While harvesting a field of durum last week, North Dakota farmer Mark Birdsall pondered a question that has stirred suspicion within his industry this fall.
Expected durum yields in his state have slid to 25 bushels per acre, down from earlier expectations. And about 200,000 acres of durum will not be harvested this year.
Hail, rain and insects hampered durum yields in the northern American state. But the question is whether an insurance plan known as crop revenue coverage also played a role.
There are rumors that the coverage, meant to protect farmers against poor yields and poor prices, may have prompted some growers to neglect their durum crops with the hopes of collecting insurance.
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If there is some abuse of the insurance plan, Birdsall doubts that it is widespread.
“I don’t know that there was a whole lot of abuse of the system,” he said, while harvesting near Berthold, N.D.
“We just haven’t seen it because the people got the bushels.”
Although yields are down from July predictions of 30 bushels per acre, decent test weights and quality mean most growers won’t qualify for the insurance plan, said Birdsall, president of the United States Durum Growers Association.
An official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s risk management agency said his office has received reports about suspected abuse of the insurance plan.
Reports range from allegations of poorly prepared seedbeds in the spring to suggestions some fields are still standing in hopes weather damage will let farmers collect insurance money.
Judge Barth, a marketing specialist for the North Dakota Wheat Commission, would not rule out the possibility that some durum growers might abuse the plan this year. However, Barth thinks the abuse would be “the exception rather than the norm.”
“Farmers made a conscious effort to do the best job they could with the durum crop,” he said.
The crop revenue coverage plan encouraged more durum acreage in North Dakota this year.
Farmers there planted 3.45 million acres of durum, an increase of 450,000 acres over last year, said Joel Golz of the North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service.
But a harvest that might have once topped 100 million bushels is now expected to come in at about 82 million. That’s down from last year’s harvest of 94.4 million bushels with average yields of 32 bushels per acre.
