Concerned about the impact that wet weather is having on this year’s harvest in more than a dozen states including Missouri, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) is asking the Agriculture Department to extend the amount of time hard-working farmers have to file crop insurance claims.

 

“At a time when our farm families are having a hard time making ends meet, we must do everything we can to assist them, and extending the availability of crop insurance during this historically wet harvest season is simply the right thing to do,” Luetkemeyer said. “We are hopeful that the USDA will be sensitive to the plight of our family farmers and grant this extension as soon as possible.”

 

October was the wettest in history and four of the nine regions that the United States is divided into have seen rain levels in the top five years on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric National Climate Data Center. The increased rainfall has prevented farmers including those in Missouri from getting to the fields, therefore delaying the normal harvest time.

 

“While we recognize that producers unable to harvest by December 10^th can request additional time from their crop insurance company, we believe the most complete and thorough course of action to protect producers is to extend the EOIP (End of Insurance Period) date,” Luetkemeyer and 18 other members of Congress said in a letter to the USDA. “As a result of the unprecedented harvesting conditions, producers are focused on rushing to complete the 2009 harvest and we believe these circumstances make the case for an extension of the EOIP date.”