As the rains continue in most areas, we wanted to refresh your memory on final planting dates, how prevent plant, late plant, and replants work. 

The final plant dates for crops in MN/ND/SD are dependent on your county but are May 25/31 for corn; June 10^th for soybeans and dry beans; May 15/31 or June 5^th for wheat, barley and oats; June 10/15 for Sunflowers; May 31st for sugar beets; May 20/25 & June 5^th for canola.  You can find the exact dates for your county in our newsletter or on our website at www.proagservice.com or by giving us a call.

The late planting period begins the day after the final planting date of a crop and ends 25 days after for most crops.  Late planting guarantees are reduced by 1% for each day after the final planting date.  The premium for any late planting acres remains the same as timely planted acres. 

After the final plant date has passed, you may find yourself in a prevent plant situation, whether for a portion of a field or whole fields that are too saturated to plant.  If this is the case, please contact our office to file a claim.  A claim can always be withdrawn if you get the acres planted but it will give us the opportunity to go through your prevent plant guarantees and base acres available for prevent plant so you can make the best economic decisions for your situation. 

Some things to keep in mind for prevent plant are:

• The PP acres must exceed the lesser of 20 acres or 20% of the crop in the unit.  If you have enterprise units selected for a crop, you will need to meet the 20/20 rule by crop/county.  If you have optional units selected for a crop, you will need to meet the 20/20 rule by crop/section. 
• Maximum eligible PP acres by crop/type is the highest number of certified acres planted and/or prevent planted in the last 4 years. 
• Prevent plant payments are based on the spring price and will not increase if the harvest price is higher. 
• If you have added land, contact us to discuss as land added after the cause of loss is present may not be eligible for prevent plant. 
• Prevent plant acres have a 1 in 4 rule – they would need to have been planted, harvested and insured in one of the past 4 years.  The only exception to this is if they were not planted due to a normal rotation. 
• PP on an existing forage stand is generally not paid unless you can show that you had it ready to plant (ie sprayed or worked up in the fall).  It would also need to have been planted, harvested and insured in one of the last 4 years.  If it was not planted in the last 4 year,  you would need to prove the rotation is normal for your operation. 
• Your prevent plant guarantee is based on the PP factors listed below times your MPCI guarantee unless you added the PP 5% buyup at sales closing.
  

  Prevented Planting Payment Factors
  Crop	PP Payment Factor	PP Buyup Available		Crop	PP Payment Factor	PP Buyup Available
  Barley	60%	65%		Potatoes	45%	50%
  Canola	55%	60%		Soybeans	60%	65%
  Corn	55%	60%		Sugarbeets	45%	50%
  Drybeans	50%	55%		Sunflowers	60%	65%
  Oats	60%	65%		Wheat	60%	65%

  
  

• If you have prevent plant, you may plant an approved cover crop that you can hay, chop or graze at anytime during the year without affecting your prevent plant payment.  (Change from previous years).  Crop insurance does not have any cover crop requirements but if one is planted, you need to follow NRCS/FSA guidelines. 
• If you plant a second crop after the late plant period of your PP crop, you will reduce your PP payment on the first crop to 35% and take an APH hit of 60% of your approved yield in your APH database for that crop year.  If you don’t plant a second crop, plant a cover crop or plant forage seeding after July 1^st, your APH will not be affected by prevent plant.

There has been some chatter in the news that Sec. of Ag Vilsack/USDA is exploring the option of extending the final plant dates or taking away the 1% lost during the late plant period or USDA making payments for some of the lost PP payment (reduced to 35%) to try to encourage the planting of a second crop.  However, from our conversations with the insurance companies, it sounds like these options have been squashed by members of congress.  We will keep you posted if we hear anything different regarding this discussion.

Please contact our office if you would like your prevent plant base acres, PP liability by unit or have any questions regarding your crop insurance coverage.  Good luck this spring – we are hoping that the weather starts to cooperate and that all the above information is not needed. 

Staff at ProAg Service & Insurance

ProAg Service & Insurance
2417 US Hwy 59
Mahnomen, MN  56557
218.935.2700 (office)

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