Question for the BBC farmers

[idbefishing]

Why would anyone purposely planted crops and not harvest them? There are 2 fields near my house that are about 100 acres total and are across the road from each other. In the last few years, they planted crops and alternate between beans and corns like everybody else. Everything is normal except they don't harvest the crops Land cost in this area is crazy high so I'm curious as hell why they would do this. Keep it from getting rezone, developed, crop insurance? They are next to an elementary school though.

[robertboyd]

There use to be an old guy that lived in our county that did the same thing. He told one of the neighbors he made more money from the gov't subsidies and crop insurance than he did by harvesting. Don't know the details, but that was his story.

[D.O.C. 989]

Not sure but if i remember correctly , if you collect insurance off it you cannot harvest it in certain cases. Other times it can be harvested for animal food only and some times it has to be tilled under. The programs and rules change constantly but those are some i remember from a long time back. Was it hailed on early in the year? If so it may have been settled by insurance already.

[larryhyco]

turned over in the soil for nutrients

[Mizzou211]

Good answers.

[yatesville88fan]

Maybe to keep down on soil erosion.

[CatFan]

A lot of stuff in Indiana wasn’t worth the Diesel to harvest this year. Too wet in the spring and by the time they got it replanted it turned dry. People who made insurance claims mostly did it on flooded crops early in the summer. You aren’t going to come out ahead on insurance and subsidies. Premiums are too much.

[Duece22]

Not sure but if i remember correctly , if you collect insurance off it you cannot harvest it in certain cases. Other times it can be harvested for animal food only and some times it has to be tilled under. The programs and rules change constantly but those are some i remember from a long time back. Was it hailed on early in the year? If so it may have been settled by insurance already.

I may be wrong, but isnt insurance based off of your 5 or 10 year yield?

[D.O.C. 989]

I may be wrong, but isnt insurance based off of your 5 or 10 year yield?

I don't really recall any specifics but you may be correct and if i remember right it may have even been based off an average of all the farm yields in an area like a county or something. It seemed the insurance wasn't quite what one had invested in it for some crops like dryland corn. Most would much rather have the harvest money than the insurance money, at least that's what i remember.

[idbefishing]

The corn this year looked real good so I don't know if they can file insurance claim or not. They're rotting away now. It seems like a lot of troubles considering that 100 acres would fetch about 3 mil based on the land listings around here.

[HH45cal]

Probably bad crop

[brushsjigs]

Bill is correct. The crops had to be in the ground by June 15 to collect the insurance. As wet of a spring that we had some didnt make it, or if planted wasn't worth the time and diesel to harvest. OR the crop might have too much moisture yet and they are letting it dry out, rather than paying for the heaters to dry it. The farmer just made the time frame next to me and came in with a pretty good bean crop, even though this year he should have planted corn.

[Lanierspook]

turned over in the soil for nutrients

This, our last planting of the year was always for soil improvement, tilled back it in the soil a couple months before spring planting. Best practices.

[BasserJim]

I heard something about an LP shortage keeping them from being able to dry things for storage

[D.O.C. 989]

The corn this year looked real good so I don't know if they can file insurance claim or not. They're rotting away now. It seems like a lot of troubles considering that 100 acres would fetch about 3 mil based on the land listings around here.

I've seen lots of corn harvested in December and January with snow on the ground.

[BalsaBee]

He's more interested in hunting than farming?

[Duece22]

The corn this year looked real good so I don't know if they can file insurance claim or not. They're rotting away now. It seems like a lot of troubles considering that 100 acres would fetch about 3 mil based on the land listings around here.

3 mil? Is the land close to development? No way anyone is paying 30k an acre for farm ground

[Duece22]

I heard something about an LP shortage keeping them from being able to dry things for storage

It was talked about here in Ohio for about a week but we never noticed it thankfully. A family farm that I occasionally help out when needed has burned just under 75,000 gallons..