Interest Deferral
For 2019 only, spring Multiple Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) policies with an August 15th premium billing date had interest deferred until November 30th. On November 14th USDA announced an extension of the interest deferral until January 31, 2020. It is important to note that any premiums that remain unpaid after January 31, 2020, will have interest attach that is calculated back to the original August 15, 2019 premium notice. This interest deferral is only valid for MPCI policies. Please review premium billing notices for due dates on private policies such as crop hail or wind endorsement policies.
Top-Up Payment Insurance Requirement
Producers who received a prevent plant “top-up” payment are required to purchase Federal crop insurance for the next two years. Any producer unable to make their premium payment before March 15, 2020, should contact their crop insurance agent to set up a written payment agreement. Failure to pay the premium will make a producer ineligible to purchase Federal crop insurance and will require them to return their “top-up” payment.
Prevent Plant + 5% Option
The PP+5% option is available for many crops in Missouri and provides an additional 5% increase in prevent plant liability. The basic policy provisions mandate all policies adding this option be reviewed and accepted by the insurance company. Adding this option could be rejected if there is an existing cause of loss that may contribute to a PP claim.
Production Reporting
On-farm storage is common among policyholders but requires careful records to prevent disastrous consequences during an audit. Producers who are feeding grain to livestock should have their bins measured by an adjuster to avoid keeping detailed livestock feeding records. We advise recording the production crop year and units on the settlement sheets or tickets when grain is sold. Also, producers who utilize load records (to divide between units) should store these records with their correlating sold grain receipts. Production reporting forms now require a yield type to be submitted with producer certified production history. A list of yield types is included on the production report and if more than one yield type best represents the production, list the one that is most applicable.
