Acres Found

Looks like we found some more acres and corn prices have responded accordingly.

http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtnag/common/link.do?symbolicName=/free/news/template1&paneContentId=5&paneParentId=70104&product=/ag/news/topstories&vendorReference=0cf7aea6-4215-4d9a-a056-582066285d77

High Plains Journal

There looks to be a plethora of changes on the horizon within the world of risk management and specifically, crop insurance. Here is an overview of ar article written by Sara Wyatt, president of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.

• Lawmakers have encouraged companies to sell more policies at higher coverage levels. (2000, $36 billion in coverage on 211 million acres. 2008, $90 billion in coverage for 272 million acres.)
• Three things occured as a result of this effort. 1) Companies/Agents agressively pursued more business. 2) More farmers buy more coverage. 3) Revenue-based policies that were not existent 10 years ago are increasingly popular.
• Due to the fact that agents are paid a percentage of the premium and the fact that premiums have a direct relationship with crop prices, the level of comissions paid in recent years has grown exponentially.
• Concerns about comissions paid has largely been eradicated due to lower commodity prices. (Base prices for corn are down 25%, soybeans are down 34% and wheat is down 44%)
• There are concerns that the Obama administration will be revisiting insurance and requiring the federal government to play an even larger role in risk management.
• This issue won't be going away soon and more efficient methods of delivering crop insurance will be evaluated. With the types of rules and regulations already imposed by the federal government, the type of economics involved and the challenge of generating a consensus within insurance providers, the task is daunting.