Kevin Glanz doesn't believe his crop insurance policy should be put in jeopardy because he's following a cover-cropping practice approved by USDA's Risk Management Agency.
Yet Glanz has already been told his corn crop will face a quality control audit this growing season by Des Moines-based Rain and Hail LLC after Glanz informed his insurance agent that he plans to interseed a cover-crop mix into his standing corn crop this year.
Glanz, who farms just over 600 acres near Manchester, Iowa, got cross with his insurer after Glanz heard that farmers in Minnesota had begun interseeding cover crops into standing corn. The practice allows a cover crop to become established, but then largely go dormant as the corn gets taller and smothers out the sunlight during the summer. As the corn matures and dries in the early fall, the cover-crop stand begins to take off.
The objection by insurance companies is that cover crops inhibit growth of the primary crop.