Beginning Farmer/Rancher

OVERVIEW

Beginning Farmer/Rancher (BFR) is a procedure that waives Admin Fees and discounts premium by 10%. To qualify as a Beginning Farmer/Rancher, an individual must not have operated and managed, for more than 5 years actively, a farm or ranch in any state with a bona fide insurable interest in a crop or livestock as an owner/operator, landlord, tenant, or sharecropper.

BFR cannot be added/edited after the SCD for the current policy coverages (not all policies for the grower). BFR status must be approved by the AIP; however, a suspension for review will not be triggered until the coverage has been marked complete and detail lines exist.

Important Info About this Procedure

•

When an individual policyholder and/or all SBIs qualify as a BFR, then Admin Fees are waived and an additional 10% premium discount applies to all coverages (both CAT and buy-up coverages). Admin Fees are waived for all CAT and buy-up coverages with an SCD (or Modified SCD) on or after the BFR Certification Date (application signature) indicated on the Maintain Grower page.

•

An additional 10% premium subsidy is applied to buy-up coverages with an SCD (or Modified SCD) on or after the BFR Certification Date (application signature) indicated on the Maintain Grower page. This only applies to crops that qualify for a premium subsidy.

•

If an individual who qualifies as BFR was previously involved in the decision making or physical activities for a farm/ranch, the production history obtained during this time may be used in their APH.

•

Growers are still eligible for New Producer procedures.

•

If the policyholder is an individual, the person must qualify for BFR and complete a BFR application. If the policyholder is not an individual, all SBIs must qualify for BFR and complete a BFR application.

•

History transferred to a BFR must be identified with the "BF" Yield Descriptor. The yield descriptor only applies to APH years where the acres are greater than zero. For users with the permissions to view and use the Override Entire APH checkbox, marking this checkbox will allow a user to override existing yield descriptors with "BF" that should not be overridden otherwise. However, per BFR procedures, these yield descriptors should not be overridden with "BF": AY, GY, VY, OY, UY, AC, AX, EX, GC, GX, IX, NA, NG, G, PG, DG, and GW. If the user attempts to override these yield descriptors or add the "BF" Yield Descriptor to an APH that does not have the BFR status applied, the System will display a warning.