This Halloween has brought a spooky reality of the all too familiar site of crops covered by snowfall. This can be a light dusting to several feet of snow depending on your area. It can also mean disaster for the crop or a shrug of the shoulders and the familiar saying of, “We have been here before”.
This year we have Wheat, Canola, Soybeans, and Corn reported of being under snow cover.
- Is there damage? RMA requires that within 48 hours of noticing damage to report the potential loss to your insurance company, even if you plan on harvesting the crop and may not have loss once harvested. You can always withdraw the loss.
- If there is no damage to the crop and you are just waiting for the right temperature to harvest, it is important to remember the end of insurance periods for each crop:
- Wheat 10/31
- Canola 10/31
- Soybeans 12/10
- Corn 12/10
The end of an insurance period is just that, no coverage exists on your crop after this date. This means that if you have crop standing at the end of an insurance period you must turn in a loss for an appraisal in the field, or the adjuster may give you an extension of coverage in order to finish harvest.
The extension is granted on a case-by-case basis through RMA.
- It is unlikely that any company will settle losses on snow covered crops before the end of an insurance period, unless it is such a case that is determined to be non-harvestable (wheat and canola).
- In summary, if you have standing crop in the field, please call your agent to talk through any scenarios and potential loss situations. The failure to call may result in a legitimate claim being denied for failure to report.
