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Mentioned Resource: Delayed Planting and Replanting Insurance Evaluator
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Blake Hurst [00:01:05] This is Blake Hurst with Missouri Farm Bureau, and we’re joined here in Jefferson City by three farmers who I’m going to introduce in a minute. They’ll talk a little bit about their situation, and then after they are through we’ve got several experts on various topics I think it’ll be interesting to you all, with obviously some prevented planet but decisions still be made. I’m sure many of you have already made those decisions. Also new information today on the trade mitigation package in the disaster bill. So we’ll talk about all those things perhaps a little bit of the agronomic questions that you all are facing on your farms as far as replanting and flood damage and flood moisture damaged crops so a lot of stuff to cover the next few minutes. We have Jason Kurtz. Jason’s a farmer from up in Oregon, Missouri. We try to get three farmers kind of across the state to give a little better representation what’s going on in different parts of Missouri. Jason what’s going on in your farm in Oregon, Missouri, which is Hoke County northwest Missouri?
Jason Kurtz [00:02:37] Well right now we’re trying to finish up planting. About a week and a half two weeks ago we received six and a half to seven inches of rain in about four hours. That put us extremely behind the eight ball per say. We were finished up planting corn. I guess before I go into all that we farm all in the hills. I farm right up to the Missouri river bluffs. I have many friends and neighbors that are completely underwater. In Holt County there’s ninety five thousand acres that are underwater, have water on it in some shape or form that will not be planted. So that decision is pretty much made up for those farmers. We did get to finish- almost finish- with soybeans as it was. We are all in the hills so we were subject to the erosion of the firm femoral gullies. That has been declared to where that will be waived this year which is a extremely big help because those fields have been planted and there’s no way that I was going to be able to go in and get them fixed and mended and terraces cleaned out and everything and put back the way that they’re supposed to be.
Blake Hurst [00:04:07] All right. Thank you Jason. Andy Clay farms in Moniteau County. He is in the middle of the mess with the Missouri River. So what’s going on on your farm Andy?
Andy Clay [00:04:20] Yes sir. Thank you Blake. Like you said we are in the middle of it. We farm right on the Missouri River in Moniteau and in Cooper county. Unfortunately lost one levee there along I- 70, and then the other one. Somehow we saved the levee but the bottom is full. It looks like it’s been broke. So we’re pretty much out of commission in both bottoms with the river remaining high for the foreseeable future and then some in the same way farming along the creek bottoms in our area close to the Missouri River. We unfortunately are still seeing high back water. So even a lot of the ground along the creeks still have yet to even be replanted or even thought about replanted as are still underwater as it slowly recedes. Unfortunately in the river bottom. I mean it’s all it’s all going to be prevented pointed acres. So we’re looking for a lot of clarification in the different different routes that we can be taking on the cover crop programs and then cleaning up debris and just unfortunately a lot of own unknown yet to be determined.
Blake Hurst [00:05:34] Guys in either one of your areas are people still trying to plant corn and planning what are they making that decision on land they did didn’t it to go to corn.
Andy Clay [00:05:45] Personally I think the majority of the people in my area that can plant corn are planting corn. I know there are fewer or a few maybe beginner farmers that are taking the prevent planting route but anyone that can get over the ground is still planting.
Jason Kurtz [00:06:06] The same way in our area. The I have a friend that was still planning corn two days ago so they’re still trying to plant.
Blake Hurst [00:06:17] All right. So we’ve got later on we’ve got three different economists on the call. So with any luck at all we should be able to get at least four different opinions on preventive planning and how that works with the trade mitigation package and the disaster bill but before we do that let’s talk about about the boot heel and how things are going in southeast Missouri. We have Barry Bean who farms amongst other things a lot of cotton so a little bit different perspective perhaps. Barry what’s happening in the boot heel?
