JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri farmers shared their frustration Tuesday with a federal policy that apparently won't cover losses if crops are flooded by water released from upstream reservoirs on the Missouri River.

The Army Corps of Engineers last year announced plans for two spring pulses on the Missouri River - one in March and one in May - to encourage spawning by the endangered pallid sturgeon.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency said in December that any flooding caused by the spring rise would not be covered under federal crop insurance policies because it is a man-made, not natural, event.

But federal officials told a U.S. House agriculture subcommittee on Tuesday that they determined it's unlikely the spring rise alone would cause flooding and that if heavy rains result in floods, farmers' losses would be covered as always.

"Based on the corps' analysis of the current conditions in the Missouri River system, neither RMA nor the corps anticipates that these upcoming releases will cause damage to crops or cropland along the Missouri River system," Risk Management Agency Administrator Eldon Gould told the subcommittee during a field hearing in Jefferson City.

But the subcommittee chairman, Jerry Moran, R-Kan., asked the Risk Management Agency to further explain the policy.

"These kind of losses have always in the past been taken care of by crop insurance. Farmers' losses are farmers' losses," Moran said after the hearing.

Hartsburg corn farmer Terry Hilgedick told the subcommittee his family farm has endured floods from man-made releases of water in the past and they were covered by insurance.

"They never drew a distinction between the water put in the river by rise and put in the river by rainfall," he said after the hearing.

The plan for the spring rise follows more than a decade-long fight among environmental groups, farmers, recreational groups and the barge industry.

The plan has support from environmental groups that see it as the best way to protect river wildlife.

But Missouri officials fear not only for farmers but also for the barge industry. And officials from Montana and the Dakotas fear releases from the reservoirs could hurt boating and fishing interests in their states.

Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., said that while he and others hope the agency will change its policy, they will consider legislation if necessary to ensure farmers' crop losses from any flooding caused by the spring rise are covered.