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Ag economist reviews lessons learned from delayed planting

University of Illinois ag economist Gary Schnitkey says numbers show farmers should have taken prevent plant on corn in 2019 once they hit the final planting date.

He says that decision was not made is several cases because farmers have a natural bias against prevent plant.

“This is what we do. We produce corn and soybeans, and you can’t do that without planting them. So, there is an inclination to plant corn when maybe the better decision would be to take the prevent plant payment.”

The Market Facilitation Program was another factor. He says the possibility of MFP3 in 2020 continues to complicate farmers’ decisions.

“How do you handle a cash rent decision when you could have a $60 MFP payment? You build a budget with that and without that and you get a different cash rent bid.”

Schnitkey says some more obvious lessons learned include building in higher drying costs when planting in June and expecting harvest difficulties.

Brownfield interviewed Schnitkey at the 2019 Illinois Farm Economics Summit in Mt. Vernon.