Cover Crops and Crop Insurance; How Does It Work?

Cover Crops have been used for ages to benefit farmers and their fields. However, it is important to note that different cover crop species provide separate benefits.  It’s not uncommon to see a mixture of cover crop types planted depending on the farmer’s goal. Using cover crop species completely unrelated to your goal may provide no real benefit to your operation, so it’s important to investigate which cover crops fit your goals and how they fulfill their purpose before planting them in your field.

Click on each icon to learn more about that benefit, and see some cover crop species that can provide it. Some cover crop species are more generalist, while others tend to have specific use cases they excel in. Remember that just because a cover crop can provide certain benefits, it doesn’t mean it will work perfectly in your operation.

While cover cropping can have immense benefits, it’s not a perfect tactic that works every time for every operation. Careful planning and evaluation of cover crop choice, planting time, and termination time are all major factors that can lead to problematic outcomes if not calculated correctly.

Winter can be a major factor in many cover crop strategies. Did you pick your cover crop to survive the winter, or terminate during it? What happens if the crop doesn’t do what you expected it to do during winter? How do you handle that? If a cover crop is expected to terminate during winter and survives, it could lead to extra costs to terminate, or it might end up reseeding and competing with the coming cash crop, transforming it from a beneficial process into a detrimental weed.

When planning out cover cropping for your operation, you need to start with what your operation needs and how a cover crop can meet that goal. Just sowing a cover crop into your field could be a waste of time and money if it’s not benefiting your operation. Once you know what goal you want to achieve, researching and planning for what cover crop or cover crop mixture best meets your goals comes next. Some cover crops that work wonderfully in Michigan may make for a poor choice in Texas, so knowing your environment and the specifics of different cover crops can play an important role. Do you need a specific cover crop? What does that cover crop do for you? What about a mixture of cover crops? How would that mixture work on your land? How well do those cover crops work when mixed together? Will you be able to terminate the cover crop in a timely fashion? These are all important questions that need answers before diving into cover cropping.

In addition, you need to know and understand the best time to terminate a cover crop to provide the most benefit for the cash crop. Poor termination timing can cause the cover crop to become an obstacle to your cash crop. The USDA has best practice guidelines that they suggest for termination timing and methods, which makes for a fantastic starting place on termination timing.

The USDA and RMA decided that cover cropping can be considered a good farming practice, or GFP. The USDA definition of good farming practice can be found in their GFP Determination Standards Handbook, though we have also written it out for your convenience here. However, just because cover cropping is considered a GFP, it does not necessarily mean every cover crop management strategy is included. It is important to follow the RMA’s cover crop guidelines to make sure your crop remains insured. These guidelines include generalized zonal guidance, materials and techniques from agricultural experts, and termination timeline guidelines. The RMA has a page dedicated to cover crops that contains a lot of resources that can assist, especially as different parts of the country may have differing guidelines for cover cropping.

While the RMA does have cover crop fact sheets available, they generally do not list out approved cover crops. The suggestion is to talk to an agricultural expert to determine which cover crops should work for your area. (RMA Fact Sheet 2019)

If you have a cover cropping strategy that does not fully fit into the RMA guidelines, it is possible to seek an exception to maintain insurability, though the process can be extremely tedious.  This would require getting support from an agricultural expert in writing. Silveus has experience working on Written agreements with the RMA and may be able to assist you in this process. As of this writing, more details can be found in the GFP handbook at the bottom of page 13.

Additionally, some states run programs to encourage cover cropping systems. These programs generally have specific counties selected, and additional rules to follow to stay in the program. For example, Indiana ran a program recently designed to help first-time cover crop users that offered a 5$/acre premium discount on the following year’s crop insurance invoice for every acre of cover crop enrolled and verified in the program. Illinois ran a similar program to encourage cover cropping. If you’re interested in similar programs, keep an eye on your state’s department of agriculture to see if they will be running one of these programs next year.

It is also important to carefully read the requirements if you intend to sign up for one of these cover crop programs. There could be factors that may make it more difficult for your operation. For example, at least for the Illinois and Indiana recent programs, the USDA-RMA made specific agreements with individually approved insurance providers, so you may need to check with your crop insurance agent to make sure your AIP works with the program.

You may have your ducks in a row for your row crop coverage, but if you have any livestock on your farm, do you have them covered? LRP can help cover your livestock from an unexpected decline in the market price. Talk to one of our expert agents who can help you set up LRP in a way that it will fit with your specific risk management plan.