Rainy days up crop insurance claims in southern Illinois

It is a heavy year for prevent plant crop insurance claims as some farmers, especially in southern Illinois, struggled to find a planting window as the calendar neared July.

COUNTRY Financial averaged 87 claims for plants that couldn’t be planted, known as prevent plan claims, over the past three years, but so far this year, the number of claims has topped 119, Crop Claims Manager Jessica Carter told FarmWeek this month.

“We ... will see those grow for a few more weeks,” she said.

FarmWeek CropWatcher Josh Wagner in Pope County wasn’t able to start planting soybeans until June 12, and while he needs about only two days of dry field conditions to finish up, the forecast didn’t look promising to get the rest in the ground as of press time.

“The conditions were never perfect,” he told FarmWeek. “It’s not like we’ve had a 22-inch rain, but we have a 1-inch rain every third or fourth day and it’s just continued on all spring.”

Wagner had 5.4 inches of rain on his farm in May and has received more than 6.5 inches so far in June. He’s also a part-time crop specialist with COUNTRY and has been fielding daily questions from farmers in his eight-county coverage area about replant and prevent plant options.

“There was a little window there in early June where some got planted. But [farmers] don’t think it’s going to make it, so they want to replant it,” Wagner said. “But it’s a question of, ‘When are we going to be able to do it?’ There’s no end in sight and it’ll be days and days before we can get back in the field.”

Looking back on his 21 years with COUNTRY, Wagner said this year will likely rival 2019 for the number of prevent plant claims he’s received in his area.

“This seems a little different than 2019. It’s different people, it’s different types of ground,” Wagner said. “I’m used to prevent plant on ground by the river, but this year it’s in areas that are not as susceptible to it.”

Carter said replant claims are actually below average statewide. As of June 19, COUNTRY received about 1,046 replant claims for 2025, compared to 1,486 on the same date in 2024.

“Obviously we have a few more weeks where we will see our replant claim numbers grow, however, we are on track to have a lighter year than what we have seen here in the most recent years when it comes to replant,” Carter said.

Wagner received several replant claims in recent weeks, but a lot of the acres have not been replanted yet.

“[The farmers who filed the claims] just haven’t had the opportunity. So they are trying to decide how late they’ll go and still replant,” he said.

“Is a partial stand planted in May better than a full stand planted in July? It’s just tough, tough decisions for these guys to make.”

Wagner said grain farmers in his area are also concerned about wheat as frequent rains dampen quality and delay harvest, limiting the opportunity to plant double-crop soybeans.

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.