Record Breaking Prevent Plant Claims

The big news for this year’s crops the amount of prevent plant claims.

One agency says the number is already high and it rises every day. On the heels of a hard planting year USDA’s Risk Management Agency says the number of prevent plant acreage claims breaks records. So far the Farm Service Agency has reported over 11.5 Million corn acres, which equals a lot of money.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asks agencies to be as flexible as they can with farmers, and the RMA extended the date farmer’s start paying interest on insurance premiums.

USDA Risk Management Agency Administrator, Martin Barbre, says most of the claims are coming from the Midwest and states affected by flooding but about ten percent of claims are from the south west and south east.

“Some are actually drought, it’s just too dry to plant. That’s another big cause of loss besides the flooding and the high moisture.”

The RMA and FSA will be in Illinois next week to hear from farm groups and producers. Both Barbre and FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce will be at the farm progress show along with holding listening sessions in over half the counties in the state.