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Open a topic for a short explanation of what the handbooks say, then ask CropCoach for the full answer and the pages behind it.
Prevented planting
Prevented planting covers acreage you were kept from planting by the final planting date, or within the late planting period, because of a cause of loss your policy insures. The cause has to be general to the surrounding area, keeping other farmers off similar land too: not planting because you lacked equipment or labor, or because of how you chose to farm, doesn't count. You also have to give your insurance company a notice of prevented planting.
Your policy's crop provisions decide the details.
Late planting
Acreage planted after the final planting date can often still be insured during a late planting period, which starts the next day and usually runs 25 days. The coverage on those acres is reduced for each day you planted late, and some crops have no late planting period at all. Acreage first planted after the period ends generally is not insurable unless an insured cause kept you from planting earlier, and late-planted acres are reported separately, with their planting dates.
Your policy's crop provisions decide the details.
Yield history
Your coverage is built on your actual production history (APH): the yields you actually produced in past years. If a disaster year came in below 60 percent of the transitional yield, a standard yield set for your area, you can elect the yield adjustment and have that year counted as 60 percent of the transitional yield instead. Separately, yield exclusion lets you leave out years that RMA (USDA's Risk Management Agency) has marked eligible because the whole county's yield was far below normal; both are elections you make with your insurance company by set dates.
Acreage reporting
Each year you sign and turn in an acreage report listing your share of all the acreage of the insured crop in the county, including any you are not insuring. It is due by the acreage reporting date set for your crop and county, so there is no single deadline for everyone, and it can move later when planting runs into the late planting period. The report sets your coverage and premium, so acres left off or reported wrong can cost you coverage.
Good farming practices
Good farming practices are the production methods that let your crop make normal progress toward maturity and produce at least the yield your coverage is based on: methods agricultural experts in your area generally recognize, or organic experts for organic acreage. Your insurance company decides first whether you followed them, from your records and expert opinion, and not being able to afford a recommended practice is not accepted as a reason to skip it. If it finds you did not, part of a loss can be counted as uninsured, and you or the company can ask RMA for a determination.
Whole-Farm Revenue
Whole-Farm Revenue Protection covers the revenue you expect from what your farm produces, or buys to resell, during the insurance period, under one policy rather than crop by crop. To qualify you generally need farm tax records (a Schedule F, or a substitute) for each of the five years in your whole-farm history; beginning and veteran farmers can qualify with fewer. There is an upper limit on the revenue a farm can insure, and an operation with any controlled-substance production is not eligible.
Rainfall Index
Rainfall Index insurance pays on the rainfall measured for your grid area against its long-term average, not on what your own land produces, and it is not drought insurance. You insure two-month periods called index intervals (January to February, February to March, and so on) and must choose at least two: pick the ones when your forage or crop normally needs rain, because insuring months when rain isn't needed or doesn't usually fall is not an effective use of the plan. Not every interval is offered in every county.
Livestock Risk Protection
Livestock Risk Protection protects against livestock prices falling below a coverage price you choose, for feeder cattle, fed cattle and swine. You buy a Specific Coverage Endorsement for a set number of head, a target weight and an insurance period that should end close to when you plan to sell, at prices and rates that change daily. If the actual ending value at the end of the period is below your coverage price, it pays the difference on the insured head and weight, times your share.
Your coverage is built on your actual production history (APH): the yields you actually produced in past years. If a disaster year came in below 60 percent of the transitional yield, a standard yield set for your area, you can elect the yield adjustment and have that year counted as 60 percent of the transitional yield instead. Separately, yield exclusion lets you leave out years that RMA (USDA's Risk Management Agency) has marked eligible because the whole county's yield was far below normal; both are elections you make with your insurance company by set dates.
Acreage planted after the final planting date can often still be insured during a late planting period, which starts the next day and usually runs 25 days. The coverage on those acres is reduced for each day you planted late, and some crops have no late planting period at all. Acreage first planted after the period ends generally is not insurable unless an insured cause kept you from planting earlier, and late-planted acres are reported separately, with their planting dates.
Your policy's crop provisions decide the details.
Hurricane Insurance Protection - Wind Index is an endorsement on your underlying crop policy that covers part of that policy's deductible. It pays when RMA finds, from NOAA wind data, that your county or a neighboring county had sustained hurricane-force winds; your own yields are not looked at, and you do not file a notice of loss. The payment is the endorsement's hurricane protection amount for your eligible acres, generally once per insurance period, and an optional Tropical Storm add-on can pay part of it for a qualifying tropical storm.
The Margin Coverage Option is an endorsement that adds to an underlying Revenue Protection, Yield Protection or APH policy. Instead of your own farm's results, it looks at an area margin, the expected revenue for the area minus the cost of the inputs typically used there, and pays when the harvest margin falls below your trigger margin. That can come from lower county yields, a lower price for the crop, higher input costs, or a mix of these, and the payment can't exceed your MCO protection amount.
Every answer points at the exact page of the official USDA handbook behind it. So you're never taking our word for it — you can check, or hand it to your agent.
Ask something the handbooks don't cover and we'll tell you plainly. No guessing. Your coverage is too important for a confident-sounding maybe.
No waiting on hold, no digging through a 700-page PDF, no waiting until Monday. Ask at 11pm the night before you have to make a decision.
Getting it wrong decides what you're covered for. So we show you the page.
“I couldn’t plant because the field flooded — what am I covered for?” Plain English. No policy jargon required.
Written the way a person would explain it, not the way a regulation is written.
The official handbook and page it came from, right under the answer. Copy it, save it, take it to your agent.
It's a real answer about the rules — the same federal handbooks your agent works from. It doesn't see your individual policy, so for anything specific to your farm, take the answer to your agent.
No. Ask as many questions as you like.
Every answer shows the handbook page it came from, so you can check it yourself. And when the handbooks don’t cover something, it says so instead of guessing.
No. It's information from the official handbooks, and it's there to help you understand your coverage and ask better questions. Decisions about your policy should go through your agent.
Ask anything about your crop insurance coverage. Free, and you don't need your policy in front of you.
Information from the official USDA crop insurance handbooks. Answers can contain mistakes, so check the cited source. Not insurance advice — talk to your agent about your own policy.