Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) For Winter Wheat Available In Two Georgia Counties

Aug 28, 2014

Under the new farm bill, the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) is a new crop insurance product that gives farmers additional coverage for a portion of deductibles associated with policies purchased in the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program.

SCO is not available for crops covered under Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC). Starting with the 2015 crop year, SCO will be available in select counties for corn, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, spring barley, spring wheat, and winter wheat.

For the 2015 winter wheat crop, producers in Jefferson and Laurens counties are eligible to purchase SCO policies.

County eligibility for SCO is determined using National Agricultural Statistics Service county yield data. County yield statistics must be available for 20 of the last 30 years. County yield estimates must also be available for eight of the last 10 years with an average of at least 10,000 planted acres over those years. Additionally, at least 50 farms for a particular crop in a county must be documented in the most recent Census of Agriculture for that county to be eligible.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.