Announcing New and Improved Crop Insurance Malt Barley Endorsement

Malt Barely growers now have a new and improved option for an endorsement for the small grains crop provisions. One advantage over the old version is that the new one provides for basic, optional and enterprise units. It is a quality endorsement and also integrates a revenue component.
Idaho Barley Commission Administrator Kelly Olson explains another benefit the pricing component — rather than determining projected harvest prices with corn future prices as feed barley is
Olson: “The malt barley endorsement will use Chicago wheat futures. The justification for that and why that is a benefit is malt barley is priced in comparison with wheat. Our malt brewing companies that contract malt barley, know that they have to compete with wheat to get these acres of malt barley grown. So they are insuring it at that value, so there is a more appropriate price relationship in that revenue component. And that is going to provide a significant improvement over past coverage.”
For 2016 winter malt barley crop coverage the closing sales date is Sept. 30th and for the 2016 spring malt barley crop the closing date will be March 15th of next year. Olson continues with an additional positive
Olson: “So it is insuring at the producer’s contract specifications. That is very important. In the past we’ve had a divergence between what the contract said on a particular attribute or feature of the malt barley and what the insurance policy had. We’ve really tried to close all of those gaps. This is what I would describe as the Cadillac of the malt barley insurance coverage. It is more expensive than just insuring the feed barley crop but for many, many producers it is well worth that cost to cover their risks. I’m encouraging every producer to evaluate it for their operation.”