Barry Bean [00:06:50] Well fortunately we have we have escaped the worst of the flooding that y’all have seen up north. The river is up in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties the river is pretty high and the bottom lands are underwater. We are seeing some some steep water along the levees but for most of Southeast Missouri and certainly on our farm the flooding that we’re seeing is what we would consider normal flooding. The flooding that we see in one year out of every four or five. That’s the problem that we have had is it’s been a cool and wet enough year that we are dramatically behind on planning. We’ve we’ve probably statewide we’ve lost about 20 percent of our cotton acres and about 30 percent of our of our rice acres. The corn we we generally got in we got in 90 to 95 percent of the corn it’s coming along. OK but our our cotton is easily 20 to 25 days behind schedule a lot of that still looks pretty iffy if we don’t have a perfect June then that we’re going to be looking at cotton acres that just aren’t going to make it. And rice is a is struggling; it’s overall in fair condition but there’s an awful lot of spots struggling. But we’re still looking at there’s an awful lot of ground out there that has been either. Well it’s consistently been wet since since mid-April and where we’re at at a little bit of a loss where we’re looking at a looking at that MFP and PP and trying to figure out the impact on our on our APH to figure out how to go forward on those acres.
Blake Hurst [00:08:36] OK so what are a lot of people taking prevent planting? First off how many growing degree days are you behind? And I know Dr. Bradley may be able to answer that as well, but you know down there how much are you behind?
Barry Bean [00:08:51] Well I don’t I don’t I don’t want to. I haven’t actually looked at the growing degree days. I know that looking at it when I’m out in the field looking at cotton right now it’s where I would really like to see cotton on about May the 15th. So we are we are we are well behind. We’ve got an awful lot of young and tender cotton out there that as I say if we if we have a perfect June and July this cotton will come out of it and there’s no reason we shouldn’t make a five year average, but a lot of it has been been replanted two or three times it’s running very late. So any any kind of stress that goes under in the next 60 days or so and we’ll be looking at it either lower yield or some Micron air issues.
Blake Hurst [00:09:36] All right. Thank you Barry. We’re joined by Dr. John Newton who’s the chief economist for American Farm Bureau. And again we do have a couple economists on the call as well and agronomists. We’re looking forward to hearing what they all have to say, but I did have a chance to kind of ask her Dr. Newton if he talk a little bit there’s some major announcements made today by the secretary about the disaster program and the market facilitation program. What’s up John?
Dr. John Newton [00:10:07] Well can you can you hear me OK?
Blake Hurst [00:10:08] Sure can and we can here.
Dr. John Newton [00:10:12] Oh good. Good deal. Well we sent a letter to the to the Secretary about a week and a half ago two weeks ago, Mr. Hurst, really reflecting a lot of the comments that I’ve heard from you as well as many of the other state Farm Bureau presidents with respect to the confusion around the MFP payment and the potential disaster aid at that point time hadn’t yet been passed out of the House, and the Secretary today kind of in response to that letter President Zippy Duvall also had an opportunity to ride with the secretary last week to a meeting and reiterated some of the concerns that we surfaced in that letter. And so what USDA did today is they released a fact sheet, an F A Q, on a number of the questions that people had with respect to the MFP payment as well as the disaster aid. I did send you, Spencer, and Eric a copy of that F A Q But if I had time I’d love to run through some of the things that he highlighted. Would that be okay?
Blake Hurst [00:11:19] Yeah absolutely.
Dr. John Newton [00:11:22] So the first thing was: what’s the purpose of the MFP in the program, what’s the legal authority? I think we all know that that’s the CCC Corporation the monies there are able to be used to help farmers market a crop. Now the second question really was geared around the fact that last year soybeans had the highest per acre payment on the MFP program payments, and the question of whether I should plant soybeans again this year in order to maximize potential payments. I haven’t really heard that from many of our state Farm Bureaus, that notion, but what they did say that you should plant what works for your operation and that the payment rates, the MFP payment rates, the second round will be made on a county level average payment per county so it doesn’t really reflect what crops you plant in 2019. The MFP program simply requires you to plant the crop in 2019 and your payments in 2019 will be based on the crops that you plant. We did ask the Secretary to make prevent plant eligible for trade aid payments. Our logic there was that the revenue guarantee under crop insurance was was lower because of the trade situation. As such the payment from a prevent plant claim was also lower. But the Secretary and the lawyers felt that you couldn’t make a MFP payment on private plant because it has to be for a crop that’s marketed. So what USDA is said is that they could potentially make a bonus prevent plant payment under the trade aid package based on any cover crops that may be planted in 2019. We don’t have a lot of details yet on what that includes I’ll be sure to communicate, Mr. Hurst, that you want that to include pig wheat.
