News

Prevent plant acres are record high…now what?

The crop insurance lead for Rabo AgriFinance says he’s never seen a year like 2019 in his 30 years of working in crop insurance.

Ken Shoemaker says there are usually prevent plant acres every year, but nothing compared to this year’s estimates.

“This year we’re probably looking at an excess of 10 million acres of prevented planting and I’m trying to be conservative because I think it’s going to be more than that,” he says. “We’re seeing it everywhere- we’re seeing it in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Illinois is probably going to have just under 2 million acres of prevented planting.”

Advice he has for growers is to talk to a crop insurance agent about grain quality and silage.

“We’re going to probably have more silage cut than we’ve ever had and that’s one thing you need to make sure you talk to your agent about because we do need to come out and appraise anything you chop silage on just because we need to know where those bushels came from in case you have a claim this fall,” he says.

Shoemaker says growers should also use prices as a marketing tool for next year.

Audio: Ken Shoemaker, Rabo AgriFinance