Farm Bill: Native Sod Guidelines

The Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) native sod guidelines are designed to inform producers about new rules that impact crop insurance benefits when native sod is tilled for annual crops in the upper Midwest. These guidelines apply to all counties in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. As a producer, your benefits are reduced if you till native sod acreage to grow an annual crop during the first 4 crop years you are covered by Federal crop insurance for that acreage. This reduction in benefits applies only to native sod acreage and does not extend to other acreage in your operation.

Native sod acreage is acreage that has never been tilled or that you cannot prove to have been
previously tilled for crop production. These guidelines apply to acreage that is greater than five acres
per crop policy and for annual crops only. To prove that acreage was previously tilled, you must provide documentation to your approved insurance provider.

Acceptable documentation may include, but is not limited to:


• A Farm Service Agency (FSA)-578 document showing the crop that was previously planted on the requested acreage.

• A prior crop year’s FSA-578 document showing that the requested acreage is classified as 
cropland.

• A prior crop year’s Common Land Unit (CLU) Schema (RMA provides this to approved Insurance providers), presented in a map format that contains the farm number, tract number, field number, CLU classification (the cropland classification code is ‘2’), and calculated acres by field.

• Receipts and/or invoices from custom planters or harvesters identifying the fields that were 
planted or harvested.

• A Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Form CPA-026e identifying the acreage with a “No” in the Sodbust column and a “Yes” in the HEL column.

• An NRCS Form CPA-026e identifying the acreage with a “Yes” in the Sodbust column and a 
determination date on or before February 7, 2014; 

   or

• Precision agriculture planting records and/or raw data for previous crop years, provided such records meet the precision farming acreage reporting requirements. Additional guidelines exist depending on which insurance policy you have for your annual crop.



Please see your crop insurance agent for further details as the type of policy you carry will impact the reduction of your subsidized coverage.

This information was taken from the RMA Fact Sheet regarding Native Sod guidelines.

Crop Insurance and Replant Decisions

Recent adverse weather conditions may force some growers who have already planted to replant.

If you believe replanting may in your best interest, check the replant provision in your crop insurance policy and immediately contact your insurance agent to get the paperwork started. [Catastrophic (CAT) and Area (Revenue) protection policy do not have replant provisions.] 

The following guidelines, which come from the USDA Risk Management Agency's Loss Adjustment Standards Handbook, will give you an idea of what to expect from crop insurance for replanting.   To qualify for a replanting payment:

1.     The insured crop must be hit with an insured peril (excess moisture, frost, hail, etc.).

2.     Your approved insurance provider must determine that it is practical to replant. (This is why it's best to contact your insurance agent immediately.)

3.     Acres being replanted must have been initially planted on or after the earliest planting date.  

4.     Appraised expected yield must be below 90% of the guarantee yield on acreage intended for replant.

5.     Acreage replanted must be at least the lesser of 20 acres or 20% of the insured planted acreage for the unit.  

6.     Approved insurance provider must give consent to replant. 

7.     The replanting payment will be equal to the projected price multiplied by a maximum bushel factor.  For 

2014 corn and soybean projected prices are $4.62 and $11.36, respectively. Maximum bushel factors are eight bushels per acre for corn and three bushels per acre for soybeans. 

For example, your insured corn crop was hit with excessive moisture. You planted corn on May 1, which is past the earliest planting date ofApril 10.  Appraised expected yield is now 70 bushels per acre (bpa). Actual production history (APH) is 140 bpa. You insured using a Revenue Protection policy at a 75% coverage level using the projected price of $4.62 per acre.  Your yield guarantee would be 105 bpa (140 APH yield x 75% guarantee).  Applying Rule 4 from above, 90% of your yield guarantee is 94.5 bpa (105 x 0.9).  Your expected yield of 70 bpa is less than 94.5 bpa (90% of guaranteed yield).  Consequently, you would receive a replant payment of $36.96/acre (8 bpa x $4.62, the projected price). 

From the example we can see that qualifying for a replanting payment hinges on the producer's yield guarantee.  Selection of a lower coverage level implies a lower yield guarantee and a smaller chance of qualifying for a replant payment.  However, when extreme events occur it is likely everyone will qualify for a replant payment.  If you are unsure whether you may qualify for a replant payment, your first step is to contact your crop insurance agent.

Cory Walters
UNL Extension Crop Economist

Cumulative Precipitation Forecasts 5 Day Total