Getting Ready For The New Crop Year

February 2016 Field Report

Getting Ready For The New Crop Year

Trent Brandenburg was starting to think about planting during the recent warm days, but the big blizzard on Wednesday, February 24, helped him decide to keep the planters and tractors in the shed a while longer. Trent has completed delivery of last year’s grain from his on-farm storage. He is now getting his seed delivered and completing the winter maintenance on his machinery. This is the time of year when the input expenses all come at once: seed, fertilizer, crop protection chemicals, and diesel fuel. Hopefully, and farmers have to be hopeful, the yield will cover the crop expenses and land costs.

Trent anticipates that the grain markets will remain low this year and next, requiring careful management decisions due to the uncertainty of weather effects on crop yields. This makes the crop insurance decision, with a March deadline, difficult. Trent believes in buying the best he can get, the 85% coverage, because the difference between that and 80% is not worth taking on the extra financial risk for the amount of premium you save, Trent said.