Blake Hurst [00:13:31] That’s why we’re growing.
Dr. John Newton [00:13:35] So we’ll get some more details there. It did list all the crops that are eligible including the specialty crops. A lot of the crops that are eligible for the trade aid include a lot of your your Title 1 covered commodities as well as alfalfa. The third factor here is my fields never dry out enough to get a crop in. Do I get a trade aid payment? It says no, USDA does not have legal authority to make a trade aid payment. Producers unable to plant their crops to work with their crop insurance agent to file a claim. Fourth here, says I filed a prevent planting claim and I’m going to plant a cover crop to prevent erosion. Does that count for MFP? And it says if you choose to plant a cover crop with the potential to be harvested because of this year’s adverse weather conditions you may qualify for a minimal amount of trade assistance payments. So again we’ll continue to work with the department to get more details on that and as soon as we get any additional details we’ll be sure to share it with all the state Farm Bureas so they’re well aware of what information we’re hearing from the department. I think one of the biggest things that we’ve been hearing over the last two weeks is that prevent plant could potentially pay up to 90 percent of the value of the crop. And this is something that we specifically asked – President Duvall asked the Secretary to clarify when they had the car ride together last week, and here the F A Q says: I heard I can get 90 percent of my crop insurance guarantee as a previous plant payment through the disaster bill, is that true? What they they recognize is that the disaster relief act gives USDA the authority to compensate losses up to 90 percent of the value of the crop. They say while that authority exists USDA must operate within finite appropriation limits and they were appropriated a little more than five point two billion dollars in this disaster package and only about three billion dollars of that is for farm related disasters. And as a sidebar we’ve been working on this disaster package for several months here in Washington and the dollar figure has consistently been three billion dollars. I think going back to February or March when we were negotiating this. So that three billion dollars has remained the same. But at this point now they’ve added prevent plant as an eligible disaster so the money is going to be spread pretty thin there and I think that’s what USDA is trying to highlight. Here it says if I’m playing a cover crop, can still get prevent plant? What about a trade aid payment? You have to comply with crop insurance to get a premium plant indemnity, and then they encourage you to visit with your crop insurance agent. If you plant a cover crop that can be harvested, you can potentially get a trade aid payment there. Another one that was surfaced around the country was whether or not it could get disaster assistance. You had to be in a federal or state declared disaster area and so it says here. I’ve heard that only acreage in and declared disaster area will qualify for prevent planning under the Disaster Relief Act. Is that true? USDA is currently evaluating the authority provided under the Disaster Relief Act. However it’s generally true that producers with qualifying losses in a secretarial or presidentially declared disaster area would be eligible for disaster relief assistance. So anybody outside of those areas the eligibility will be determined on a case by case basis. And so I’m not sure yet. I don’t think a lot of folks understand yet what exactly that means is that USDA has declared a disaster area it need to be FEMA or a state governor? But given that the monies are pretty stand to begin with, I would imagine that’s one of the mechanisms they’ll use to make sure anybody getting some of these additional prevent plant payments are in some of those disaster areas. Here’s one about the harvest price option: the disaster bill does say that any losses should be calculated based on the higher of the spring or harvest price. We echoed that in our letter as well. And it says here that the USDA is exploring their authority to do that with respect to prevent plant. One of the other issues that we surface, especially for folks raising livestock, was the ability to plant on prevent plant ground and be able to harvest before November 1st, so they can hay or graze or uses forage silage without any penalty and prevent planting the payment or date restriction penalties, and says USDA is encouraging folks to work their crop insurance agents. I know that we’ve echoed that a number of times to the Secretary a bill was just released today in the House that would permanently modify crop insurance to allow farmers on prevent plant to plant a crop for forage or silage without any type of payment or or deadline date restrictions. So that’s something I think USDA very well aware of and we’ll get a fix pretty soon. So with that I think that that really highlights the F A Qs. Mr. Hurst is there anything else that you think would be useful that I can provide to the group?
