Ag Policy Blog

Corn and soybean producers in a broader part of the country will have the chance to add Margin Protection plans to protect against declines in their operating margins – for their 2024 crops.

USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) on Thursday announced it would expand Margin Protection plans for farmers in 1,255 counties for soybeans and 1,729 counties for corn production.

Farmers will be able to add this insurance option for their 2024 crops. However, they will have to purchase their Margin Protection by Sept. 30, 2023, to add those policies to next year's crops.

Margin Protection protects against reduced county yields, lower commodity prices, higher input costs or any combinations of problems that reduces operating margins. Margin Protection uses county-level estimates of average revenue and input costs to set the amount of coverage and indemnity payments. Any indemnity is paid out when final county yields are available in the spring the following the fall harvest.

Producers can buy Margin Protection as a stand-alone policy or in conjunction with a Revenue Protection or yield policy.

In the 2022 crop year, there were 1.7 million acres of corn and 1 million acres of soybeans insured under the Margin Protection insurance plan.?Under the expansion, Margin Protection will be offered for soybeans in 34 states and in select counties for corn in the contiguous 48 states.

Margin Protection is also available for spring wheat and rice in select counties.

Again, the key is watching this summer for policy offerings from crop insurance agents and buying Margin Protection by Sept. 30.

Fact Sheet on Margin Protection: https://www.rma.usda.gov/…

Link to more details on coverage areas and maps: https://www.rma.usda.gov/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

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