Crop Insurance

08/12/2026

🌽 Protect More Than Your Yield—Protect Your Margin!

Higher input costs, price changes and area-level production losses can quickly reduce your farm’s operating margin. RCIS Margin Protection is an area-based crop insurance plan designed to help protect against unexpected decreases in margin caused by:

✅ Area-level production losses
✅ Price declines or increases
✅ Rising input costs
✅ A combination of these factors

Coverage levels range from 70% to 95% and may be purchased alone or alongside certain Yield Protection or Revenue Protection policies.

📅 Sales closing date for corn, soybeans and spring wheat: September 30

Availability varies by crop, state and county. Let’s review your operation and determine whether Margin Protection deserves a place in your risk-management plan.

📞 Call Suhr & Lichty Insurance Agency at 402-643-2911.

07/24/2026

🚜 Farmers: FSA Acreage Reporting Is Changing

The USDA Farm Service Agency is rolling out a new system called GEAR, which stands for Geospatially Enhanced Acreage Reporting.

GEAR is designed to improve acreage reporting by connecting your crop information to the actual mapped location of each field or portion of a field.

Instead of only reporting how many acres were planted, the system can show:

✅ What crop was planted
✅ Where it was planted
✅ Planting dates
✅ Irrigated or non-irrigated practices
✅ Intended use, such as grain, forage, seed, or grazing
✅ Prevented planting or failed acres
✅ Producer ownership and share information

For farmers, this means your FSA appointment may involve a closer review of field boundaries, crop splits, and mapped acreage.

It is important to remember that GEAR does not replace your crop insurance acreage report. You may still need to report acreage separately to both FSA and your crop insurance agent.

Before signing your acreage report, carefully review:

Field and tract numbers
Crop and practice
Planting dates
Irrigation status
Prevented planting acres
Producer shares
Any changes in rented, purchased, or sold land

Keeping your FSA and crop insurance reports consistent can help prevent delays, corrections, and possible issues with claims or program payments.

The easiest way to describe GEAR is this:

It records not only how many acres you planted, but exactly where those acres are located.

Questions about how acreage reporting may affect your crop insurance? Contact Suhr & Lichty Insurance Agency. We are here to help farmers understand the process and keep their records accurate.

03/17/2026

02/11/2026

https://farmpolicyfacts.org/farmers-are-on-the-brink-congress-must-act/?fbclid=IwRlRTSAP50NxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEemod3TG_DLRs1FnOcLuQQhl3BDjfimaZZuM_P3xRzR8bMtd7ZzmYe_Imgor0_aem_Lre3X6gABIJlNcEzfAt-aQ

America’s farm economy is in a dire situation. Farmers are being squeezed from every direction: production costs are high and rising, commodity prices are low, and existing aid, while very much appreciated and welcomed, is unfortunately falling short. The result? Farms on the edge of bankruptcy, g...

02/04/2026

https://players.brightcove.net/1186100874001/Hk8RdJbex_default/index.html?videoId=6349888768112

02/02/2026

🌽 Understanding Crop Insurance: A Smart Risk-Management Move for This Season 💡

Farming isn’t just a job — it’s a way of life. But let’s be honest, Mother Nature doesn’t always send the weather we ask for, and market prices don’t always go up when we hope. That’s exactly why crop insurance isn’t just another policy — it’s protection for your livelihood and peace of mind. 🌦️💰

👉 Whether you’re planting corn, soybeans, or any other commodity crop, crop insurance helps protect your income from the unpredictable — like weather, price swings, and other factors beyond your control. It’s kind of like how your home or auto insurance protects your family’s assets… but for your farm.

📊 Why It Matters Now (Especially in 2026)

According to a recent AgWeek opinion, tight profit margins and evolving policy options make crop insurance decisions critical this year. Here’s what producers should know:

✅ More policy choices than ever before – from traditional yield and revenue protection to Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) and Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO).
✅ Federal support has expanded, meaning premiums may be more reasonable and options more flexible.
✅ New legislation has boosted subsidy rates, helping make higher levels of coverage more affordable.
✅ Deadlines matter: For crops like corn and soybeans, spring crop insurance typically needs to be in place before planting — usually by mid-March.

🌾 What Crop Insurance Can Do For Your Farm

Here’s the good stuff — what it actually does for you:

🌧️ Protects your revenue if drought, frost, hail, or other losses hit your crop.
📉 Covers revenue drops from market price declines when paired with certain policy types.
📊 Helps stabilize your financial planning year-to-year so you can sleep a little easier at night.
🤝 Works alongside your broader risk management strategy — including loans, hedging tools, and other agricultural planning.

Think of it as leveling the playing field — because farming isn’t always fair, but smart planning can make a huge difference. 📆🌽

👨‍🌾 Quick Tips Before You Decide

✔ Talk to a trusted crop insurance agent — they help you compare apples to apples on coverage and premium costs.
✔ Consider your risk tolerance: do you want basic protection or a more robust safety net?
✔ Check deadlines now, especially if you’re planning for spring planting.
✔ Review your options early so you’re not scrambling when time runs out.

01/14/2026

🚜 Crop Insurance 2026 Update: Bigger subsidies… but a few big questions too.

Starting in 2026, the government is boosting crop insurance premium subsidies to up to 80% for some key add-on options like SCO (Supplemental Coverage Option), ECO (Enhanced Coverage Option), and MCO (Margin Coverage Option). That can make higher coverage more affordable in a tight margin year.

⚠️ But the article also highlights concerns that very high subsidies could create long-term “integrity” issues for the program—especially if it encourages riskier coverage decisions or shifts costs in ways that aren’t sustainable.

✅ What farmers should do right now:

Know your cost of production before picking coverage

Review whether SCO/ECO/MCO fits your operation (not just because it’s “cheaper”)

Keep an eye on deadlines — March 15 is a big one for many spring-planted crops

If you want, I’m happy to walk through options and help you compare scenarios so you’re not guessing. Call and we’ll get it dialed in. 📲

(Article for those who want to nerd out on the details 🤓): Farm Progress — “Government boosts crop insurance subsidies to 80% for key options, sparking integrity concerns.”

12/24/2025

📌 Farmers & Federal Support: What’s Really Happening 🌾

Many farmers across the U.S. have welcomed federal aid packages designed to help with low crop prices and high input costs — but many still say the support falls short of what’s needed to offset real losses.

As federal programs and subsidy packages evolve, understanding how crop insurance and government aid work together is more important than ever for risk management on the farm.

Check out this article — it’s worth a read if you’re navigating crop insurance, farm economics, or subsidy programs this season 👇

👉 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/22/trump-aid-package-us-farmers

Thousands of farms set to go bankrupt as grain farmers in particular hit by trade disruptions caused by price hikes