Van Gorp Edwards Insurance in Pella held an annual meeting this week to inform farmers about the latest available in protection for their operations.

Kyle Edwards with Van Gorp Edwards Insurance in Pella says the evening serves as a chance to educate farmers before the planting season begins, and this year’s program focused on the recently passed federal Farm Bill.

Steve Johnson with Iowa State University Extension says there is a key relationship between crop insurance, marketing, and the farm bill.

“Crop insurance uses the futures price, and that discovery period is the month of February,” he says. “Looks like we’re going to have a projected price, or what we call the Spring price, somwhere around $4.01 or $4.02 for corn; for soybeans, it looks like that number’s coming in at around $9.55 to $9.57 per bushel, and that not only determines your revenue guarantee, it determines your crop insurance premium.”

The deadline for spring-planted crops to be insured is March 15th, with the futures price determined in early March.