Blake Hurst [00:19:31] Well John I think we’ve got a couple other speakers we’ll see what they had to say and then we’ll open it up. I know that Andy and Jason all have some questions and so do I as well so you’ll be able to be with us for a few more minutes.
Dr. John Newton [00:19:45] Yeah. The only thing, and I’m sure everybody on the phone will appreciate this month. My daughter’s down at the swimming pool and she’s waiting on daddy to finish the call so I’ll come down to the pool with her.
Blake Hurst [00:19:57] Alright, I will try to get you there as quick as we can. Dr. Scott Brown, the director of strategic partnerships, is with us. And Scott you and I think I bored you for about half an afternoon last week. A lot of questions answered by the Secretary today but I’m still not sure my concern was answered, which is the fact that we were in a competition for acres between prevented planning and soybeans. Has he changed people’s decision any way as they did or I decide whether to take preventive planning on corn or to plant soybeans as he made a difference.
Dr. Scott Brown [00:20:37] Well I think Blake we still have a lot of uncertainty out there when it comes to the right decision. It’s nice to see the F A Qs up there, there’s still a lot of yet to be determined details that I think are going to be important as as folks try to make that decision. I guess to take a little different spin today with USDA now releasing their June WASDE report. It reminded me to make sure we had the discussion of corn versus soybean markets as folk think about the decisions they have to make. USDA knocked 10 bushels off the U.S. corn yield in the June report relative to May. They also knocked down planted acres by 3 million acres relative to where they were in May. That combination got us a thirteen point seven billion bushel corn crop harvested this fall versus what was up 15 billion bushel crop in the May report. If you now look at ending stocks, in May USDA was suggesting ending stocks of almost two and a half billion bushels of corn. They trimmed those now to one point seven roughly billion bushels of corn and raised their corn production by 50 cents. So we’ve got a $3.80 season average price for corn just reminds me that we’re getting a big change in USDA monthly report early in the process. They already see that the issues of delayed planting. I think there’s going to remain a lot of uncertainty about what the final yield looks like when we see the corn side. Just given how tough some of the corn still looks that’s been planted. A lot will argue that there’s going to be even less than the three or even a greater decline in the 3 million acres USDA put in the report today. We’ll wait for that find, that June acreage report here at the end of June that still may not give us a very good picture given so much was still going on at the time that that survey would have went out to producers. Yet when you look at the other side of the picture USDA also gave us their outlook for soybeans with no change in soybean production on their part yet saying it’s really too early in the process. So a 49 and a half bushel yield to be harvested this fall according to USDA and still an area planted of eighty four point six. I I look at the soybean side and the thing that sticks out to me is the USDA for the current year, we’re in the 18-19 year, now saying we’re having stocks above a billion bushels. And when you look at their projections for the crop we harvest this fall still above a billion bushels of soybeans. So interesting market dynamics between corn and soybean prices that I think also have to factor in to the decision that that producers have to make. I wish I could help folks on the call with having a completely clear crystal ball to tell you where these prices are going, but I guess in my mind there’s still some upside potential in corn and in some ways maybe some downside risk in soybeans.
Blake Hurst [00:23:54] So corn and soybeans both in the fives, is that what you’re saying?
Dr. Scott Brown [00:23:58] They sure get a lot closer together than we would have ever thought. And I think again folks have to think about just the opposite direction we seem to be moving at this point.
Blake Hurst [00:24:11] All right. Thank you Scott. Dr. Raymond Massey is with us, an extension economist, did a great great sort of overview of the markets and the trade situation. Dr. Massey how does this all play in trade? What’s going to happen?
