On August 4, 2026, at Minnesota Farmfest in Redwood Falls, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced two changes from USDA's Risk Management Agency. First, RMA is giving farmers up to 60 additional days to pay crop insurance premiums, administrative fees, and amounts due under written payment agreements with billing dates between July 1 and September 30, 2026. Approved Insurance Providers can waive interest charges during that extended window. Second, RMA is reinstating the 5% prevented planting buy-up option, effective with the August 31, 2026 filing date for the 2027 crop year. The buy-up option had been eliminated last November, a decision that drew pushback from farmers in Arkansas, the Dakotas, and other flood-prone states.
Read more on DTN Progressive Farmer →With roughly 76% of Minnesota sitting in moderate drought or worse and premium bills landing right when pre-harvest cash flow is tightest, 60 extra days, interest-free if your provider plays along, is real room to breathe. The prevented planting buy-up matters looking forward too: after a year like this one, having the option to insure a bigger share of prevented-plant losses is cheap protection against the next wet spring or drought-scarred field.
Call your crop insurance agent this week and ask two things: whether your provider is honoring the interest waiver on your billing date, and whether to elect the 5% prevented planting buy-up before the August 31 filing deadline. If you're already thinking about where litter fits into 2027, the fields that flirted with prevented-plant status this year are exactly the ones that benefit most from an organic matter bump. Cheaper insurance doesn't fix ground that can't handle the next extreme, but it buys you time to. And if cash flow, not eligibility, is what's actually holding back this fall's order, our Fast-Track Financing program may help. It's worth knocking out both applications in one week. Ask your sales rep about financing.