What's New for 2021

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Provides area-based coverage for a portion of the deductible of your underlying policy, similar to the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), but at a higher coverage level. ECO is an optional endorsement to supplement your underlying policy. 

• Subsidized at 44%. 
• Choose a coverage band option:
  • 86% to 95% (9% coverage band)
  • 86% to 90% (4% coverage band) 
• Percentage of Coverage from 50% - 100%, in 1% increments. 
• Uses same SCO figures for expected and final area yields, projected and harvest prices, and payment factors. 
• ARC or PLC participation has no impact on eligibility.

Allows insureds to replace actual yields based on post-quality production in their APH databases with actual yields based on pre-quality total production. Replacement only applies when a Notice of Loss was timely filed and the crop had quality-adjusted production. Must be elected by Sales Closing Date.

• Crops including grasses, legumes and forbs for seasonal cover and other conservation purposes. 
• Over-seeding and inter-seeding is a management practice of planting one or more cover crop species into an existing or established crop. 
• According to the Guidelines, seeding a cover crop into an existing crop (e.g., corn or soybeans) at a time that will not impact the yield or harvest of the insured crop. 
• Over-seeding/inter-seeding a cover crop into an already insured grain crop does not affect its insurability. 
• Insurance attached to the main crop at the time of planting. However, any damage to the insured crop caused by planting of the cover crop would not be covered and uninsured cause of loss appraisals would be applied to the insured crop when determining any indemnity payment. 
• You should take care not to harm the insured crop when over-seeding/inter-seeding a cover crop by doing so at an appropriate time and in an appropriate manner that will not impact the yield or harvest of the insured crop. 
• If the main crop and cover crop are planted in a manner that does not allow separate agronomic maintenance and harvest of the insured crop, then it is considered inter-planted and not insurable. 
  • If it doesn’t meet this definition, then it may be over-seeded/inter-seeded and is insurable. 
• Rye flown on corn or soybeans as a cover crop. Rye does not interfere with growth/development of the corn/beans and is insurable. 
• Corn planted on acreage following a crop that has been prevented from being planted will not be considered a cover crop.

An option that allows a single EU to span two contiguous counties but cannot cross state lines. One county must qualify for EU on its own, while the second county must NOT qualify for EU on its own. To qualify for EU, you must meet the 20/20 rule. Two or more sections of land where both sections have either 20 acres or more; or 20% of the practice’s acres in each section.Coverage elections must be identical on MCEU policies. 

Allows for an Enterprise Unit (EU) for one practice and Optional Unit (OU) or Basic Unit (BU) for the other practice OR EU for both practices.

WHEN IT DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR EP:

• DISCOVERED: On or before Acreage Reporting Date
  • Elected Two EU's:  One EU*; or BU or OU*
  • Elected One EU and One BU/OU:  BU or OU*
• DISCOVERED: After Acreage Reporting Date
  • Elected Two EU's:  One EU*; or BU 
  • Elected One EU and One BU/OU:  BU

If defaulting to BU/OU, it would be applied to BOTH practices.

*If it would qualify

YOU MUST NOTIFY US PRIOR TO REPLANTING!! 

Now requires you to replant THROUGH the 10th day after FPD (Final Plant Date)

• Corn – Final Plant Date which is May 25th for most. *must replant through June 4th
              Late Planting Period is 20 days for corn.
• Soybeans – Final Plant Date which is June 10th. *must replant through June 20th
                       Late Planting Period is 25 days for soybeans

+ 5% is now the only prevented planting option;

• Corn has a 55% prevented planting coverage factor;
• Soybeans, grain sorghum and wheat remain at 60%
• PP can only be claimed with an insurable cause of loss.
• The Maximum number of acres that can be declared as PP cannot exceed the number of acres certified/reported to that crop within the last 4 years. There is a factor for added land.
• 20/20 Guidelines must be met. 20 Acres or 20% of the unit’s total acres.
• Must report their intent to not plant to their agent within 72 hours of making that decision.
• Must timely certify those acres as prevented planting with the FSA.
• Added to clarify prevented planting coverage will not be provided if the act of haying or grazing a cover crop contributed to the acreage being prevented from planting or the cover crop was otherwise harvested prior to the end of the late planting period.

• No indemnity is paid for these losses
• A claim must be turned in for the company to declare the acres as UUF
• Once approved, the damaged acres and production will not be included in the APH database
• MUST keep UUF production and undamaged acres production separate

NEW BREAKING is defined by RMA as:

• Acreage that has not been planted & harvested or insured in at least one of the three previous crop years. This includes insured acreage that was prevented from being planted.
• Acreage where the only crop planted & harvested in one of the three previous crop years was a cover crop, hay or forage.

       NEW BREAKING REMINDERS: 

• Initial guarantee is 80% of the County T-yield
• Acres & Production will be reported to a separate unit for the first year it is broken out.

NATIVE SOD is defined by RMA as:

• Acreage that has no record of being tilled for the production of an annual crop on or before February 7, 2014, and on which the plant cover is composed principally of native grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, or shrubs suitable for grazing or browsing.
• When more than five acres are tilled in the county, cumulatively across crop years!
• 5 acres or less planted on native sod: Program indicator code de minimus: DM
• Once producer plants more than 5 acres of native sod in a county across crop years:NS
  When does the 'accumulation' of acres begin?
  • RMA cannot cumulate native sod acreage considered de minimis prior to 2017

       NATIVE SOD REMINDERS: 

• Reduced benefits – during the first 4 crop years of planting:
  • Producer’s guarantee is established at 65% of the T-Yield
  • No yield substitution is allowed
  • Producer’s premium subsidy is reduced by 50 percentage points
  • Acres & Production will be reported to a separate unit for the first four years it is broken out.

• Simple Average T-yield uses Adjusted Yield (YA only) NOT Approved Yield (YA, TA, YE)
  • If the acreage being added is less than 2,000 acres: 
    • APH will be established using the higher of the following:  (1) County T-Yield or (2) SA T-Yield
  • If the acreage being added is greater than or equal to 2,000 acres:  
    • APH will be established using the County T-Yield
• Land coming out of a USDA program (CRP, etc.) will be reported to a separate database guaranteed at 100% of the county T-yield for the first year it is out of CRP. After the first year, if there is other cropland within the section, the unit will be combined.

• Must report uninsurable acres and production

5% Tolerance Calculation on actual yields. 

*If Yield Tolerance Not Met – if any actual yield is found to be overstated by > 5%, then not eligible for the exception for that crop year and Assigned Yield procedures apply. This will impact ALL databases with acres that year, not just the database that exceeded the limit. Loss of all optional units across all databases of that crop.

*Not Subject to Tolerance – If insured can prove that at the time of the production report they did report according to acceptable records, but at the time of the review more accurate records were used, then they won’t be subject to yield tolerance rules. Example – production originally reported from bin measurement, but settlement sheet was used at time of the review.