Pasture, Rangeland, & Forage Insurance
Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) is a single peril policy that helps manage risk associated with lack of precipitation. PRF insurance allows you to select from a variety of coverage levels and insurance periods to customize a plan that fits your operation.
Deadline to Sign Up: December 1st
Key Features of PRF
• Flexible coverage options
• Insures grazing and haying ground
• No minimum acreage
• No upfront premiums
• Offsets out of pocket costs caused by forage loss
What is PRF Insurance?
PRF insurance is a precipitation-based policy that covers pasture, rangeland, or forage ground for perennial haying and grazing purposes. This product was designed to protect a producer’s operation from the risks of forage loss caused by a lack of precipitation. PRF is an area-based policy that uses the USDA grid system. Each grid is approximately 12 miles by 17 miles and uses weather data from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center to determine rainfall indexes for coverage.
Eligibility and Coverage Options
PRF insurance is available to all producers with an insurable interest. Producers are not required to insure all their acres, instead you can choose the acres most important to your operation. To qualify, you must select at least two 2-month intervals per year that do not overlap. Once the intervals are determined, a coverage level is then selected in 5% increments between 70-90%. Plans are further customized by choosing productivity factors ranging from 60-150%.
Software Support
There are several choices that need to be made when insuring haying and grazing ground, including coverage level, index intervals, irrigation practice, productivity factors, and the number of acres to insure. WSR’s exclusive software helps take the guesswork out of your decision by allowing you to review Grid ID locations, historical indices for your area and assign your desired acreage to one or more grids based on the location and use of the land to be insured.
Receiving Your Claim
Payments are determined by using NOAA data for the grid(s) and index intervals chosen to insure. At the end of the insurance period, the FCIC will issue a final grid index for each insured grid. A trigger index is reached when the final grid index is less than the result of multiplying the expected grid index by your selected coverage level. You will receive an indemnity payment only when the final grid index is less than the trigger grid index.
Indemnity payments are not based off product losses, individual experiences, or a single weather station.
The WSR Difference
WSR has been in business for over 100 years and from the beginning we have been committed to providing world class service. Our agents come from agricultural backgrounds and truly understand the unexpected risks that come with farming and ranching. We believe in building relationships and networking with our customers to help determine if we can provide risk management products that are beneficial to their operation. With over 10 years of experience handling PRF indemnities, audits, and disputes, our agents and staff have the little stuff covered so that you can focus what matters most.
WSR’s knowledge and service is exceptional. These have been very valuable tools for our operation in these new times, to help mitigate risk. Highly recommend to anyone.
Donald Doverspike, Hotchkiss Company
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers come from Risk Management Agency (RMA) of Unites States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
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.
The Rainfall Index uses NOAA CPC Daily Precipitation Data that interpolates precipitation to the grid. RMA compares the compiled data for each 2-month interval with the historical precipitation data for the same period that is normally expected in the grid.
A grid is the physical area under which your operation is insured. You are paid based on the losses interpolated to the grid for the Rainfall Index, which is why it is important that you choose the right grid(s) in which your operation is located. Each grid covers an equal area to .25 degree in latitude by .25 degree in longitude. The grids do not follow state, county or other geopolitical boundaries.
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 calculated 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.
No, PRF is not “drought insurance” and does not insure against abnormally “high temperatures” or “windy conditions.” While a drought may cause a decline in the index value to the point that an indemnity payment is issued to eligible insured producers, a drought being declared in a state, county or area does not, by itself, trigger an indemnity payment under the PRF.
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