Pasture, Range, Forage Insurance (PRF)

Jim Ward, Director of Risk Management

This is an option for insuring your brome, alfalfa, prairie grass, or other forage type hay. It is highly subsidized, cost-effective, and has a history of frequent payouts. It works off of satellite-tracked rainfall amounts recorded in two-month intervals (up to 6) over a 17-mile grid. Premiums for grazing run about $2-$4/acre and haying runs around $18-$24 (at 90% coverage and 100% productivity factor). 

For this grazing example, we will calculate the 10 year average (2009-2018) for grid 23836, which has Seneca and Baileyville within its borders. We will split the year into five (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sept/Oct) 17% intervals and 1 (Nov/Dec) 15% interval. The average payment per acre would be $6.59 with an out-of-pocket cost of $4.06 per acre. That means that for every $1 spent you would receive $1.62. Again, this is a 10 year average. Excessive rainfall years like 2019 wouldn’t pay. If you would like to run your own estimates here is the RMA website https://prodwebnlb.rma.usda.gov/apps/prf . 

For more information please call Jim Ward at 785-741-1652. 

The sales closing date for PRF is November 15th.