New Pasture and Hayland Forage Insurance Programs Available in PA

NATIONAL CROP INSURANCE SERVICES

8900 Indian Creek Parkway, Suite 600

Overland Park , KS 66210

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2006

For more information, please contact Jan Eliassen at 410-778-0210

New Pasture and Hayland Forage Insurance Programs Available in PA

November 30 sign-up deadline

OVERLAND PARK, KS…For 2007, USDA is offering Pennsylvania producers in selected counties one of two new pilot Group Risk Protection risk management programs for pasture and/or hayland acreage of established perennial forages. These innovative pilot programs are based on rainfall and vegetation density indexes. The programs were developed to provide livestock and dairy producers the ability to purchase insurance protection for losses of forage produced for grazing and/or hay, due to negative weather variations. November 30 is the deadline to sign up for these new programs.

The Rainfall Index program will be tested in 17 Southwest PA counties. The Vegetation Index program will be tested in 9 Northeastern PA counties: Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming. These products will use established technology systems to assess weather variations that cause losses of forage production across diverse pasture and hay ground environments... county weather data and arieal/sattelite imaging.

So, negative weather (below average precipitation or vegetation density indexes) is determined from long time existing government technological systems that track the data and determine its variations from normal. Producers can insure all or part of their of their pasture and/or hayland acreage, at varying amounts of protection and coverage levels (deductibles) for a few months or the entire year. The amount of loss payment is determined, based on negative weather variation indexes, for each two or 3 month period, depending on which program is in effect. Since negative index variations are determined by existing and time tested government systems, no producer record keeping is required. Premium costs are made more affordable by cost sharing by both USDA and the Commonwealth of PA.

Enrollment in the program must be done with a crop insurance agent. Additional information is available from crop insurance agents, the RMA/USDA Web at: http://www.rma.usda.gov/policies/pasturerangeforage/. Enrollment must be completed with an approved crop insurance agent before the November 30, 2006 deadline.

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