Despite all the technological improvements and increased regulations, pesticide application is not always perfect. Pesticide drift, aka off-target application, aka chemical trespass, resulting in crop damage and yield loss continues to create claims and litigation between neighbors. In many cases, proving whether a chemical trespass may be straightforward. However, proving economic losses are generally more difficult and may encompass losses that extend beyond the crop year. No matter what it [...]

Recently, we handled a denial of insurance claim on behalf of a Nebraska Producer who experienced abnormally low yields as a result of an unprecedented drought.  The Producer had a valid Federal Crop Insurance Policy and submitted a claim to his insurance company for the loss, using grain scale tickets, where the Producer noted which loads came from certain fields in accordance with the Loss Adjustment Manual (“LAM”), as evidence. [...]

In any ag community there is lot of cooperation and partnership between farming operations and the ag industries that service those operations.  Neighbors may loan equipment and labor to put in, maintain, or harvest a crop, while others do the same to care for livestock.  In some cases, an ag service may call in another provider to cover a client’s needs.  Generally, this cooperation and partnership works well and helps [...]

While waiting on an arbitration ruling from the National Grain and Feed Association (“NGFA”), I reviewed some of the NGFA's recent decisions.  I was surprised to see how many cases were not decided on the merits, but rather, a party’s failure to simply comply with the NGFA’s rules. Take for example Field Farms Marketing v. Prairie Wide Grain, Inc.   The NGFA issued judgment in favor of Field Farms and against [...]