The USDA Risk Management Agency office in St. Paul, Minn., is reminding agricultural producers of the option to request an Unrated Practice or Type (TP) written agreement through their insurance company to insure broadcast seeded crops, when the policy prohibits the practice or is unavailable for the crop in the county.

The broadcast practice may be suitable when producers are delayed from planting in a timely fashion because of cold, wet weather during the planting period.

“We have received many questions this spring from insurance companies asking on behalf of their insured producers about broadcast seeding due to the poor planting conditions, especially in northwestern Minnesota,” said Pamela Stahlke, USDA’s RMA St. Paul Regional Office director. “We’re continuing to monitor the progress of the delayed planting and replants due to cold temperatures, overland flooding and heavy storms throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Iowa during this spring planting season. If you’re looking at nonconventional planting options, please contact your crop insurance agent.”

If the requirements of a written agreement request are met, broadcast seeding may be made insurable under the nonconventional practice, which is a crop that is planted in a two-step operation:

Nonconventional planted soybeans are currently insurable without a written agreement in 21 southwestern Minnesota counties and 31 northwestern Iowa counties.

The deadline to request a TP written agreement for crops with a March 15 sales closing date is July 15. However, if a written agreement is requested after the crop is planted, a favorable crop inspection appraisal will be required before insurance applies.

Learn more about prevented planting and replanting. For assistance with a crop insurance claim, producers should contact their crop insurance agent. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator. If producers have additional questions, they can contact RMA’s Regional Office in St. Paul at 651-290-3304.

Source: USDA Risk Management Agency Regional Office in St. Paul, Minn., which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all of its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.