Farm Scene – Sunflower insurance program up in the air

The Agriculture Department?s Risk Management Agency last year proposed doing away with ?revenue assurance? coverage for sunflowers starting in 2009, as part of an effort to simplify the overall crop insurance program. A public comment period ended last fall, but a final decision has not yet been made.

Traditional crop insurance protects against production problems. Revenue assurance policies differ in that they protect farmers from both low yields and low prices. The policies have been available since 2000 in North Dakota ? the top sunflower-producing state ? and since 2004 in South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado, Minnesota and Montana.

Only about 12 percent of crop insurance policies sold nationwide for sunflowers since 2004 have been revenue assurance, according to RMA data.

The RMA and the National Sunflower Association agree the program has not reflected what the crop is actually worth.

The RMA wants to eliminate what it says is a dysfunctional program. But the sunflower group believes the formula used to calculate the base price can be improved, and has proposed two changes, said John Sandbakken, the association?s international marketing director.

?We want to give people a choice, rather than be stuck with just one option,? he said.

Brent Doane, an RMA spokesman in Washington, D.C., said he was limited in discussing details, but that the ?RMA is working hard to assess alternative methods.?

On the Net:

Risk Management Agency: http://www.rma.usda.gov

National Sunflower Association: http://www. sunflowernsa.com

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BOSTON HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) ? Call them designer deer.

Dozens of does and bucks ? some bottle-fed and hand-raised ? are being sold to a growing market of farmers and hunters searching for deer with stunning antlers.

For deer breeders, developing a bloodline is more than a hobby, it?s a lucrative business that caters to a clientele looking for impressive trophies they say they can no longer find in the woods.

Ben Waldbeser, of Milford, Ind., raised hogs for 41 years before he quit in 2006 and focused on his deer herd, which he?d developed for about seven years.

?You can put 220 hogs on a semi and what you gross from that sale equals the sale of one deer. The sky?s the limit,? Waldbeser said, adding that a top deer in his herd could fetch $25,000.

Antlers from deer are evaluated using several factors including length, spread, and the size of each point. Jerry Campbell, who organized an auction on Saturday, said farm-raised deer consistently score higher than those in the wild.

?They have been selectively bred to produce racks you can?t find in the wild,? Campbell said. ?They are superior genetically and healthwise.?