Lower farm income may not seem like a good thing for farmers right now, but it might make getting a good farm bill a little easier than it was last time, according to American Farm Bureau’s Mary Kay Thatcher who gave members of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau a legislative update at their annual meeting this week. “Certainly farmers …
#CIRB2017 Faces Change, Challenge, Opportunity
The 53rd annual meeting of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau is officially underway with the theme of Change-Challenge-Opportunity and record attendance, according to Executive Vice President Michael Torrey. “I think it reflects the theme,” said Torrey. “Obviously a transition is going on, there’s going to be a lot of new people, and we’re going to have a lot of …
Joining @CIRBdc in Florida for Annual Meeting
Change, challenge and opportunity are the three words chosen by the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) for their annual meeting this year, being held in Bonita Springs, Florida and they seem pretty appropriate given the new political climate in Washington DC. This will be my first time attending this event so I am looking forward to what crop insurance …
Enroll Now for 2017 ARC and PLC Programs
If your farm is covered by the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC), now is the time to visit you local FSA office to sign contracts and enroll for 2017. Starting this month, the enrollment period will continue until August 1, 2017, says FSA Administrator, Val Dolcini. “FSA issued more than $7 billion in payments in October …
USDA Finalizes Crop Insurance Provisions
The Risk Management Agency (RMA) of the USDA says the final safety net provisions from the 2014 Farm Bill are now in place. The new measures help protect farmers and ranchers agains weather disasters, market volatility and other risk factors. Currently the RMA has put interim rules into place to complete provisions for some programs and give them the authority to …
CIRB Graduates Inaugural Emerging Leaders
The Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) is celebrating the graduation of their first ever Emerging Leaders Program. The ceremony was held during the Spring Policy Conference and Fly-In. The class has spent more than year learning the necessary tools to become effective advocates for the next generation of crop insurance leaders. “Today, crop insurance is a centerpiece of the …
CIRB Emerging Leaders Build a Career
AgWired had the chance to talk with James Konstanty, one of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau’s Emerging Leaders program members, at their recent annual meeting. The program, now in it’s pilot year, did a great job giving the participants an understanding of the background of crop insurance, Konstanty tells Chuck Zimmerman. The group traveled to Kansas City and Washington …
CIRB Talks Changes in Crop Insurance
Brandon Willis, an administrator at the USDA’s Risk Management Agency, recently addressed the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau’s annual meeting and talked about the changes crop insurance has undergone. Some of those changes include lower premiums for beginning farmers and ranchers. That group saved $12 million in insurance premiums last year, allowing them to have more coverage than they otherwise …
CIRB Hears from Senate Agriculture Committee
Joel Leftwich of the Senate Agriculture Committee spoke at the recent Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau’s annual meeting. Leftwich imparted two main messages in his talk, the first and most important was his thanks to the many people who work together to grow the food we enjoy in this country. As a small-town boy from Kansas, Leftwich knows first hand …
Eric Swanson, Emerging Leader for CIRB
Eric Swanson is a Crop Underwriting Manager at Country Financial and one of the charter members of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau’s Emerging Leaders Program. The program, currently in its first year, is helping to build the next generation in the field of crop insurance through a better understanding of the way government and the private sector work together …