Dr. Raymond Massey [00:24:28] Well what I’m thinking about just after what Scott Brown said is if in fact corn prices are going up one of the things you need to be aware of is if you take the preventive planting option, which a lot of folks are planning on doing, you are locking in that springtime price for corn, which is four dollars. If somehow you were able to get the corn in and there is a rally in corn and you’re taking revenue insurance, I should say that, revenue protection, you may be able to grab a little bit extra price protection with your crop insurance. But the thing that I really say is critical at this point, where we’re at and late planning period and everything, is you’ve got to communicate with your crop insurance agent before you do anything. I think you have 72 hours after the end of the late planning period which has already occurred for extreme southeast and southwest Missouri, but for the rest of the states that’ll happen either this weekend or sometime later next week depending on where you’re at in the state. So you’re going to have to make some kind of a declaration as to what you’re going to do. But again talking about your agronomy or your agronomics issues, if you can, I would not take anything off the table right now. Late planted corn that may be harvested to silage again going back to what somebody else said switching to something like Sudan, you may not be able to plant and harvest it as silage until November 1st, but if you plant corn late and then find out that you’ve got a poor yield, you can harvest that silage and it still be an insured crop. But before you do that talk to your crop insurance agent. Essentially don’t make any decisions without first clearing it was them because you’d hate to be dumped out because of some type of a technicality. There is a spreadsheet that I have on the extension website, which I think you’re going to make available to people in an email tomorrow, that would help them look at what the options are. It does have in there the University of Missouri expected decrease in harvest. So you know if you say you’re going to plant it June 12th or the 15th that will say well you’re only going to get 70 or 80 percent of your expected harvest if you have done a timely planting and that’s just University of Missouri equation. But it also brings it through the crop insurance issues of what percentage of coverage do you have when you’re going to get that payment nature.
Blake Hurst [00:27:12] All right. Thank you a lot. So we also are joined by Dr. Bradley who’s going to talk a little bit about sort of the agronomic challenges we’re facing. I got corn in the same field that’s yellow and four inches tall and green and two feet tall or 18 inches tall. What’s that going to mean to my yields?
Dr. Kevin Bradley [00:27:34] Yeah well I mean he’s going to be all over the board but I think as Bill Wiebold and Greg Luce, our agronomists here at MU, they wrote an article lately that said something to the effect of, you know, poor corn is better than no corn at all this year. And a lot of people are in that situation, so all of our corn across Missouri is in a danger zone, if you will, for having nitrogen lost or having nitrogen needs. So we’re kind of all over the board with regard to that. I guess the few things I would just add to what’s been mentioned from an agronomic standpoint the number one question I’ve been getting asked is mostly about the herbicides that are on the ground that was flooded out. And you know there’s not much I can tell you there. That’s good news. Almost no corn herbicide, if you look at the label for the replant interval, will allow you to plant soybeans or for that matter just about any cover crop. These are residual herbicides by nature that you want them to last in the soil for weed control obviously, and soo that’s generally why the companies are kind of covering themselves. And a lot of ways those tests haven’t been conducted that need to be conducted to get those things approved on the label. Now having said that the number one question like I said I get is basically “Can I plant a cover crop? Can I plant a soybean? I’ve got atrazine down,” all that kind of stuff. I can’t tell you you can do that, but I would what I would say and what I have been saying a lot in the past couple of weeks, one thing we would suggest is a soil bioassay, and that sounds like it’s something fancy it’s really not. All we’re saying is, take some of the soil from the flooded field, plant it in some cups or pots or whatever, or some people just take a little corner of the field that’s dried out, hoe in some soybeans or something or whatever it is you’re trying to plant, but I’d rather see it in a little pot kind of experiment. Go to another area where you know there’s no problem there hasn’t been any herbicide, get some soil from that area, plant your crop out that you’re wanting to plant in there and then just watch and wait. I’d only take a week or so and you’ll know for sure if that soybean or maybe it’s cereal rye you want to plant, or whatever it is, if that’s going to be all right and not suffer any damage due to herbicide residues you know real world, if it’s just atrazine that’s been applied it’s probably gone, and I can’t tell you that for sure, but the real world thing is most people don’t just apply atrazine there’s two or three way tree herbicide combinations and that means two or three active ingredients, they all don’t break down the same, they all aren’t degraded the same, and so that’s where we get into a much riskier situation of if you’re going to plant something in there can actually hurt your subsequent crops. That’s probably the number one thing that I’ve been answering calls about. But if there’s if there’s any calls here as we finish up and proceed, if there’s any questions I’d be glad to take those also.
