Five things you need to know about the final plant date for corn.
Written by Shane Albertson, Vice President and Team Leader, Crop Insurance
There is no denying that this spring has been a challenging one for farmers. Some areas of Missouri have already reached their final plant date for corn and other areas are quickly approaching it. This has created a lot of questions for farmers as they try to weigh their options.
We asked crop insurance expert and FCS Financial Crop Insurance Team Leader Shane Albertson to share some insight with us on the top things producers need to know regarding the final plant date for Revenue Protection (RP) and Yield Protection (YP) policies.
- Know your corn final plant date.
The final plant date varies by county, so make sure you know the right dates. If your operation crosses state lines, often the plant dates will change.
- Understand what happens if you plant corn after the final plant date.
After the final plant date, a producer can continue to plant corn during the late plant period. For corn in Missouri, the late plant period is 20 days. If you plant during this time, planted guarantees decrease by 1% per day. You need to keep detailed information for your acreage report recording the amount of acres seeded on each day during the late plant period.
- Know what happens if you do not plant corn after the final plant date.
Producers must file a prevent plant claim, report prevent plant acres to FSA, and report prevent plant acreage on their crop insurance acreage report.Prevent plant claims are extremely time sensitive.They are required to be filed within 72 hours of the decision to quit planting after the final plant date or anytime during the late planting period.
Prevent plant claims must be filed on insurable acres where a general and persistent weather related cause has kept the acreage from being planted.Numerous qualifications must be met for claims to be acceptable some of which include prevent plant acre eligibility, ability to demonstrate your intent to plant the crop, and sufficient minimum prevent plant acreage by unit.Specific situations such as added land, planted uninsurable acres, and sod break acres can also impact prevent plant eligibility.
- Understand how prevent plant can impact unit structure and premium.
By unit, you must have at least 20 acres that are prevented from planting or 20% of the acres in the unit prevented from planting, whichever is less.
For producers who elected an enterprise unit structure for corn coverage you must meet a minimum planted qualification to receive the enterprise unit discount.For most policies, by county and enterprise unit, you must have at least 20 acres (of the same crop) planted in two or more sections or 20% of the total acreage (of the same crop) planted in two or more sections, whichever is less.
The Multi-County Enterprise Unit requires the primary county to qualify for an enterprise unit and the primary and secondary county to have planted insurable acres.
- Know your options for a prevent plant crop.
The base prevent plant guarantee is 55%* of your planted guarantee if you have an acceptable prevent plant claim on corn and do not plant a second crop, do not hay or graze an acceptable cover crop prior to November 1, 2019, and do not harvest a cover crop. You will owe 100% of the premium on the corn acres but will not have an impact on your actual production history (APH) for the prevent plant acres.
If you have an acceptable prevent plant claim on corn and plant a second crop after the end of the late plant period for corn, you must insure the second crop. You will owe 35% of the premium on the first crop and 100% of the premium on the second crop. Additionally, you will receive 35% of the prevent plant guarantee. An assigned yield will be imposed to your APH for corn at 60% of your approved yield. Similar rules apply if you hay or graze a cover crop or volunteer crop before November 1, 2019 or otherwise harvest a cover crop anytime on prevent planted acres.
*A prevent plant plus 5% buy-up option may have been elected prior to 03/15/2019 sales closing date, changing the prevent plant guarantee to 60% of your planted guarantee.
We advise that you visit with your crop insurance agent regarding your specific situation. Additional policy provisions govern the multiple peril crop insurance program and may take precedence to the information provided in this general guide.
