By: Darel Ness - 6/4/2013

Corn, to plant or not to plant, that is the question. After weeks of contemplating the possibility, it has finally come down to the final days to plant corn and soybeans at full coverage levels for crop insurance. Emotions are running high, especially in Southeast Minnesota where we are faced with the prospect of not getting the majority of our corn planted in a timely manner. Important decisions, the likes of which we've never had to make before, are upon us. As an AgStar Financial Services employee I am a crop insurance agent, however, I'm also a farmer with unplanted corn acres. I understand the stress that comes from the uncontrollable.

Farmers are people of action; we like to get things done. We like to check things off the list and move on to the next action item. This spring we are all disappointed with the cards we have been dealt, however, we still need to play the cards we have as best we can. It’s especially important in unusual times like these for producers to work closely with their trusted advisors to gain the knowledge necessary to make correct decisions for their operations. The past couple of weeks, most of my conversations with producers have revolved around the issue of prevent plant coverage.

Here are a few guidelines for multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) prevent plant coverage:

• To be considered prevented planting for crop insurance purposes, your area must be experiencing a cause of loss (i.e. heavy snow, excessive rain, or other uncontrollable environmental issues). The issues must be general to the area and will not be considered prevented planting if the event is isolated to your farm.
• To qualify for a prevented plant payment, you must be prevented from planting at least, the lesser of 20 acres or 20% of the acres in a loss unit.
• The final planting date for Corn is May 31st and final planting date for Soybeans is June 10th. In Southern Minnesota both Corn and Soybeans have a 25 day late planting period which follows the final planting date. For crops planted during the late planting period the insurance guarantee is reduced 1% a day for each day after the final planting date. The option to file a prevent plant claim can be done anytime during the late planting period for the respective crop, however, you should file your claim for each affected crop with your agent within 72 hours of making your decision to discontinue planting.
• The number of eligible acres for a prevent plant claim will be calculated based on the highest planted acres, for that crop, by policy, in the previous 4 years. If your 2013 cropland acres have increased from 2012, a factor will be applied to increase your prevent plant acres accordingly. If your acres have decreased, no factor is applied.
• Prevent plant payments are based on spring revenue prices only, no adjustments are made for harvest price changes. Eligible corn or soybean prevent plant payments pay out 60% of your spring revenue guarantee and will not affect your 10 year actual production history (APH) adversely.
• Prevent plant acres must be reported along with planted acres on your acreage report, take care in preparing this report as prevent plant acres are not amendable by the producer if incorrect.

Every producer is facing a different situation. There is no cookie-cutter approach to making decisions when it comes to filing a prevent plant claim. Producers need to take the time to discuss the specifics of their policy with their agent. This knowledge, along with input from other trusted advisors like your agronomist or seed dealer, will help take some of the emotions out of making these very difficult decisions.