Prevent, Replant & Late Planting

The guide below has answers to your crop insurance questions.

OVERVIEW

We know many producers impacted by extreme weather have more questions than answers about the 2023 growing season. How crop insurance applies to various planting decisions shouldn’t be among them.

The guide below has answers to your crop insurance questions. Contact your crop insurance officer at your local FCSAmerica office to further discuss your options or fill out our online contact form at the bottom of this page.

A few steps will help ensure your crops are covered under your policy:

Bulls Eye 

Good timing

Be aware of your allowed initial plant date, final plant date and late planting period. These are crop-specific and determined in your county actuarials. After the final plant date, in most cases a late planting period – typically 25 days – opens when you can still plant but your guarantee drops by 1 percentage point per day each day planting is delayed. Talk to your insurance officer before making planting decisions.

Plant in Book 

Good recordkeeping

Record each plant date for every planting situation so we can report separately those crops that are timely planted, late planted or prevented from being planted.

Plant in palm of hand. 

Good farming practices

Insurance companies expect producers to attempt to plant fields that they can get into and are dry enough for planting.

ownership-transition 

Good communication

If you are considering a non-conventional planting method, such as air seeding, call your crop insurance officer first.

Notify your insurance officer within 72 hours of the final planting date if you do not intend to plant the insured crop during the late planting period or if you determine you are unable to plant during an available late planting period.

project-and-risk-management 

Good documentation

If you have any doubt about your crops, take pictures with date stamps.

Options to consider after discussing with crop insurance officer

Delayed Planting

Plant original crop during the late plant period (beginning the day after final plant date and lasting 25 days for most crops).

Coverage decreases 1% for each day past the final plant date.

Switch to another crop insured on your 2023 policy that has a later planting date (switch corn to soybeans).

Replant

You are able to replant a crop right into the late planting period when the period is 10 days or more.

Replant the original crop.

1st crop 2nd crop; plant to a different crop the second time.

Prevented Planting

Plant a cover crop during the late plant period.

Plant a cover crop after the late plant period.

Idle the land.

Frequently Asked Questions

The decision about your ability to replant must be approved by the insurance company adjuster prior to replanting.

  • 20/20 rule: Acreage must be at least 20 acres or 20 percent of the insured crop acreage for the unit to be paid on a per-unit basis.
  • The ground was planted in at least one of the four most recent crop years.
  • Your intended acres were reported by the sales closing date for new counties or crops.
  • You must file a notice of loss within 72 hours of the final planting date.

Once you file a notice of loss, an adjuster from your company will generally be in touch with you within 2-3 days. After the acreage report has been completed and processed, the insurance company will process the claim payment.

For both yield and revenue protection, prevented planting payments are based on the projected spring price. For crops that do not have yield or revenue protection, prevented planting payments are based on the price election.

Coverage factors that apply are: corn, 55%; soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum, 60%. The coverage factor can go up if you added the prevented planting buy-up option at sales closing.

You will complete your acreage report like usual to report the acres you planted and acres you intended to plant but did not.

If you have Enterprise Units (EU) and are not able to meet the EU requirement of planting in at least two sections, you may not qualify for the EU discount. Only planted acres are used when determining the appropriate EU discount factor. You would still, however, report those unplanted fields as prevented planting acres.

Your loss payment will be based on the unit structure that qualifies, so if you went to optional units, the loss will be adjusted for optional units.

A cover crop must achieve conservation purposes and minimize risk of reducing yields to the following crop due to soil water use.

Your local NRCS office has a list of appropriate cover crop species, seeding rates, expected growth rates and biomass and other pertinent information for your location.

Corn is not considered a cover crop, and will always be considered a crop planted for harvest.

A cover crop planted during or after the late planting period can be hayed, grazed or cut for silage, haylage, or baleage at any time without a reduction to the PP payment. However, a cover crop harvested for grain or seed at any time will result in a prevented planting payment reduction.

You may qualify for a full prevented planting payment. This will be part of the discussion you will have with the insurance company adjuster.

Yes; the maximum eligible acres will be:
  • Number of acres specified in the contract.
  • If the contract specifies production, divide the quantity of production by your average yield.
  • If a minimum number of acres or production is specified, that number will be used.

Yes, if you reported intended acres by the sales closing date.

If your Crop Hail policy is tied to your MPCI policy and using the same acres, then the acres reported as prevented planting for MPCI will not be billed on your Crop Hail policy since they were not planted.

If you are not sure about what kind of Crop Hail policy you have, talk with your agent. If it is considered a “stand-alone” policy, then we can submit a revised application so only the acres that were planted are covered.

Here are a few considerations if your grain storage units are flooded and/or have burst open with last year’s grain still in them:
  • They are not covered by your federal crop insurance or your stored grain endorsement on your Crop Hail policy.
  • However, make sure you keep the records for all the grain that you reported on your production report.
  • Check into:
    • whether you have coverage under your property/casualty insurance,
    • whether you qualify for possible disaster payments with FSA.
  • Flood-damaged grain is considered adulterated because of the potential for many contaminants to enter through the water. This grain should be destroyed, never blended. Contact your local Department of Natural Resources for the best disposal process in your area. The recent Food Safety Modernization Act has increased public awareness of food and feed related hazards.
  • Remove good grain on top of flooded grain from the top or side, not down through the flooded grain. The reclaim conveyors and pits under bins contain flood water as well. Remove all the good grain before doing anything with the bad portion. The good grain is still suspect, which is why FDA must evaluate the situation on a case-by-case basis before the grain can be sold for any use.
  • Contact your local Extension office for more information.
  • If you have not yet reported your 2022 production yields but must discard grain, you still must report your harvested production from 2022 by the production reporting deadline. Keep all your harvest records from 2022; that is still your production history regardless of destroying grain from flooding.

Ready to Talk?

Contact us if you have questions or need more information. Fill out the form, or connect with your local office using the Office Locator.

FCSAmerica serves farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses and rural residents in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. For inquiries outside this geography, use the Farm Credit Association Locator  to contact your local office.