Crop Insurance, Premium Subsidies, and Soybean-Corn Disparity
Relative to total premium, soybeans and corn receive smaller payments from the US crop insurance program than other large acreage US field crops. A new approach is needed, specifically, new products that reduce the total insurance premium, especially for soybeans and corn. Joint soybean-corn insurance is one such product. It is estimated that joint soybean-corn insurance has the potential to increase net indemnities paid to soybeans and corn by 13% with no increase in Federal premium subsidies.
The House Reconciliation Bill Proposal for SCO: Income Support for High-Risk Farmland
The House Reconciliation Bill includes provisions to modify the Supplemental Coverage Option, a crop insurance product providing county coverage above Revenue Protection and other farm-level products. This article examines what the payments would have been from 2015 to 2023 under the proposed structure and finds that the proposed SCO product would have limited benefits to corn and soybean production in many Midwest states. More benefits, however, would have flowed to riskier production regions.
Additional Thoughts on 2025 Crop Insurance and Farm Program Decisions
The deadline to finalize 2025 crop insurance decisions is now less than a week away (March 17th). The harvest futures contracts for corn (December) and soybeans (November) have moved below…

The farmdoc Crop Insurance section offers iFARM online tools including the Premium Calculator, Payment Evaluator and Price Distribution Tool. These tools are updated annually during the Spring crop insurance election period.