Full-Season Weather Insurance Protects Sorghum Farmers’ Profits from Bad Weather

 

The Climate Corporation Expands Total Weather Insurance™ Program to Include Coverage for 2012 Sorghum Crop


SAN FRANCISCO, February 1, 2012 – The Climate Corporation, leading provider of weather insurance, today announced the launch of the first full-season weather insurance program for U.S. grain sorghum growers. Available for the 2012 crop year, Total Weather Insurance Sorghum 2012™ represents a new, technology-enhanced approach to insurance that protects sorghum farmers against weather-related crop loss, providing them with unprecedented profit protection.


“In 2011, sorghum growers were plagued by drought and heat stress, resulting in the lowest U.S. grain sorghum yields since 2003,” says David Friedberg, CEO of The Climate Corporation. “For the first time, sorghum growers now have the ability to protect their livelihoods from weather-related production shortfalls not covered by federal crop insurance.”


Created with insight from agronomists and growers nationwide, Total Weather Insurance (TWI) provides farmers with the ability to lock in profits by protecting against weather events that cause production shortfalls, before government coverage kicks in. Unlike traditional crop insurance, which requires verification of crop yield, planting volume and inspections prior to payment for damages, The Climate Corporation automatically sends payment when the weather conditions a grower specifies occur, as measured by independent sources such as the National Weather Service.

 

2012 Coverage for Key Sorghum Weather Perils
Utilizing advanced agronomy, historical yield and loss data, weather history and advanced forecasts for the grower’s specific crop and location, TWI Sorghum 2012 covers the major weather perils that may occur during growing season.


TWI Sorghum 2012 provides six coverage components against key weather perils, including:

 

  • Planting Rain protects against excessive precipitation that can delay timely planting and other field work.
  • Low Heat Units/Freeze protects against a cool growing season or early freeze events that can prevent sorghum from reaching full maturity.
  • Excess Rain with Soil Moisture Tracker™ protects against excessive local rainfall that can lead to standing water which starves the crop of oxygen and promotes disease.
  • Drought with Soil Moisture Tracker™ protects against depleted soil moisture that can cause wilting and limit head size.
  • Daytime Heat Stress protects against hot days that can reduce crop growth and result in ineffective reproduction.
  • Nighttime Heat Stress protects against warm nights that result in diminished grain fill due to increased plant respiration.

 

 


Precision Coverage and Weather Monitoring
TWI Sorghum 2012 is powered by Farm-Level Optimizer™, which dynamically determines the weather conditions that can make or break an individual grower’s yields based on crop, location and soil type, and then automatically recommends full-season weather protection for that grower’s farm.


During the growing season, The Climate Corporation monitors localized, farm-specific conditions on a daily basis utilizing two key features new for TWI 2012:

 

  • Precision Rainfall Grids™: TWI 2012 tracks precipitation nationwide using Precision Rainfall Grids powered by radar-based National Weather Service data. These interactive 2.5 x 2.5 mile grids allow a grower to select a precise location for TWI coverage, providing more exact rainfall measurement than currently available with traditional land-based weather stations.

 

  • Soil Moisture Tracker™: Soil Moisture Tracker provides a daily assessment of excess rain and drought conditions throughout the growing season by estimating the amount of water entering the soil through rainfall and the amount of water leaving the soil through plant water use and evaporation. Soil Moisture Tracker utilizes an ultra-high resolution agronomic database that describes soil type and soil depth for every 30 x 30 foot land grid across the continental United States.


To find an authorized Total Weather Insurance agent in your area or to hear directly from growers about their experience with TWI, go to www.climate.com. Full-season weather coverage for the 2012 sorghum crop is available to growers who sign up by March 15, 2012. 

 

About The Climate Corporation
The Climate Corporation's mission is to help the world's people and businesses adapt to climate change. The company protects the $3 trillion global agriculture industry from the financial impact of adverse weather — the cause of over 90 percent of crop loss — with fully automated weather insurance products. The company's unique technology platform enables the real-time pricing and purchasing of customizable weather insurance using proprietary global weather simulation modeling and local weather monitoring systems. Unlike traditional insurance, The Climate Corporation's products pay out automatically based solely on measured weather conditions, requiring no claims process and no waiting for payment. For more information, please visit www.climate.com or follow the company on Twitter @climatecorp.

 

Media Contacts

Hilary Jules
press@climate.com
+1 415-363-0650

 

or

 

Casey Hushon, Charleston|Orwig
chushon@charlestonorwig.com
+1 262-563-5100

 

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