For the first time in memory, even the Risk Management Agency concedes that harvest may not finish in time for its Dec. 10 End of Insurance Period, the normal settlement date for most spring planted crops. Late yesterday, it reminded growers affected by adverse weather to alert their agents of harvest delays and ask for additional time to finish, if they expect to miss that December deadline. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis, RMA said.

This might be normal for states like North Dakota, where only 2 percent of the corn crop had been harvested by Nov. 1, but crop insurance agents in Iowa could not remember a similar precedent in their state. In the top 18 corn states, only 25 percent of the crop has been harvested, down from the 5-year average of 71 percent, USDA said this week. Some 51 percent of the soybean crop is finished, down from the normal 87 percent for this time of year. Cotton is also lagging.

RMA insists this announcement isn't a change of policy, and points out that regulations have long allowed crop insurance companies to use this discretion if extreme wet or snowy conditions postponed a normal harvest. As soon as weather clears, however, the insured is expected to attempt harvest so claims can be settled.

What happens if you have corn left standing in the field and the insurance period ends? Adjusters will make an estimate of yield, for crop insurance settlements. "Say your average on those standing fields was 165 bu., No. 2 Yellow Corn. If you didn't harvest it until next spring and lost 35 bu. over the winter, you'd be responsible for that portion," says Roger Schlitter, a crop insurance agent in Mason City, Iowa.

There's precedent for insuring unavoidable harvest delays. Last year, sugar beet growers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota-North Dakota received special consideration. In that case, harvest was cut short when fields were so muddy that beets couldn't be lifted before freezing temperatures hit. That forced Minn-DAK Farmers Cooperative to shut down harvest and delivery of beets for the crop year. Growers' production records were reduced accordingly.

RMA stresses that your crop insurance company may allow additional time to harvest when the following conditions are met:

(a) You give timely notice of loss to the crop insurance agent; and
(b) The crop insurance company determines and documents that the delay in harvest was due to an insured cause of loss, such as excessive rain or snow; and
(c) You demonstrate to the crop insurance company that harvest was not possible due to insured causes; and
(d) The delay in harvest was not due to uninsured causes of loss, nor because you did not have sufficient equipment or manpower to harvest the crop by the appropriate calendar date.

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