View from the Cab: Opportunities

You don’t have to travel far to see bare fields with nothing planted this year. This sad site can provide opportunities during the summer like planting cover crops or doing tile work.

Claims for prevented planting coverage have totaled over $151 million and could pass the $1 billion mark, according to USDA. Farmers are being encouraged to plant cover crops on those unplanted fields. The government will allow producers to hay, graze or cut cover crops for silage, haylage or baleage on prevent plant acres starting Sept. 1 instead of Nov. 1.

Experts say cover crops provide benefits which include: decreasing compaction, boosting soil organic matter, soil structure improvement and providing fall and winter forage. If you haven’t yet tried cover crops, this could be the perfect opportunity to incorporate them into your operation.

Some growers are seeing an increased profit with cover crops by reducing input costs and improving soil health at the same time. If you are interested in ordering seed, you should probably act sooner rather than later as demand is high in this exceptional weather year we are experiencing. Supplies could be tight in some areas.

Speaking of USDA, we reported last week that the Farm Service Agency has extended the prevented plant crop reporting deadline for those Illinois farmers impacted by spring floods to July 15. This means they now have until next week to report acres they intended to plant this spring but could not due to the weather. This new deadline coincides with the July 15 FSA crop acreage reporting deadline that is already in place.

This extension does not apply to crops covered by FSA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program or NAP. Producers should check with their local FSA office regarding prevented plant provisions for NAP-covered crops. An approved insurance provider can provide more information regarding RMA crop insurance.

I hope you all had a great Independence Day holiday last week. We had a busy one but it was fun. With the day falling on a Thursday, I wonder how many people made a long weekend out of it. Some towns even extended their celebrations into the following days.

(The View from the Cab blog is powered each week by Petersen Motors of Fairbury)