Why farmers have to be super smart
Why farmers have to be super smart. I received a news release from the USDA stating the following: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency announces that the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation's board has approved revisions to the Pasture, Rangeland, Forage Pasture, Forage and Apiculture Pilot programs for Idaho producers next year.” I called an administrator in Risk Management and asked him to explain. Here’s what I heard back: “The producer can select one or more 3 month periods of time, in which the NDVI data or greenness is important during the production of the forage species, they select their grid where their pasture range or their colony’s located, they select their index interval and a value for either their pasture or rangeland or apiculture that’s between 60 to 150% of the counting base value, and then the payments to producers are based on deviations from normal NDVI, based on that greater index interval they select, if the final grid index for the year for the producer’s interval period is below the insured’s selected trigger grid index, then the insured qualifies for a payment based on the value of the insurance they selected. There’s actually some really good decision making tools on our web site.”
