Silveus Insurance Group has crop insurance analysis software to analyze past years to see what plan and level would have best managed your risk. This is just in time for the closing date for this years spring crops.
"March 15 is the closing date for all spring crops, cotton, corn and soybeans, " said Guy Brockman, a Silveus agent.
Silveus can combine all of your current market positions, forward sold, options positions, etc. with all of the crop insurance plans.
"Price discovery for cotton is Feb 1-29," Brockman said. "They take the average daily close of New York and they average it for the month of Feb and that will be our starting price for insurance purposes which right now is tracking at 96 cents. Last year was $1.23 which will be considerably less than last year but better than what we have had in the past."
The profit matrix will show you the effects of marketing, production, and insurance on your bottom line so you will know what the best options are for your farm and your profits.
"Premiums are going to be roughly 20 to 30 percent cheaper," Brockman said. "Coverage is cheaper but premiums are cheaper as well."
And what exactly are producers doing in terms of coverage this year thus far?
"It depends on what their scenarios are," Brockman said. "Last year we had a lot of zeros and some are raising and some are keeping the same. The majority of people are raising because of the 25 percent less on the coverage but 25 percent less of coverage too."
After a dry year of losses, there won't be any big changes for insurance coverage this year, not yet anyway.
"They didn't change the rules or how they will do paperwork," Brockman said. "They will not change the rules for just one bad year but if we go through it again maybe but not any big changes in 2012."
Adjusters will, however, slightly alter their analysis.
"There is going to be more scrutiny in the irrigations values as far as if there is enough irrigation water," Brockman said. "There is probably going to be some stuff that we will need to find some more details about. We will work with some people on how to handle that situation."
As for the continued debate, dry land or irrigated acres, Brockman said it all depends on how much rain we get in the next couple of months.
"Probably net profit will be better on dry land if things don't change," Brockman said.
Silveus writes for six different major companies including Pro AG , AU and Hudson.
