Texas Cotton Farmers Say Farm Bill Provision Saves Crop Insurance

Texas cotton producers say they are pleased to learn the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reconsidered its decision about implementing a provision of the farm bill.

The department’s announcement means its Risk Management Agency will calculate production yields for all commodities by county in time for the 2015 crop year.

Previously, the USDA said the agency couldn’t do the calculations until 2016. That delay was expected to reduce the amount of crop insurance available for purchase by cotton growers because they wouldn’t have been able to exclude years of eroded production caused by the last decade of drought. Farm lenders use such production stats in determining loans.

Unlike other commodity producers who have other layers of financial protection, cotton farmers were expected to be hardest hit by the delay.