Oh, snap. With planting season just around the corner, farmers might be experiencing a bit of “sticker shock” when making their crop insurance decisions this month.
Up, up, and away: According to ag economists, crop insurance prices have experienced the largest increase in more than a decade.
Here’s a breakdown of the USDA-set limits serving as “floor prices”:
- Corn: Up 18%, at $4.58/bushel, the highest price since 2014.
- Soybeans: A 30% spike has prices at $11.87/bushel, not seen since 2013.
- Cotton: A 22% jump has prices set at $0.83/pound, a 22% jump.
And as Successful Farming noted, producers will be incentivized to take supreme advantage of prices and plant “fencepost to fencepost and ditch to ditch.”
Go big or go home: With more export demand [see: China] and less of a stash of crop inventories than originally anticipated, prices are expected to drive higher.
But with higher prices, come higher premiums, and producers have seen a surge in crop insurance quotes as a result.
+ While we’re here: The latest trillion-dollar COVID-19 aid package has the House and Senate at odds. Recent bill tweaks left out help for farmers who suffered crop losses from 2020’s Iowa derecho and California wildfires. The Senate is working to reinstate what was stripped, but Democrat and Republican fisticuffs are expected before a resolution is agreed upon.