Agricultural producers now will have until December 1 to make coverage decisions and complete reporting activities for the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage Pilot Insurance Program (PRF). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) is making this change and other updates to this policy based on feedback from stakeholders. “We want to offer flexibility to our nation’s producers, which is why we are always listening to our customers and looking at ways to improve the process and products we provide to them,” said RMA Acting Administrator Richard Flournoy. “The date changes will provide additional time to help producers who are busy preparing their operations for the winter.”PRF is a Rainfall Index crop insurance policy designed to aid agricultural producers in case of a lack of precipitation that affects available forage for livestock. The plan considers a decline in rainfall by comparing it with the historical average precipitation for the same area during the same period of time. PRF is designed to help protect a producer’s livestock operation from the risks of forage loss.  In 2020, producers insured almost 160 million acres and nearly 32,000 policies to protect $2.9 billion in liabilities.

RMA is revising the dates for the sales closing, acreage reporting, cancellation, and termination of the PRF  insurance program from November 15 to December 1. For PRF, RMA is also increasing reporting flexibility by allowing the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) acreage report (form FSA-578) to be used in conjunction with other documents to verify insurable interest.

Other changes to the plans include: Revising the definition of “veteran farmer or rancher” to allow a legal entity, comprised only of the veteran and their spouse, to qualify as a veteran farmer or rancher when a qualifying veteran has a non-veteran spouse; and Allowing a producer to report acreage as certified organic, or as acreage in transition to organic, when the producer has requested an organic certification by the acreage reporting date. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator. Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net here.