12/12/06 Pilot grazing and hay insurance

American Rancher December 12, 2006 Livestock producers in Oregon and Idaho had the opportunity this fall to sign up and participate in a pilot program to insure against losses of forage used for grazing and haying. It was the first time coverage of this type was available anywhere in the U.S. The sales closing date for that pilot was November 30th so Dave Paul of USDA's Risk Management Agency says the numbers are not yet in on participation levels. Paul: "How sales did? We won't probably know for 30-60 days in terms of the companies plugging all of the policies into the system and determining where we really ended up. We had a lot of interest in these programs both in Oregon and Idaho. We had a lot of meetings. I am as anxious as you are to see really how it did. And it is going to take some time I think for people to understand the new concepts here and build the infrastructure around these programs to really make them work." Paul says a lot of producers in Idaho were forced to take a look at the program because if they received a crop disaster payment from the Farm Service Agency, they were required to purchase the pasture, rangeland and forage coverage. The pilot program provides producers with flexibility. They don't have to insure all their acres. They can elect to insure only those acres that are important to their grazing program or their hay program. Producers don't have to insure for the whole year either, just those intervals of the year that represent the greatest risk. I'm Bob Hoff.