ECO dollar per acre coverage will be determined by your individual APH. You can elect 95% coverage, which gives you a 9% coverage band. Or you could elect 90% coverage which gives you a 4% coverage band. Let's take a look at how the ECO dollars per acre coverage is calculated. In this example, a [...]

Starting in 2021, a Beginning Farmer & Rancher (BFR) can use a Previous Producer's yield history. There are a few requirements to meet: The BFR must have been involved in the decision making of a farming operation. The BFR must have actively participated in the crops being planted. The Previous Producer must give consent for [...]

Written by: Kyle Meyer, CPA This newsletter is meant to give you a brief overview of how insurance proceeds are treated in the tax law and give you some strategies to avoid unnecessary taxes. Crop Insurance Proceeds from crop insurance, as a result of crop damage or revenue protection, are considered taxable income. These are [...]

2020 Harvest Price Corn $3.99 Soybeans $10.55   Both corn and soybean harvest prices are higher than the Projected Price that was set last February.   2020 Projected Price  Corn $3.88 Soybeans $9.17   Most farmers carry Revenue Protection and are guaranteed the higher of the Projected Price (spring price) or Harvest Price. 2020 claims [...]

Here is the 2020 Rainfall by county in Iowa comparison. Rain makes grain...variable yields and rainfall have been the hot topics as farmers harvest. Which fields got timely rain? How did that impact yields? Here is a chart that shows rainfall by location in June, July, and August. *Compared to 30 year average is from [...]

Phillips Stafford Insurance Group is excited to announce that Luke Peterson has accepted an offer to join our growing team! Luke was born and raised in Eagle Grove, IA. Prior to his work in the insurance industry, Luke worked in the retail business for 15 years. In 2018 he started his insurance career with Farm [...]

Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) was released by RMA as a new crop insurance product for the 2021 season. What is ECO? ECO is an area-based crop insurance product that allows you to cover from 86% up to 90% or 95% of the county's expected crop value. How does ECO fit into my crop insurance plan? [...]

CFAP 2 payments are now available through December 11. Complete an application Here is the link to the application page - https://www.farmers.gov/cfap/apply I have applications in my office that can be completed and returned the FSA office. I can provide your total reported acres for 2020 and your 2020 APH.  Payments Corn payments: 2020 Reported [...]

The Derecho Storm on 8/10/2020 caused widespread damage and left farmers with decisions to make on damaged crops. Let's talk about federal crop insurance. The first question is... can the crop be mechanically harvested? If normal harvesting methods and equipment can be used to harvest the crop, the crop would be considered harvestable. Normal harvesting [...]

Margin Protection is an attractive option to combine with your Revenue Protection policy. Most of you carry 80% or 85% Revenue Protection as your federal crop insurance. You could enhance or strengthen your coverage by combining the two. Here are a few reasons why.   Diversify your risk management strategy Margin Protection's Project Price discovery [...]