Pasture, Rangeland and Forage insurance gains ground in Michigan and nationwide
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EmailRegister for the Pasture, Rangeland and Forage insurance webinar scheduled for October 9, 2025.
Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) insurance is a risk management tool that covers precipitation needed to produce forage to feed livestock. The program offers area-based insurance that is tied to a grid’s deviation from normal precipitation rather than an individual producer’s amount of rainfall.
When obtaining a PRF policy, producers select a coverage level along with a minimum of two 2-month periods over the course of the upcoming year when precipitation will be most important for their operation’s forage needs. Using NOAA Climate Prediction Center data, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) calculates normal precipitation and precipitation deviations for gridded areas across the country. Automatic payments, or indemnities, are made to producers when a specific grid’s precipitation is lower than the historic average, accounting for the coverage level selected for each policy.
Coverage levels range from 70% to 90%; the federal government subsidizes over half of the policy premium. To obtain a PRF policy for 2026, enrollment must be completed by Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. USDA RMA’s Agent Locator Tool can be used to identify local crop insurance agents able to facilitate the sale of PRF policies.
Rising acreage insured by PRF
PRF was first offered in 2007 as a pilot program to a limited number of counties across the United States. The program gradually expanded over the following years, and by 2016 PRF was available to producers in all eligible counties in the contiguous 48 states. Michigan was included in the final wave of PRF expansion, so 2016 marked the first year of availability for producers in the state.
Figure 1 illustrates that PRF acres are on the rise nationally. In 2016, the first year of broad availability, approximately 52 million acres were insured through the program. That number has steadily grown to nearly 317 million acres in 2025. The PRF program has made indemnity payments to producers each year it has been available, with indemnities reaching their highest point in 2022 at $1.43 billion.
As mapped in Figure 2, PRF-insured acreage in 2025 is highly concentrated in the western part of the country. Arizona, Texas and Nevada alone account for about 39% of all PRF-insured acres in the United States. A large share of the western U.S. is comprised of pasture, rangeland and forage acreage. In addition, there is high volatility in the precipitation received in this region. These factors likely drive the relatively high number of PRF-insured acres in the western states.
While the eastern side of the country has fewer PRF-insured acres, enrollment in the program is likewise increasing in these states. Figure 3 plots PRF-insured acres and indemnity payments in Michigan over the past decade. Michigan has roughly 20,000 PRF-insured acres in 2025, an increase of over 5,000 acres from the previous year. To date, the greatest sum of payments for Michigan producers occurred in 2023. Of the 78 PRF policies sold in Michigan that year, 37 were indemnified, garnering nearly $480 thousand in combined payments.
In 2024, 40 of the 80 total Michigan PRF policies were indemnified. These 40 policies generated a combined $185,000 in indemnity payments. Hence, a portion of Michigan producers who take out PRF policies are seeing indemnity payments in return. However, payment amounts do not always outweigh the out-of-pocket cost to cover the share of PRF premiums paid by producers. As such, producers should be diligent in making informed decisions when pursuing PRF policy options.
Upcoming PRF webinar
Could PRF be a useful risk management tool for your operation? Jaime Luke will be presenting a free informational webinar covering PRF from 12-1 p.m. on Oct. 9. This webinar is part of the Michigan State University Extension Farm Policy & Risk Management Series. An overview of PRF will be provided, including key program details, eligibility requirements and coverage options. The webinar will also feature a review of historical performance and real-world examples from Michigan to illustrate how the program has functioned in the past.
