Today, USDA announced that producers who wish to insure a grain crop in 2013 will need to pay attention to certain rules applied to the treatment of cover crops for emergency forage this summer. The existing rule stated that if the forage/cover crop will be harvested in the Spring of 2013, then that crop cannot be insured.
In order to help livestock farmers impacted by the drought to produce more forage, the rule has been changed to allow a farmer to harvest a forage/cover crop planted the previous summer/fall/winter, and then insure the following grain crop in the Spring of 2013. This a temporary rule change and pertains to cover crops only. USDA has also changed rules regarding grazing and haying land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
