The number of cropland acres added to an insured’s farming operation within a county impacts the options available to the insured regarding the yield that may be used for the cropland acreage being added to an existing unit or as a separate optional unit. Currently, if an insured has added cropland acreage in a given crop year:

In those instances where the cropland acreage being added is a part of an existing unit, the same cropland acreage limitations apply as in the table above when determining whether the added land qualifies for use of the existing unit’s approved Actual Production History (APH) yield or the applicable variable T-Yield. These cropland acreage limitations apply to both added land and new crop/practice (P)/types (T).

RMA reviewed added land and new crop/P/T requests and identified that the majority of the requests are approved to use the SA T-Yield, the existing unit’s approved APH yield or, if applicable, the North Dakota Personal T-Yield (PTY). These requests require a large amount of processing time and effort for both the Approved Insurance Providers (AIP) and RMA with negligible benefit to the crop insurance program. After further review and discussion between the AIPs and RMA, a streamlined methodology will improve efficiency and service to the insured without sacrificing program integrity.

Beginning with spring crops that have a sales closing date of January 31, 2016, or later, the cropland acreage limitation categories for added land and new crop/P/T are:

• total added land less than 2,000 cropland acres; and
• total added land of 2,000 cropland acres or greater.

Added land and new crop/P/T requests are no longer required to be submitted to RMA for approval.

When added land, or a new crop/P/T is grown on land added to the farming operation in the past five or fewer years, is less than 2,000 cropland acres, and is a separate basic (BU) or optional unit (OU), the higher of the applicable variable T-Yield or SA T-Yield (or where PTY is authorized and elected) is used to establish the approved APH yield for the added land or new crop/P/T APH databases.

The procedure for determining the approved APH yields for added land or new crop/P/T for land added as new units is as follows:

When added land, or a new crop/P/T is grown on land added to the farming operation in the past five or fewer years, is less than 2,000 cropland acres and is part of an existing unit, the existing unit’s approved APH yield may be used for added land or new crop/P/T APH database(s), provided the requirements for added land and new crop/P/T in the 2016 FCIC 18010 Crop Insurance Handbook (CIH) Para. 1775 D(3) and Para. 1788, respectively, are met. The following charts, provide additional instruction when adding land to an existing unit.

This change does not impact use of another person’s acreage and production history and use of variable T-Yield for added land as provided in CIH Para. 1774 C and D.

This change in cropland acreage limitations does not apply retroactively to requests that have already been reviewed and either approved or rejected by RMA, even if the crop/P/T has not been planted on the acreage. However, if a request was not made and rejected (meaning the APH database was established using the applicable variable T-Yield), and the crop/P/T has not yet been planted on the acreage, then the insured may request the variable T-Yield be replaced with the SA T-Yield or PTY, where PTY is authorized and elected.

Disposal Date:
July 1, 2016 or until incorporated into the applicable procedures.