By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

LANCASTER, Ohio — “Rain, rain, go away” has been the farmer’s lament this spring, and many wet fields remain unplanted. Despite their instinct to plant and grow, at this late date farmers may be better off accepting a prevented planting (PP) crop insurance payment.

Planting a cover crop in those insured but unplanted acres to use for livestock feed later this fall might be an option, said Stan Smith, with Ohio State University extension in Highland County.

According to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Ohio has the lowest inventory of hay since the 2012 drought and the fourth-lowest in 70 years. Ohio’s row crops will not get planted in a timely fashion this year, and for those with coverage, PP crop insurance payments may provide more income than growing a late-planted corn or soybean crop this year.

“Due to the nuances of the way crop insurance works, if a farmer claims PP and does not plant, that farmer has the opportunity to put a cover crop, including those that livestock can eat, on it,”  Smith explained. “Those PP acres can be hayed or grazed without affecting the PP payment, beginning November 1.”

Spring oats are an easy, manageable cover crop, but there’s a lot of other options based on your goals and what species of livestock you’re feeding, said Allen Gahler, an extension agent in Sandusky County, who also has a farm near Graytown.

“I haven’t planted oats specifically in a PP situation, but we typically follow our wheat crops on our farm with a planting of spring oats that are seeded in late July or early August,” he explained. “They get about 60 to 70 days of growth, and if we can get a window in October to cut them for hay, we’ll manage it just like any other hay and try to dry it down if possible. If not, we bale it wet and wet-wrap it.”

If the farmer does not plant their field, they have time to get some hay baled, care for the crops that are planted, clean up the weeds on the PP acres, and make some choices about what they wish to do with that field, if anything, the rest of the year, Smith said.

For that person who could use some modest quality feed beginning in November, spring oats is an option that would work.

In May 2017, according to NASS, 450,000 tons of hay were inventoried in Ohio, Smith said.  A year later farmers inventoried 280,000, and on May 10 of this year there were 180,000.

“We’re out of forages,” he noted. “We’re also out of straw, so if a farmer can figure out a way to get these oats dry in November, and if Mother Nature blesses us with some weather, he’d be able to make straw with it, or bedding.”

Anyone considering planting a cover crop they might hay or graze should check with their crop insurance agent and the Farm Service Agency for restrictions they might need to consider, Smith advised.

A regional concern

Hoping to head off a “rapidly emerging forage crisis for livestock farmers across the Midwest,” a multi-state coalition of agricultural organizations submitted a written request to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue last week, seeking approval for emergency provisions allowing the planting and harvesting of forages on PP acres without date restrictions.

The request from Farm Bureaus in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio, along with the Michigan Cattlemen’s Assoc., Dairy Farmers of America, and Michigan Milk Producers Assoc., comes on the heels of two weather-related extremes. Severe winter-kill of alfalfa fields throughout the upper Midwest, followed by record-breaking rain, has prevented the planting of corn and soybeans, and timely harvest of alfalfa fields that did survive.

“Our dairy and livestock farmers are reporting a very serious forage and feed shortage for this year,” said Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) Livestock Specialist Ernie Birchmeier. “We understand that portions of Michigan and Wisconsin and have severe winter-kill damage – as high as 80 percent, depending on location.”

He said the loss of alfalfa forage and quality is compounded by concerns that delayed corn planting will take a heavy toll on corn-silage tonnage this fall, as well.

While current PP provisions do allow planting and harvesting of potential forage crops, those come with some impractical date requirements for both timely planting, currently August 1, and a harvest date restriction of Nov. 1, which is long after a typical killing frost in the upper Midwest.

MFB National Legislative Counsel John Kran said the request specifically seeks immediate provisions to allow planting and normal harvest and grazing of forage crops/cover crops on PP acreage for 2019 without penalty and without date restrictions; and to allow harvest and grazing of forages on Conservation Reserve Program ground and all eligible acres for 2019 without penalty and date restrictions.

“We are not asking for a permanent change to prevented-plant provision, but simply a one-time allowance due to the unprecedented weather challenges dairy and livestock farmers are facing across the country, along with cash crop farming operations in 2019,” he noted.

Birchmeier said many dairy farmers have indicated that unless emergency provisions are made in the next 30 days, cows will eventually have to be sold. “For many farmers, this decision will be the deciding factor of whether their multigenerational family farms continue.”