Still battling to bring in the corn and soybean crop? An important Dec. 10 deadline looms if you suspect an insured loss.

Farmers with unharvested crop who currently participate in Federal Crop Insurance must contact their crop insurance agents and file a Notice of Loss (NOL) by Dec. 10 in order to request more time to harvest.

Keep in mind that you must meet certain conditions for the extension to be granted. In addition, the end of the insurance period is not extended — rather, it tacks on more time to harvest the crop in order to settle claims base on the amount of harvested production.

Here are more details on the deadline as provided by USDA:

Once an insured producer contacts a crop insurance agent to file a Notice of Loss, the Approved Insurance Provider (AIP) should allow additional time to harvest, on a case-by-case basis, when all of these conditions are met:

— The insured producer gives timely NOL to his or her crop insurance agent.

— The AIP determines and documents that the delay in harvest was due to an insured cause of loss.

— The insured producer demonstrates that harvest was not possible due to insured causes, such as wet conditions preventing access to the field with equipment or that harvesting under such conditions would damage equipment.

— The delay in harvest was not because the insured producer did not have sufficient equipment or manpower to harvest the crop by the end of the insurance period.

When an Approved Insurance Provider authorizes additional time to harvest:

— The end of the insurance period is not extended. Rather, the insured producer is granted additional time to attempt to harvest the crop in order to settle any crop insurance claims based on the amount of harvested production.

— Any additional damage to the insured crop during the extension period is covered, provided it is due to an insurable cause of loss, such as excessive moisture.

— The insured producer’s crop insurance policy will cover loss of quality (as specified in the applicable Crop Provisions), reduced yields, and revenue losses if revenue coverage was elected.

— The cost of drying the harvested crop is not covered.

For more information on requesting assistance due to delayed harvest go to: https://www.rma.usda.gov/…

For a list of crop insurance agents is available: https://www.rma.usda.gov/…

To read a recent DTN article on how corn withstands winter conditions go to: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

Follow her on Twitter @PamSmithDTN