Dr. Joe Outlaw, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (AgriLife) economist and co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, urges farmers and ranchers to “go ahead and sign up” for the new Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) insurance program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA), according to AgriLife Today.
Farmers and ranchers have until Dec. 15 to drop SCO without penalty if they decide they do not want SCO or if they select the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) on their wheat through the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA). If ARC is chosen, farmers will automatically not be qualified to buy or keep SCO.
The lag time until December will allow farmers to make an informed decision about whether to participate in either of the programs for their winter wheat. The Agricultural and Food Policy Center website offers a tool on the Economic Models link to help farmers determine the best scenario. The tool is the ultimate ‘what if’ machine to input various crop conditions and only takes a short time to see all scenarios.
Most major wheat-growing regions in Texas are available for SCO for the 2015 crop year. Visit the coverage map to find if your county is available.
“Unless you tell them you want in, you are not going to get in,” Outlaw said. “But you can always get out of it if you determine it is not what you need.”