Corn and soybean growers must make two key risk management decisions before March 15, which is the deadline for signing up for crop insurance coverage and choosing between the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) farm bill programs.

With current crop prices at much higher levels than recent years, the likelihood of payments from either ARC or PLC is reduced this year, ac­­cording to Patrick Hatting, Iowa State University Extension farm business management specialist for central Iowa. However, farmers should look at how the farm bill program choice affects their crop insurance decisions, he said.

Buying up coverage

Farmers can supplement their crop insurance yield or revenue...