Opinion

Too wet for wheat planting, experts say

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A respite from daily rainfall for a total of 14 days in November (as of Monday) was a welcome relief from a wet October when it rained on 17 out of 31 days, totaling 7.5 inches for the month. (The average for October is 4.28 inches.) This time of year with the cooler temperatures and shorter days, however, area fields did not "dry out" very fast.

The soybean harvest did get started and progress during this time. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) Committee estimated last week from looking around their neighborhoods that perhaps half of the crop fields have been harvested. That is encouraging! Looks good compared to a couple of weeks ago when harvest had not started. The negative aspect of this amount of progress, of course, is that most of those harvested fields now have some deep ruts in evidence that will hinder next year's planting.

Another result of all the wet weather for area producers is that fall wheat planting has been seriously hampered. With nearly 6 inches of rain in September followed by October's 7.5 inches, wheat planting has been difficult or impossible to complete.

The crop insurance final planting date of November 15 has now passed. Some producers may have already reported prevented planted wheat for crop insurance claim purposes. In addition, the deadline to timely file an FSA wheat prevented planting report in Bourbon County and surrounding counties (including Vernon) is 15 days following the end of the planting period, which is November 30, 2009.

Why would anyone need to file this report with the FSA Office? With the implementation of the new farm bill programs this question has become more significant. In the past, the FSA filing was generally for cropping history only. Now, this acreage is used for both the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program as well as the Supplemental Disaster Assistance (SURE) program.

Only a minimal number of area farms (none in Bourbon County) are enrolled in ACRE. Those producers, then, will need to evaluate the applicability of a prevented planted wheat filing.

Those producers who insure all mechanically harvestable crops with either crop insurance or FSA's Non-insured Crop Assistance Program (NAP) can qualify for the revenue-based SURE disaster coverage. Prevented planted acres are also used to compute the SURE coverage and payment levels. So if a bona-fied prevented planted situation exists, it could be beneficial for SURE purposes to complete a timely prevented planting report. An acceptable prevented planting report must include measures taken to get wheat planted, i.e. seed purchased, tillage completed, fertilizer purchased or applied, etc.

As mentioned above, the deadline for a timely filed wheat prevented planting report is November 30. If you have questions concerning this topic, contact FSA at your local USDA Service Center. In Fort Scott call (620) 223-1880.

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Editor's Note: Doug Niemeir is the County Executive Director for the USDA/Farm Service Agency. He can be reached by emailing him at Douglas.Niemeir@ks.usda.gov