The Importance of Dairy and Other Livestock Insurance

In recent years, severe weather events and natural disasters have played a large part in crop damage, and made many producers realize the importance of crop insurance. While weather doesn’t necessarily directly affect livestock or dairy cattle, it affects feed production and may indirectly impact milk and beef prices which can swing wildly up or down, as we’ve seen the last few years.

There are three livestock and dairy products to help producers manage these risks – Livestock Gross Margin (LGM), Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) and Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP).

The state of the milk market right now is driving farmers to protect their milk with DRP. This is exciting for us. We want to help them protect their revenue. As a matter of fact, in 2024, Crop Growers locked in 1.3 billion pounds of milk through DRP.

In addition to insurance coverage, Crop Growers, Farm Credit East’s insurance provider, provides customers enrolled in coverage with additional insights and resources to help them make strategic decisions. Some of these value-added insights include educational webinars, weekly and daily market reports, weekly Dairy Markets Insights e-newsletter, one-on-one consultations, and industry leading DRP technology to help farmers stay informed.

Learn more about the features and benefits of DRP.

While DRP is the most popular dairy/livestock policy in the Northeast, the livestock programs are not to be forgotten. LRP is a very important program for producers raising beef cattle, which is a small but growing market in the Northeast. LGM has largely gone by the wayside with the implementation of DRP, however in some cases is still beneficial on a case-by-case basis. To compare dairy risk management options, view our dairy & livestock insurance product comparison tool here.

If you are a producer who would like to explore dairy and livestock insurance options, reach out to the Crop Growers team. Click here to contact a local agent today.