Several crop production areas across Nebraska are flooded or soon may be, leading to questions of crop insurance adjustments and how best to manage these fields.

Late or Delayed Planting Issues

Producers who have been unable to get a crop in the ground this spring will be faced with late planting or prevented planting issues.

For crop insurance purposes the federal  USDA Risk Management Agency provides a final planting date and a late planted period. Anything planted after the late planting period is uninsurable. Final planting dates for Nebraska are listed below:

• For corn the final date is May 25. Corn may be late planted for up to 20 days after this date, but the coverage will drop 1% per day for each day after May 25. After that point, corn cannot be planted and insured.
• For soybeans the date is June 10, with a 25-day late planting period. Soybeans can be planted for another three weeks with a 1% per day reduction in insurance coverage.
• For dry bean the date is June 20.
• For sunflowers the date is June 15 (northern counties) or June 20 (southern counties).
• For grain sorghum the date is June 5 (northern counties) or June 15 (southern counties).

Prevented Planting. For those producers carrying APH, CRC, or RA contracts, prevented planting is an option if the crop cannot be planted due to excess moisture or flooding. The rules for prevented planting are complex, and a visit with your insurance professional is recommended. If the best option for your farm is prevented planting, you only have 72 hours after the final planting date to make this claim. Producers carrying GRP or GRIP insurance are not eligible for prevented planting payments.

Options for Flood Damaged Fields

For those farmers who had a corn or soybean crop in the field and have been flooded out in the past several days, there are several options.

• For soybeans, sunflower, grain sorghum, or dry beans, take a replant payment on the crop insurance, and replant the crop with a short season variety.
• Take a total loss on the crop and leave the field fallow for the summer, collecting a 100% loss payment on the flooded crop.
• Take a total loss on the crop and plant another late planted crop (soybeans, grain sorghum, etc.) on these acres.
• If another crop is planted, producers will receive an initial indemnity of 35% on the initial flooded crop.
• If the second crop planted, such as soybeans, does not have any crop insurance loss (indemnity), the farmer will receive 100% of the flooded crop loss.
• If the second crop, such as soybeans, has a loss, the producer will receive the soybean loss (indemnity), in addition to the 35% from the flooded crop loss.

The rules will apply similarly if the crop lost to flooding was soybeans, grain sorghum, wheat, or other insurable crops.

Additional Information

As with all crop insurance questions, it is important to ask questions and get the rules explained by your crop insurance agent and the crop insurance adjustor before deciding whether to destroy or replant a crop.

Paul Burgener
Extension Ag Economist, Panhandle REC, Scottsbluff