The Rules for a Crop Insurance Claim on Aflatoxin

A few years ago the rules around crop insurance claims for aflatoxin changed. This happened at the same time that many of the crop insurance rules changed. Knowing the right way to file a claim is critical.

If you think you might have an aflatoxin claim on your crop insurance, you should do two things: call your agent and report your claim. Your crop insurance agent will connect you with an adjuster and it's the adjuster who will give you the information on leaving strips in the field for the aflatoxin test. (How long should the strips be, and how many rows deep?) Different companies have different rules for that.

You may be thinking that the elevator can just take the sample. Some elevators have labs on site, others do not. While it is true that the elevator can take the sample, it's the adjuster who would make arrangements for the sample to be tested and will use the test from the sample that was sent to the certified testing facility. If the grain is dumped, there's risk if the two samples test differently.

Another critical piece of the puzzle is the requirement to report a potential claim within 72 hours of discovery. This rule gets more complex because of the busyness of harvest time. If you wait to report a potential claim and move on and harvest the next field, grain gets comingled and chances of a qualified indemnity payment decrease.

Bottom line, your crop insurance agent and the adjuster are the best sources of help if you think you have aflatoxin. Call them.