Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2023 - 6

Based on this research, vegetative growth stage
descriptions were expanded to include each leaf
stage. Tobacco research was also prominent later
in the decade as was the first research on determinate
soybean varieties in Arkansas. The first
research projects on grapes and sunflower were
conducted and additional research on sugar beet,
lettuce, dry bean, and spring and winter wheat
took place. The wheat research of the decade was
instrumental in developing the recoverable head
loss charts and wheat zone maps that were added
to the wheat loss instructions in the mid 1970's.
The cotton research also culminated in the release
of new Cotton Loss Instructions in 1975.
Corn defoliation, stand reduction, and stem
Imitating hail with an ice blowing machine. The crop insurance industry funded the development of these
machines in the 1980's to create realistic crop damage for loss adjuster schools and they are still in use today.
defoliation, and shatter loss. The year 1943 also
marked the first research on onions at Texas A&M
University, and, in the late 1940s, flax and wheat
and sugar beet research began at North Dakota
State University and Montana State University,
respectively. The 1940s closed with a flurry of research
on wheat at Kansas State University, corn
at Iowa State, and additional soybean research at
Iowa State and the University of Illinois.
Agricultural Productivity
and Crop Insurance
Agronomic Research
Comes of Age
The 1950s ushered in a golden era of agriculture.
Mechanization and crop protection became
widely embraced, land-grant university research
and crop breeding greatly expanded, and nitrogen
fertilizer production fueled crop yield improvement.
Crop insurance research was astride
of these advances and, during the 1950s, 41 research
projects were initiated. Soybean continued
to garner attention with projects focused on
defoliation, stand reduction, stem bruising, and
6 FIRSTQUARTER2023
cutoffs and culminated in the first thorough set of
loss instructions titled " Soybean Hail Loss Survey
Sheet Instructions. " During this time, AUP cotton
and sugar beet were heavily researched, and
the research portfolio expanded to many other
crops. Of the new crops, grain sorghum and potatoes
received the most attention, but research
on food crops such as lettuce, tomato, snap bean,
and dry bean were started. The decade also saw
the first research on tobacco and Pima cotton.
Corn research came of age in the 1960s with
projects occurring each year of the decade. The
1961 Corn Loss Instructions were revised in
1968. The research during this era included determining
the leaf area of individual corn leaves.
damage research continued into the 1970s and
once again the crop was researched each year of
this decade resulting in another revision of the
loss instructions in 1975. Soybean was also researched
each year and expanded to include the
states of Missouri and Minnesota. This research
led to the release of revised loss instructions in
1979 with updated growth stage descriptions,
and updated defoliation and stand reduction
tables. AUP cotton was extensively researched
again with projects in Georgia, Arkansas, and
Texas that focused on stand reduction, cutoffs,
and agronomics of plant density and populations.
This cotton research led to significant loss
instruction revisions in 1975 and again in 1977.
Tobacco, dry bean, field peas, sunflower, winter
wheat, and tomato were also a focus during this
time, and oats and barley research resumed after
several decades. The 1970s also saw the first research
on chile peppers and safflower.
By the 1980s corn research slowed but research
on soybean flourished. The research led
to the addition of plant cut-off and determinate
soybean defoliation loss tables to the loss instructions
in 1985, and further revisions in 1991. Pima
cotton research resulted in the addition of boll
In the late 1970's and early 1980's sunflower research was prolific in North Dakota. The research culminated in loss
adjustment factors for stand loss and defoliation. North Dakota is still a favorite research location because it is the
northernmost location for many widely planted crops.

Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today First Quarter 2023