01/17/07 Crop insurance deadlines

Farm producers in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest are facing some deadlines for federally subsidized insurance plans called Adjusted Gross Revenue Pilot and AGR-Lite. Dave Paul of the Risk Management Agency says the AGR is available in select counties but the closing date to sign up for 2007 is January 31st. PAUL "We also have the Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite whole farm insurance plan which is very similar to the Adjusted Gross Revenue Pilot. It has a coverage limitation of a million dollars versus the Adjusted Gross Revenue Pilot which has a six and a half million dollar coverage limit." January 31st is also the closing date for AGR-Lite policy holders who want to change or continue coverage for this year. The final AGR-Lite date for new policies is March 15th. The two AGR programs are growing in popularity in the Northwest thanks to 570 policies offering 242 million dollars in insurance coverage for 2006. PAUL -"Within those 570 plus policies the program covered 95 different commodities and over two thirds of those commodities currently have no single multi-peril crop insurance policies." The final date for spring planted onions in Idaho and Oregon is February 1st. All other spring seeded crop insurance coverage, excluding wheat in counties with fall and spring planted types, is March 15th. Your insurance agent is the one who has more information if you need it. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott