Crop Insurance Election Changes

Crop insurance typically provides coverage based on county yields and revenue, rather than the farm level, but producers can add supplemental products, including a new option called the Margin Coverage Option. Doug Yoder, agency manager with Country Financial, explains why this additional protection matters.

“And in new for 2026 is Margin Coverage Option MCO. So that is brand new. And so here's here. It's a little different than than what farmers are used to for the 2026 selling season for corn and soybeans, farmers will obviously make their crop insurance decision for corn and soybeans next, Jan, Feb, March. With that March 15 deadline. The deadline to take up MCO insurance is September 30.”

Yoder explains how it works.

“Farmers can select either 90 or 95% coverage level, and then it would cover the band from, let's say they choose 95 it would cover a band provide coverage from a band of 95% down to 86% so this would largely mirror eco. So farmers would have to choose if they want ECO or MCO. They can't have both. This year, they could have SCO and MCO, but they are not allowed to do both eco and MCO.”

For reference, ECO stands for enhanced coverage option, and SCO stands for supplemental coverage option.