Episode 2

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Published on:

25th Feb 2025

Crop Insurance Update for Pulse Crops

Paul Kanning is a farmer in Montana who grows mostly red lentils and yellow peas as well as wheat and canola. He also serves as the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Lewi Crow is a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency that services Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. Lewi and Paul talk about the importance of RMA and crop insurance, but also the process behind developing crop insurance programs for pulse crops. 

“ As an individual farmer, I have to provide them data and the way I do that is by making transactions, right? And so selling pulses in the fall helps establish the harvest price for the fall. That's the only way that they can come up with the data is by farmers putting product out in the stream… That makes the whole wheel turn.” - Paul Kanning


 ”...some of the things that I do with that is reviewing plant dates, basically just kind of pulling apart crop programs and reviewing all aspects of it that goes on with rates and t-yields for individual counties, rotation requirements, various things that farmers tend to encounter when choosing crop insurance.”  - Lewi Crow



This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

  • Meet Paul Kanning, a pulse crop farmer in Montana and the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, and Lewi Crow, a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency 
  • Understand what the RMA provides for producers and the insight they can offer when making production decisions
  • Make a note of these important dates:
  • January 15th is when the harvest price is released 
  • Beginning of March is when projected prices for this 2025 crop year are released
  • March 15th is the sales closing date for most of the spring seeded crops so Lewi recommends reviewing your crop insurance prior to that date 


Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 



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About the Podcast

Growing Pulse Crops
The science and business of farming field peas, chickpeas, and lentils
This show features the latest in research, agronomy, and economics of pulse crops (peas, chickpeas, lentils, etc.).

Demand for these nutrient-dense, high-protein foods continues to grow. There is also interest from farmers to include more pulses into diverse rotations for benefits like nitrogen fixation and soil health.

But the industry continues to face challenges, and we are eager to address these head on. So if you’re a pulse grower or in any way interested in these important crops, hit subscribe and stay tuned for future episodes. We’ll be back with plenty of information about challenges pulse farmers are facing throughout the U.S. and what solutions are working.

Brought to you by the Pulse Crops Working Group with support from the North Central IPM Center and USDA NIFA.

About your host

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Tim Hammerich

I share stories about agriculture, agtech, and agribusiness on podcasts and radio.