Beginning producers can now use crop insurance and livestock insurance premium discounts for longer. Congressional legislation added five years of eligibility to the Beginning Farmer and Rancher (BFR) program. These young and beginning producers have access to additional premium subsidies up to 10 years into their farming business.
Here’s how the discounts are applied:
| Years | Discount |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | 15% |
| 3 | 13% |
| 4 | 11% |
| 5-10 | 10% |
Beginning farmers are facing some of the biggest challenges in the current agricultural economic downturn. They often end up paying higher rents to access farm ground. They’re likely making machinery payments. Any discount on crop insurance can help.
The additional premium subsidies also apply to livestock insurance policies like Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) and Livestock Gross Margin (LGM). Often young producers can get started with livestock operations like cow-calf production and grow from there.
This crop insurance premium subsidy can be stacked onto the others that have increased recently. This could mean high subsidy levels on high coverage options, depending on a producer’s choices.
Before making insurance decisions, it’s a good idea to know your cost of production and in the case of area plans of insurance, understand how your yields compare to county yields. Talk with your insurance officer to determine the best base policy to meet your goals.
It’s important for beginning farmers to fill out the BFR application. Some may have aged out of the previous program. They should now reapply for any remaining years of eligibility. A new application is not required for producers who:
- are currently receiving benefits and have not changed Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs)
- did not cancel their application
- have not accumulated 10 years of interest in a crop or livestock operation and continue to meet the requirements
If a producer is with a different AIP than when they originally received benefits or is transferring this year to a new AIP, they need to provide their original application of complete a new one.
Reach out to your Frontier Farm Credit insurance officer for information on how to apply for BFR benefits and to have them use our exclusive technology to help you make the best insurance decisions for your farm.
