Crop Insurance

I’ve never had it before, but I’m definitely looking at it this year. Seems like a good time, with two bountiful years in a row making my average yield baseline look pretty good and the drought making the upcoming year look pretty bad. One thing I was pleasantly surprised to find was that you don’t pay the premium until after harvest when, in a bad year, it is just deducted from what they pay you for your shortfall. Seems too good a deal. What’s the catch that I’m missing here?

I’m looking at it too. Deadline to sign up in Jan 31st. Waiting for a quote.

My quote amounted to about the value of half a ton of grapes to insure 8.5 acres at 80% of my last 4 years’ average yield, which, due to the past 2 bumper crops, is right about at my targeted average. I think that anything more than a half ton short of a “normal” year, and I’m better off with the insurance. Seems like pretty cheap peace of mind.

Thanks for sharing. I wanted to know about this, but had not made time to look into it.

I signed up yesterday. Took the 70% coverage. Figure if its near a total loss that it might just about cover most of my cultural costs.

We bumped ours up as well, seemed like it was just that kind of year that made it a no brainer. We were insured for 50% in the past but now 80%.

Update for this year – my premium for the year cost me 0.42 of a normally priced ton (actually, 0.31 of a ton at this year’s inflated spot market prices), and it paid off over 7 tons at what I normally charge. The payout would have been over 8 tons if I had submitted a grape contract in a timely way instead of settling for the District average. Still, insurance totally saved the day in what would otherwise have been a wipeout vintage. Of course, I swallowed the premium last year, and would have in '12 and '13 also, if I had purchased in those years. But it would have paid off in '11 also. On the whole, it’s a good deal, and I can’t see doing without it in the future.