Agricultural News
Wheat Grower Groups Ask RMA to Add Actual Production History Computation in 2015 Crop Year
Fri, 11 Jul 2014 10:54:23 CDT
It may be a tall order, but wheat growers in the southern Great Plains are asking Risk Management Agency Administrator Brandon Willis "to implement the actual production history (APH) adjustment provisions of the Agricultural Act of 2014 in time for the 2015 crop year. The 2015 Crop year for winter wheat is the one that will start going into the ground by the latter part of August.
The letter comes from the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association, the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Texas Wheat Producers Association and the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers.
The grower groups explain the situation many wheat growers in the four states find themselves in- "Many of the changes contained in the Agricultural Act of 2014 recognized crop insurance as the center of our modern safety net. Unfortunately, many of our growers have been stuck in the worst drought since the dust bowl of the 1930's and have found their crop insurance coverage diminishing at an alarming pace. Back-to-back drought years have reduced producers' APHs to levels that no longer reflect even average production expectations, therefore reducing crop insurance guarantees. Additionally, producers across this region will suffer the effects of this drought for years to come as their APHs are continually punished because a one-in-eighty year drought is included in their 10-year production history."
The letter references the fact that implementing APH would give producers the chance to drop a low production year from their Crop Insurance yield computation, which could vary over three or four different growing seasons in the four states because of the ebb and flow of the drought. "In an analysis using National Agricultural Statistics Service data for Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, we estimate that more than half of the 22 million annually planted wheat acres across these four states would be eligible to drop their 2013 wheat yield due to the severity of the drought. We believe that further analysis would reveal even more eligible years of production due to the ongoing nature of the current drought."
The Wheat Producer Groups told Willis they understand that this is not an easy to do request. "We realize that a change to the APH calculation isn't as simple as flipping a switch. If it is not feasible to implement these provisions nationwide for the 2015 crop year, we ask that they be implemented for growers in states experiencing persistent drought to provide growers the needed benefits of the new provision while not over-burdening your agency."
Click on the PDF link below to read the full letter from the four wheat groups.
08193_2014-07-CropInsurance-RMA-Letter.pdf
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