Projected Prices and Volatility Factors for 2026
The February price discovery period has concluded and final Projected Prices and Volatility Factors for crops with a sales closing date of March 15th have been released by the Risk…
Common Questions on SCO and ECO
The new higher subsidies for the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) and Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) have generated significant interest among farmers. We recently released the Insurance Evaluator to help farmers make decisions concerning the use of SCO and ECO. Today’s article addresses three common questions that we have received relative to ECO and SCO.
Revisiting the Basis Risk when evaluating SCO and ECO
Higher subsidy rates for SCO and ECO in 2026 increase the attractiveness of their usage and the potential for replacing some RP coverage with county-level coverage. However, switching from farm-level to county-based coverage introduces basis risk because farm losses do not precisely mimic county losses. In regions where the basis risk is low, such as in Illinois, use of SCO and ECO with lower RP coverage levels can provide improved risk benefits at similar or lower premium cost to the farmer.

The farmdoc Crop Insurance section offers iFARM online tools including the Premium Calculator, Payment Evaluator and Price Distribution Tool. These tools are updated annually during the Spring crop insurance election period.














