March 15th is the deadline to sign up or make changes to a 2021 Federal Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) policy for many spring crops including corn, soybeans, oats, barley, and other spring crops. There have been some new additions to coverage options for 2021 as well as a few changes made to crop insurance since last year. Talk to your crop insurance agent before the March 15th sign-up deadline to see if any of the changes impact you or would be beneficial to your plan and farming operation.
2021 Multi-Peril Crop Insurance Changes
Quality Loss Option (QL)
Quality Loss Option will allow an insured to replace actual yields based on post-quality production in their historical production databases with actual yields based on pre-quality total production. This only applies when an MPCI policy was in place and a claim was filed timely with the insurance provider. QL can be applied regardless if that claim was a paid loss or not, depending on when the crop’s production was quality adjusted. QL can be added to a policy but no premium is charged unless the QL replacement is used. The QL Option must be added to a Revenue Protection, Yield Protection, APH, or Revenue with Harvest Price Exclusion policy by sales closing.
Crops Quality Loss Option is available on in Wisconsin include:
- Corn
- Soybeans
- Barley
- Oats
- Wheat
- And several others
Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO)
Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) provides area-based coverage similar to Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO). It uses the expected and final area yields, projected and harvest prices, and payment factors as SCO, and is also based on your underlying coverage on your MPCI policy. ECO provides shallow loss coverage for a portion of the expected crop value above the SCO coverage.
ECO Details:
- Area-based policy
- Coverage levels available – 90% or 95%, down to 86% of underlying policy coverages.
- Can be used with a SCO policy or by itself on an underlying MPCI policy
- ARC/PLC participation has no impact on eligibility
- Yields are based on RMA data, not individual producer’s actual yields
- Losses on ECO paid in the summer following the crop year, not when the crop is harvested
- Losses for ECO trigger separately from individual underlying policies
American Farm Bureau Federation shares more details and examples how Enhanced Coverage Option works with an underlying policy and Supplemental Coverage Option.
Contact your local Crop Insurance Agent for a quote or more details on coverage information, Quality Loss Option, and Enhanced Coverage Option information or learn more online.