Blake Hurst [00:31:20] I appreciate everybody who’s been on the call a great job of covering some of these issues. We’ve got Barry on the phone Andy and Jason here in the room with us. What questions came up in your guys’ mind? What did our presenters say that made you think or gave you gave you a question? Something that you’re concerned about?
Barry Bean [00:31:49] OK I’ll get going here. One thing worth a question that I have is on prevented plant. I know that they are looking at the possibility of possibly increasing the payment rate on that. Has there been any talk about the about the impact of prevented plant on the APH and your program yield on it on any given farm?
Dr. Raymond Massey [00:32:22] Maybe I can talk to that just a little bit. But if you actually do take prevented planting meaning you do not plant a crop on it you let it lay idle or you plan to cover crop on it, there is nothing that will happen to your APH. I’ll just put in a not planted for 2019 so it won’t hurt your APH. If on the other hand you do plant something either late or you plant soybeans on it, the corn yield that you would have had will affect your APH and so that is one thing you need to look at. How does your planting decision affect APH? Prevented planting does not affect it at all.
Barry Bean [00:33:08] OK. Well I had understood that differently in previous y ears. Did that change the current farm bill or did I misunderstand that previously?
Dr. Raymond Massey [00:33:19] I don’t think that’s new. Again if you do not plant it will not be counted against you so you’re not going to get a zero yield. But if you do plant there will be and you get a low yield that will be used in your APH
Barry Bean [00:33:36] Good to know, good to know. Thank you.
Blake Hurst [00:33:37] All right. Thank you Ray. Alright guys, Andy’s got a question.
Andy Clay [00:33:41] You know the question here, and this is probably more for and RMA maybe but I was hoping you all might have better insight on it than myself, on prevent plant acres if we choose to do a cover crop and harvest that cover crop, do you all know can it be chopped for silage or just baled? We’re getting mixed information kind of there. The clarification we had that was chopping it for silage is a mechanical harvest and was not allowed.
Dr. John Newton [00:34:13] Blake, if I could chime in, this is John.
Blake Hurst [00:34:17] Yeah John.
Dr. John Newton [00:34:18] I was just going to say this.This is an issue that we’ve surfaced up and down left and right with with the Secretary. I’ve been on the communication with Rob Johansson chief economist at USDA, also the chairman of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation on this issue. There’s also a bill moving through the House on this issue, and USDA communicated that they’re very, very well aware of this and they are going to try to be as flexible as possible on this. Last week I was visiting with Senator Thune’s office and they said that while they don’t have any language yet for USDA, they’ve been assured by the department how much they recognize that this is an issue and will try to find a way to make sure that all of the issues with respect to, you know, chopping, growing and silage, forge et cetera, are addressed on crops that are put on prevent plant. I think the winter kill on and in the upper Midwest only makes this issue even more dire. So they’re very, very well aware of it, and it was number two on our list for President is a beauty wall to race the secretary last week when they were together. So I just think that USDA is going to come through on this. I just think that you know we need to give me a little bit more time. After if there’s something that we’re missing and they don’t capture, you know we’ll be we’ll be sure to reiterate and reclarify what exactly we need.
Blake Hurst [00:35:55] Somebody else had a comment on that question.
Dr. Raymond Massey [00:35:58] This is Ray Massey, I can give you what the current rules are again whether they get changed because of what they’re talking about that may happen, but there’s three words to use when you’re planting a cover crop that’s harvested, hayed or grazed. And so if it is harvested you’re not going to get a preventive planning payment if it is hayed or grazed before November 1st and you planted it before the end of the late planting period, which again the late planting period for most of Missouri has not ended, except for the extreme southeast and southwest, but if you hay or graze it after November 1st, you get a complete planting payment. But if you wait until the late planting period is over you can hay or graze it before November 1st and get 35 percent of your prevented planting payments. So it’s kind of treated like a second crop, or you can hay or graze it after November 1st and get all of you prevented planting. So, November 1st is the key date right now under the current provisions of your crop insurance program.
