08/24/06 "Combo" insurance proposal II

Farm and Ranch August 24, 2006 Public comment is being accepted until September 12th by USDA's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation on a proposal that would combine revenue coverage insurance programs with traditional multi-peril production policies. Dave Paul of USDA's regional Risk Management Agency office says this "Combo" proposal is a very significant change. Paul: "Producers instead of having to review five or six policies will only have to review one and agents won't have to know all these different type of insurance plans. Within that proposal the producer is going to be afforded all the options that were previously available to them but have them all in one plan versus five or six different plans." Paul says it is hard to say how the proposed change will impact premiums but he says producers will have more flexibility. For example, all grain growers would have the choice of opting out of harvest price protection. Paul: "You know we announced that $4.13 price last year. Not a lot of people probably felt that price was going to go up during the insurance year and probably would have elected the harvest price exclusion option and saved a few bucks on their insurance this past year." Paul says producers will also be able to affect premiums through the use of different insurable units, from whole farm to enterprise units to basic units. If the "Combo" proposal is approved and adopted it would probably first apply to the 2009 crop year. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.