March 5 All Day Ag Outlook & Crop Insurance Decisions

TODD GLEASON

URBANA, ILLINOIS

The annual All Day Ag Outlook is scheduled for Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at the Beef House in Covington, Indiana. Registration cost is $40 per person including the morning Beef House cinnamon roll, coffee, and lunch. This year’s lineup includes presentations from Nutrien Ag Solutions Eric Snodgrass on the coming U.S. growing season and a first-hand look at SAF or Sustainable Aviation Fuel with the director of the University of Illinois Center for Sustainable Aviation Phil Ansell. The farmdoc Team will take up the crop insurance and commodity safety net decisions.

This week the University of Illinois farmdoc team took a first look at the crop insurance decisions farmers and landowners will make next month. In the article Nick Paulson, Gary Schnitkey, Ryan Batts, and Carl Zulauf work through an early set of crop insurance decisions. Farmers will need to make those decisions by March 15 and won’t have final data from which to make the calculations until the end of February.

In summary, the article notes lower corn and soybean prices seem very likely to result in lower farmer-paid premium costs for crop insurance policies this season compared to last. The lower premium costs will provide some economic relief given the lower projected returns from corn and soybeans. This is because lower prices and premiums also mean less coverage regarding the revenue guarantees per acre.

The farmdoc team notes some farmers might consider reallocating the relative premium savings in 2024, compared to last year, to increase total coverage via higher coverage levels on individual plans and/or to purchase the supplemental coverage options offered by SCO and ECO. Recall SCO, specifically, will need to be incorporated into producers’ commodity program decisions since its eligibility is limited to only those acres enrolled in the Price Loss Coverage or PLC program. ARC-County does not allow for the use of SCO.

Updated versions of the farmdoc crop insurance tools are now available to begin analyzing different crop insurance scenarios, and estimates of the resulting premium cost, for 2024. Look for the web-based tool or Excel spreadsheet under the “Tools” subheading on the farmdoc website at farmdoc.illinois.edu/crop-insurance.

You may hear directly from the farmdoc team about crop insurance decisions during the All Day Ag Outlook. Register today using the links in this email.

All Day Ag Outlook
Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Beef House Restaraunt
16501 North State Road 63
Covington, IN 47932

Doors Open at 7:30am central, 8:30am eastern
Coffee and Beef House Cinnamon Rolls
wrap by 3:00pm central, 4:00pm eastern

A G E N D A

Morning Session
– Growing Regions Weather with Eric Snodgrass, Nutrien Ag Solutions
– WILLAg Soybean Panel with Aaron Curtis, Chip Nellinger, Merrill Crowley, Ellen Dearden, Danny Pfoff
– The Center for Sustainable Aviation with Phil Ansell – U of IL
– EPA and ESA: what to expect in 2024 and beyond with Aaron Hager, U of IL

A BEEF HOUSE LUNCH

Afternoon Session
– farmdoc | Budgets & Outlook with Joe Janzen – U of IL
– farmdoc | Crop Insurance & Safety Net Decisions with Nick Paulson
– WILLAg Corn Panel with Curt Kimmel, Wayne Nelson, Mike Zuzolo, Greg Johnson
– farmdoc | The Price of Farmland with Bruce Sherrick – U of IL ∆