USDA is adding some enhancements to buy-up crop insurance even as the farm bill remains stalled on Capitol Hill.
The Risk Management Agency is increasing the premium subsidy rate for the Enhanced Coverage Option to 65%. The premium subsidy for ECO revenue coverage is currently 44%.
Why it matters: Bolstering area-based insurance products like ECO and the Supplemental Coverage Option should in theory reduce the demand for ad hoc disaster assistance. Producers can cover up to 86% of expected area revenue with SCO, which also has a premium subsidy of 65%. With ECO, they can insure up to 95% of the area revenue or yield.
ECO also is being made available for several specialty crops, including almonds, in 2025, and citrus in 2026.
Keep in mind: The House Ag Committee’s farm bill would boost the SCO premium subsidy to 80% and raise the top coverage level to 90%. Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., also has proposed increasing both the SCO subsidy and coverage level.
USDA: Salmonella plan to have low-cost impact for small producers
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has released a long-anticipated plan to classify certain poultry products as adulterated if salmonella levels are at or above 10 colony-forming units, or CFU.
The framework applies to poultry products at the slaughter and processing level, like raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, ground chicken and ground turkey. Under the agency proposal, any of these products with salmonella levels above 10 CFU would not be able to enter the market, or could be recalled.
Additionally, any detectable level of certain serotypes of public health significance would make the product adulterated.
Consumer protection groups are applauding the proposal as a step toward reducing salmonella-related illnesses. But the National Chicken Council says the proposed rules could increase the cost of chicken for consumers.
In the proposal, FSIS says the regulations won’t have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small processors in the U.S. FSIS estimates the cost for low and very low-volume establishments complying with the proposal is small, at about $1,500 annually on average to meet the proposed final product standards.
Read more about USDA's proposed salmonella framework in our article here.
More time to comment on P&S competition proposal
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is giving the public another 15 days to comment on a proposed new competition rule, pushing the comment deadline from Aug. 27 to Sept. 11.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says that’s not enough additional time. "Cattle markets are immensely complicated and USDA is planning to make sweeping changes to those markets with only 75 days of public input,” NCBA Senior Director of Government Affairs Tanner Beymer says.
She says the extension “is not nearly enough time to properly solicit public comment and review a rule that will have such an overarching impact on the cattle industry. The proposed rule is already a direct attack on producer profitability and now USDA is running down the clock to prevent meaningful input from cattle producers."
At issue: The “Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets” proposed rule would define unfair practices as “conduct that harms market participants and conduct that harms the market.,” AMS says.
Federal update coming on avian flu response
Federal officials are holding the latest in a series of calls with reporters today to discuss the federal government’s efforts to track and control highly pathogenic avian influenza, which continues to spread among dairy herds, poultry flocks and humans.
Colorado, which first reported a case of avian flu in a dairy worker July 3, now has confirmed 10 cases, mostly in poultry workers. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service lists a total of 172 infected herds in 13 states since the first herd was reported in Texas in March.
A substantial portion of Colorado’s dairy industry has been affected—50 herds, the most of any of the 13 states in which infected dairy cattle have been found. Idaho has reported 29 affected dairy herds and Michigan 27, including a new herd identified Monday.
Take note: USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has released results of a study that it said supports the conclusion “that respiratory transmission is not a primary route of infection within farms.” The study will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
Drone makers: Don’t ban Chinese-made flying machines
Six agricultural spray drone distributors have formed a new group to oppose proposals to ban Chinese-manufactured drones in the U.S.
The coalition includes drone spray companies Agri Spray Drones, Bestway Ag Drones, Drone Nerds, HSE-UAV, Pegasus Robotics and Rantizo. Rantizo estimates the groups collectively represent 80% of the U.S. ag spray drone market, according to a press release.
The coalition will back efforts “to create cybersecurity standards and appropriate regulations to protect vital data across all drones, regardless of country of origin.” The release says spray zones "are not used for surveying or mapping like imagery drones, and do not store any data about what product is being applied” and banning them could come with “significant" economic risks.
Democratic senators want “heat dome” definition
Five Senate Democrats are urging the National Weather Service to create a federal definition for “heat domes.” This comes in the wake of events throughout June and July that were driven by hot air masses becoming trapped in the lower atmosphere, causing record high temperatures.
In a letter to National Weather Service Director Ken Graham, Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler of California, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia say heat domes represent “grave human threat” amid rises in heat related deaths that “requires a precise definition that can be universally applied across federal agencies.” Around 2,302 heat-related deaths occurred in 2023, the lawmakers say, citing Department of Health and Human Services data.
"We believe such a definition will be essential in improving interagency responses to extreme heat and will help save lives,” the lawmakers write.
Rebekah Alvey, Philip Brasher and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak
