The Penn State Cooperative Extension and the Butler County Farm Service Agency are sponsoring a meeting designed to explain the new Pasture/Hayland Forage Insurance program, as well as the new Milk Revenue Insurance Program to be offered in 2008.

This will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Butler County Farm Service Agency office.

Gene Gantz, crop insurance specialist and educator from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Association in Harrisburg, will be the principal speaker. He will also be available to address any questions producers might have on other commodity crop insurance programs and show how these programs may fit into your risk management planning.

If you grow hay, pasture livestock, operate a dairy or raise commodity crops, the information presented will demonstrate how you can limit the risk of adverse weather, moisture and price on your farm.

Pasture/Hayland Forage Insurance Program

This year, the Risk Management Agency developed and offered two new pilot risk management programs for pasture, rangeland and forage. One of these programs is based on vegetation greenness. The other program is based upon rainfall indices. Both were developed to provide livestock producers swith the ability to purchase, at affordable prices, insurance protection for losses of forage produced for grazing or harvested for hay, due to negative precipitation variations.

The Rainfall Index program was tested in 2007 in 220 counties in the U.S., including 17 Southwestern Pennsylvania counties as far north as Mercer, Venango, Clarion, Jefferson, Lawrence, Butler, Beaver, and Armstrong counties.

These products were designed to allow maximum flexibility for the producer. Producers are not required to insure all acres and may insure only those acres that are important to their grazing program or hay operation and at a level that reflects the value of forage production. No producer recordkeeping is required. Premium costs are made more affordable by cost sharing by both USDA and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Enrollment must be completed with an approved crop insurance agent before the Nov. 30 deadline.

Luke Fritz is executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency.