Agricultural News
Communication Between Farmer and Crop Insurance Adjustor Extremely Important
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:53:46 CDT
In the aftermath of last fall and winter's drought and now this spring's late freeze events, it looks like more and more farmers will be falling back on their crop insurance.
Scott Bulling with Superior Crop Insurance will appear on this weekend's "In the Field" segment with Ron Hays on News 9. The show can be seen about 6:40 Saturday morning. Bulling says he's been hearing from farmers all over the state about the condition of their wheat and canola crops.
"We're hearing everything all over the board from complete disaster to producers who don't feel like they have a substantial amount of damage. So, we're completely running the gamut and right now we're all just in a wait-and-see mode."
With the latest freeze event last week, it may be several more days before damages can be assessed with accuracy. Bulling said it is extremely important for farmers who might need to make a claim on their policy to contact their agent or adjustor.
"If they do anything other than harvest that crop for grain on any insured acres, then first they have to contact their agent. And I know the urge will be strong to go ahead and start running the swather to get what value they think they can out of this wheat crop in particular, but do not start up that swather until after they've had an adjustor out there and he and that farmer have discussed their options."
In the case of a wheat crop, Bulling said the adjustor has to find some heads to be able to determine yield value. He said it is possible that a farmer may be directed to go ahead and mow the crop for hay, but he must leave some areas unmowed so that an adjustor can do his job.
"They have got to be able to take those heads, to look at them, do a verifiable count. That's going to take some time. That's going to take a little bit of patience on all our parts so that we can get to the point that we can determine where we're at. In some cases, if a producer wants to go ahead and start mowing that for hay, if that person is convinced that there's more damage than what he can stand to take to harvest, then talk to that adjustor. Let them know and they can be able to leave some representative samples so that producer can go ahead and get started."
The real key, Bulling says, is that there needs to be communication between the farmer and the adjustor. He said there are hefty penalties for farmers who do not communicate with their adjustor before taking action to salvage a crop.
"There are significant penalties if they go out there and start swathing without letting their agent and adjustor know. It's called "destroyed without consent," and that penalty will do two things: One, you'll still be compelled to pay that full premium on those acres and two, the penalty on their yield, on their production history, will stay with them for the next ten years.
"So, it's something you don't want to do. It's a long-term negative effect and that is a pretty severe penalty that producers will have to deal with. I'd strongly recommend, 'Don't start the swather until you turn in a claim, get the adjustor out there and get some type of appraisals made or done or arrangements made to make those appraisals, before they start mowing it for hay.
Bulling said farmers need follow the same plan if they are going to turn cattle out to graze on those damaged acres.
Turning to the future, Bulling said it appears now that the farm bill set to be marked up in May will rely more heavily than ever on crop insurance instead of counter-cyclical and direct payments.
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