn’t practical. But the insurance commissioner’s office determined that RCIS holds a company-wide adjuster license so adjusters employed directly by the company don’t need individual licenses. USDA says milk production has been down for two months in a row now compared to year ago numbers. Greene: “Which is a good sign for milk producers and prices as the supply gets tightened up a little.” USDA livestock analyst Joel Greene who says that in August in the major producing states milk production was down two-tenths of a percent from August of 2008. Washington’s production in August was down 3.1% from August of last year. For the financially strapped dairy industry the all-milk price in August was $11.88 a hundredweight, down from $18.40 a year ago. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
