08/21/07 Risk Protection for Lamb

Risk Protection for Lamb. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. In amidst the wheat, apples, cattle and other major commodities grown in the Pacific Northwest is a relatively small but substantial group of producers working to raise lamb. Now according to the Risk Management Agency, lamb producers in Idaho and Oregon have a new tool, the Livestock Risk Protection Lamb. Dave Paul, Director of the RMA's Spokane Regional Office says this helps protect the producers. PAUL: The LRP Lamb insurance protects lamb producers against a decline in prices below an established coverage price. A producer would fill out an application for LRP Lamb insurance; however they wouldn't initiate coverage until they complete a specific coverage endorsement for a specific group of lambs to be slaughtered on or near the end date of the specific coverage endorsement. According to Paul producers have a choice of coverage periods. PAUL: Producers could choose between three different endorsement periods; 13 weeks, 26 weeks or 39 weeks to best suit their own production and feeding systems. Essentially lamb producers could select coverage prices ranging from 80 to 95% of an expected ending value and at the end of the insurance period if the actual ending value is below the coverage price then a loss would be paid for the difference between the coverage price and the actual ending value. Even though lamb production isn't very high, Paul says there has been quite a bit of interest from the producers in the region. PAUL: Idaho and Oregon, the reason they were included in the pilot program is their numbers were relatively high in terms of the overall lamb market. Total all sheep and lambs in California for example bought 650-thousand, Idaho 260-thousand, Montana 295-thousand, Oregon 220-thousand, Washington about 50-thousand. Particularly in Idaho and Oregon there's has been a lot of interest in this program in general and have been patiently waiting for us to announce this program and put it out there. Paul says the sign up period begins next month. PAUL: The sales period begins September 17 and run though June 30th of the following year so it's kind of a continuous coverage program. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.