Texas livestock producers now have a new, first-of-its-kind insurance option.

Weaned Calf Risk Protection is a new policy offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA).

It offers Actual Production History (APH) coverage for beef cow-calf producers to insure revenue from their spring calving operations. Weaned Calf Risk Protection will be available for the 2024 crop year.

“There are many variables and pressures involved in running a cow-calf operation, making it even more important that ranchers have a variety of insurance options available similar to the wide range of options available to crop growers,” RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger said. “The introduction of Weaned Calf Risk Protection reflects our priority to always pay attention to the evolving needs of producers and create options that can meet their unique situation.”

APH policies insure producers against yield losses due to natural causes such as drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, frost, insects and disease. In the case of the new Weaned Calf Risk Protection, coverage is provided for a decline in price and loss of yield due to a decrease of overall weaning weight like revenue coverage offered for other crops.

The program will be available in Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Texas, beginning with the Jan. 31, 2024, sales closing date for the 2024 crop year. Coverage levels between 50% and 85% will be available, along with catastrophic coverage.

This new insurance program adds to the suite of livestock insurance available to livestock producers such as Livestock Gross Margin (LGM), Livestock Risk Protection (LRP), Pasture, Rangeland, Forage (PRF), Annual Forage (AF) and Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP).

More information
Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents.

A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator.

Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov or by contacting your RMA Regional Office.