Yield Coverage Based on Your Farm’s Production History

Actual Production History (APH) insurance helps protect against yield losses caused by insured natural events. Your production records help establish the approved yield used to determine coverage.

How APH Coverage Works

Your approved yield and selected coverage level establish your production guarantee. A covered production shortfall is valued using the applicable crop insurance price election and your elected price percentage.

Key Benefits and Features

• Yield protection: Covers qualifying production losses rather than market price declines.

• Crop-specific pricing: Generally uses an established price election instead of the futures-based projected price used by YP.

• Production records matter: Accurate acreage and yield records help establish your coverage.

Understanding the Term “APH”

APH also describes the production history used to calculate approved yields for policies such as RP and YP. Having an APH yield does not necessarily mean you have an APH insurance policy.

Review Your Options

Contact our team to review your production history and available coverage for your crops.

Protection When Your Crop Produces Less Than Expected

Yield Protection (YP) helps protect against reduced production caused by insured events such as drought, excessive moisture, hail, and frost.

How YP Works

Your approved yield and selected coverage level establish your production guarantee. If production counted under the policy falls below that guarantee because of an insured cause, a payment may be due.

Covered losses are valued using the policy’s projected price and your elected price percentage.

Key Benefits and Features

• Production protection: Coverage focuses on yield losses.

• Established loss value: The projected insurance price determines how covered production losses are valued.

• No price-decline coverage: Falling crop prices alone do not trigger a YP payment.

Choose Your Coverage

Contact our team to compare YP with revenue coverage and select protection that fits your operation.

The projected price is determined with the Commodity Exchange Price Provisions and is based on daily settlement prices for certain futures contracts. The farmer picks their coverage level, between 55% and 100%.

Coverage for Yield Losses and Declining Crop Prices

Revenue Protection (RP) helps protect your crop revenue when insured production losses, lower crop prices, or a combination of both reduce the value of your crop.

How RP Works

Your revenue guarantee is based on your approved yield, selected coverage level, and the higher of the policy’s projected price or harvest price, subject to policy limits.

A payment may be due when your production counted for insurance purposes, valued at the policy’s harvest price, falls below your revenue guarantee.

Key Benefits and Features

• Yield and price protection: Addresses both production risk and changes in the crop’s insurance price.

• Harvest price protection: Your guarantee can increase when the harvest price exceeds the projected price.

• Coverage based on your operation: Losses are evaluated for your insured units—the acreage grouped together under your policy.

• Insurance price benchmarks: Coverage uses policy prices rather than the cash price you receive from a buyer.

Build Your Revenue Protection Plan

Contact our team to compare coverage levels and unit options for your operation.

Additional Protection Above Your Base Policy

Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) is an optional addition to your crop insurance policy that covers part of your deductible using county-level results.

How SCO Works

For the 2027 crop year, SCO provides coverage from 90% down to the coverage level of your underlying policy. For example, an 80% underlying policy paired with SCO provides a 10-percentage-point band of additional county-based coverage.

SCO follows your underlying coverage: a revenue policy provides county revenue protection, while a yield policy provides county yield protection.

Key Benefits and Features

• Additional coverage: Helps protect a portion of the deductible left by your underlying policy.

• County-based payments: Payments depend on county results. A loss on your farm does not necessarily trigger a payment, and a county loss may trigger a payment even when your farm performs well.

• Premium assistance: The federal government subsidizes 80% of the SCO premium.

• Farm program flexibility: Enrollment in Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) does not prevent you from purchasing SCO.

Explore Your Options

Contact our team to review availability and see how SCO fits with your underlying coverage.

Protection Against Smaller County-Level Losses

Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is an optional addition to your crop insurance policy that provides county-based protection above the coverage available through SCO.

How ECO Works

For the 2027 crop year, ECO covers the band from 95% down to 90% of expected county yield or revenue.

Payments begin when county results fall below 95% of the expected level. The full elected ECO coverage is payable when county results fall to 90% or below.

Key Benefits and Features

• Follows your underlying policy: ECO provides yield protection with a yield policy and revenue protection with a revenue policy.

• Flexible pairing: ECO can be purchased with or without SCO.

• County-based payments: Your farm does not need to have a loss to receive an ECO payment. A loss on your farm alone does not guarantee a payment.

• Premium assistance: The federal government subsidizes 80% of the ECO premium.

When Are Payments Made?

Payments depend on final county data, typically available the summer following harvest.

Review Your Coverage

Contact our team to compare ECO options and receive a personalized quote.

The PRF policy is an area-based insurance plan that covers perennial pasture, rangeland, or forage used to feed livestock. It provides producers a risk management tool to cover the precipitation needed to produce forage for their operation.

Producers must choose at least two, 2-month periods when precipitation is important for forage growth for their operation. These periods are called index intervals. RMA uses NOAA CPC data to calculate normal precipitation and deviations from normal precipitation. RMA uses NOAA precipitation data based on the Optimal Interpolation methodology. Interpolation is based on the idea that things closer together in space are generally more similar than those farther apart and it estimates precipitation for a grid using reporting stations within a search radius around the grid. More information about the technology and how NOAA CPC interpolates weather data to a specific grid can be found on RMA’s PRF web page. Select “Rainfall Index, Pasture, Rangeland, Forage Technology”. It is important to understand that precipitation is interpolated to the grid, not measured within the grid.

When the interpolated precipitation falls below average for the index interval, it triggers a loss payment to all ranchers who have signed up for the program in the grid that are covered under this interval. Producers do not need to submit a loss claim or notify their agents. RMA calculates any loss and your insurance company processes any indemnity due. Losses are calculated based on whether the current year’s precipitation in a grid has deviated from normal compared to the historical normal precipitation in the same grid, for the same period. Losses are not based on a single ranch or a specific weather station in a general area.

Additional Protection When Crop Margins Tighten

Lower crop prices, reduced yields, and rising input costs can put pressure on your farm’s bottom line. Margin Coverage Option (MCO) is an optional addition to your crop insurance policy that helps protect against a decline in the county’s operating margin—the difference between crop revenue and specified input costs.

How MCO Works

MCO compares an expected county margin with the margin calculated using harvest results. Coverage considers county yields, crop prices, and standardized costs for certain inputs, including fuel and fertilizer.

MCO uses county results and published market benchmarks rather than your farm’s actual income and expenses. It provides additional protection against margin losses but does not guarantee your farm’s profit.

Key Benefits and Features

• Additional coverage: For 2027, MCO provides a coverage band from 90% to 95% of expected crop value, with payments triggered by county margin losses.

• Complements your crop insurance: MCO requires an eligible underlying crop insurance policy and can be paired with Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO).

• County-based payments: You may receive an MCO payment even without a loss on your underlying policy. Likewise, a loss on your farm does not necessarily trigger an MCO payment.

• Premium assistance: The federal government subsidizes 80% of the MCO premium.

• Local availability: MCO is available for eligible crops in select counties, including corn and soybeans in Michigan.

When Are Payments Made?

MCO payments depend on final county yields, which are typically available the summer following harvest. Any payment is determined after the required county data becomes available.

Plan Ahead: September 30 Enrollment Deadline

For corn and soybeans, the enrollment deadline is September 30 of the year before the insured crop year. The deadline for 2027 coverage is September 30, 2026.

Find Out Whether MCO Fits Your Farm

Contact our team to review availability, receive a personalized quote, and explore how MCO can fit into your crop insurance plan.