Andy Clay [00:37:16] Yes sir, but what, sorry if I missed it but, chopping silage that you’re saying hay or grazing so correct me if I’m wrong, chopping silage even after the first of November is not allowed, correct? Under the current state.
Dr. Raymond Massey [00:37:32] Well again this is where you’re going to want to talk to your crop insurance agent. Is it gonna be considered a second crop or is it gonna be considered a cover crop? If you can justify it as a cover crop after November 1st, if you harvest it, which at that point in time most of it is going to be somewhat dry and I don’t know how well it ensiles, but if you if it is indeed considered a covered crop by insurance and you get hay or grazed after November 1st you get 100 percent of your prevented planting payment. So I’d ask your insurance agent are you gonna consider this a preventive or a cover crop or a second crop.
Andy Clay [00:38:16] Yes sir, my example was if one was taken preventive planting and then doing a cover crop would they be able to chop that cover crop after November 1st for silage, or can it only be grazed or bailed like it says?
Dr. John Newton [00:38:32] I’m aware this is something that Vice President Scott VanderWal, he elevated this issue and this is, again, something we’ve communicated, the issue with respect to you know chopping it in and I anticipate USDA is going to try to give as much flexibility as they can on this but we continue to raise that issue with the department.
Blake Hurst [00:38:58] All right. Did you have another question Andy?
Andy Clay [00:38:59] I guess one more for Dr. Newton, you can probably answer this as well, what’s the chances USDA is gonna move that November 1st date up for a wheat crop? Have you heard?
Dr. John Newton [00:39:12] That, I’m not sure.
Andy Clay [00:39:13] On October 15th or something? So you take the cover crop off so you can get a wheat crop in still?
Dr. John Newton [00:39:20] We’ve specifically been asking on just, you know, the perspective of livestock and silage and grazing and we also appear to have emergency grazing on CRP ground. But I think if there’s if there’s any issue that that we need to flag additionally to the FCIC board or to the Secretary we can do so. So I can reach out to Spencer tomorrow to give a little bit more clarity in the note and if there’s something else we need to communicate. Is that okay Mr. Hurst?
Blake Hurst [00:39:54] Yeah that’ll be great because what he’s saying is he wants to take it off a lot quicker so he still got time to seed wheat because of the comply date and all that.
Dr. John Newton [00:40:02] What we’ve asked is to have no date restrictions and then no penalty either. We were just talking about a prevent plant dropping to 35 percent. We don’t want that. I think President Holte from Wisconsin was concerned that if his neighbors want to plant something on his prevent plant for their dairy cattle he’d let them do that, but not if it’s going to mean he’s going to get docked on his prevent plant payment. So you know I think the USDA recognizes that you know if you want to plant something for quote unquote donation or something like that. So we continue to communicate all the unique scenarios that seem to emerge here, and again if there’s something specifically here with respect to make sure you can get wheat in we can do that.
Blake Hurst [00:40:49] Barry you got any other questions?
Barry Bean [00:40:53] Not really we’ve. We’ve done a pretty good job of covering not questions other than just to confirm now, where will we post on our website a URL to the F A Q posted by the USDA and the other documents that we’ve referred to in this conversation?
Blake Hurst [00:41:12] Yes we will. We’ll get Dr. Massey’s spreadsheet up. We’ll get the Secretary’s frequently asked questions. We’ll also get a recording of this phone call for people who had to leave during the phone call or would like to share with friends or whatever so we’ll try to get that all up on the web tomorrow. Thank you everybody that participated. Just a tremendous job of answering questions John, get down to the swimming pool. You need to get yourself wet and come to Missouri. Yeah. There you go. Come to Missouri we’ve got lots of swimming pools here.
Dr. John Newton [00:41:55] I live in Indiana and Chicago. It was pretty wet there.
Blake Hurst [00:41:59] Yeah it’s wet everywhere. Scott, Ray, and Kevin thanks. Great job. Exactly what we’d hoped to accomplish I think and sunny here today, chance of rain tonight. But I we hope we get a few more days of good weather for the next round. Thank you all very much. And thanks to everybody that dialed in.
