It’s crunch time for farmers in the northwestern corn belt that are facing prevent plant decisions...due to excessive rains that have delayed planting. U-S-D-A Secretary Tom Vilsack was pushed on remedies by North Dakota Republican Senator John Hoeven in the Senate Ag Committe hearing last week.
Hoeven and other lawmakers in the region sent a letter to Vilsack asking U-S-D-A to use the C-C-C- or other programs to cover the discounts farmers will pay on crop insurance...if they plant after the final plant date or take prevent plant. He says, “I think it would actually save the USDA money, save the government money from the standpoint you’re not paying out more prevent plant. You’re paying out less by covering that discount and at the same time you get more crops in the ground to help with food inflation.
Vilsack says they’ll consider the proposal but admitted it may present unintended consequences. “The challege that we face whenever we get into this particular area is making sure that we don’t compromise the relationship between the insurers and the producers....that we don’t create a circumstance where the risk is difficult for the crop insurance folks to calculate.”
The final planting date for corn for most of North Dakota and Minnesota was May 25th. So farmers are already losing 1-percent per day on their insurance guarantee. For spring wheat, the final plant date in the southern third of Minnesota was May 15th, for the southern half of North Dakota and central Minnesota it’s May 31...while the north it is June 5.
