Are You Covered for Drought?

Protect against the lack of rainfall for annually planted forages used for livestock feed or fodder.

Don’t let drought threaten your land.

Annual Forage Insurance from FBN^®

Annual Forage provides coverage on annually planted acreage used as feed and fodder by livestock. Sign up by July 15 to qualify.

Learn About Annual Forage

What Is Annual Forage?

Annual Forage (AF) allows livestock and hay producers to purchase an insurance policy designed to protect against lack of precipitation on acreage planted annually to forage, graze or use as hay for livestock. AF coverage is currently offered in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Sign up by July 15, 2023 to be eligible to participate.

How Does Annual Forage Coverage Work?

Identify acreage qualified for Annual Forage.

Elect coverage level (70-90%, 5% increments).

Elect productivity factor (60-154-%, 1% increments).

Choose at least two, 2-month intervals per growing season.

Identify a percent of value for each interval (must add up to 100%) within each growing season.

Twelve growing seasons (insurance periods) based on planting dates.

Final grid index values and indemnity payments (if there is a loss) are made after the end of each interval.

Intervals are used to tailor your insurance period to the months during which you most need the rainfall. Within each growing season, you may divide up your insurance into multiple intervals as you see fit with a minimum of 10% and a maximum of between 40-50% as specified for your location.

Close up of a cow in a grass field with a cow in the distance.

Availability & Eligibility

Annual Forage policies are currently available for livestock and forage producers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. To be eligible, acres must be planted annually. You do not have to insure 100% of the planted acres of an “annual forage” crop and the insured is the user of the acreage, either by land ownership or a lease.

Dual Use Option

Annual Forage coverage also offers a Dual Use Option. This allows a small grains producer to insure under Annual Forage for grazing in the winter/early spring and then insure their grain crop with a separate MPCI policy while remaining eligible to maintain both benefits. The Dual Use Option is available in counties where grain/grazing is considered a good farming practice, which includes select counties in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Additional Details

There are six different coverage level options available under Annual Forage. All buy-up policies are charged an RMA administrative fee of $30 per crop / per county in addition to the premium. “Buy-Up” coverage levels are all subsidized more than 50%, but the insured does pay a portion of the risk premium associated with the policy.

The Rainfall Index uses NOAA average rainfall data from 1948 through present day to determine what the “average” rainfall is within a .25° latitude x .25° longitude “grids” throughout certain times of the year. In the middle of the country, the area in a grid equates to about 150,000 acres or a 15x15 mile square. In North Dakota, the grid narrows to about 130,000 acres and in South Texas stretches up to about 196,000 acres.