Glossary

Prevented Planting (Prevent Plant), Explained

Prevent plant is the crop-insurance provision that pays when weather keeps you from planting at all. Here's how final planting dates, the late-planting period, and the PP payment actually work.

Preston Schrader2 min read
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What prevented planting is

Prevented planting (PP) is a provision of federal crop insurance that pays when an insured cause of loss — almost always excess moisture — makes it impossible to plant the crop by the dates the policy defines. It's the wet-spring backstop: the year the planter never gets a window.

The dates that control everything

Every county and crop has two dates in the policy:

  • Final planting date — plant by this date and you keep your full guarantee. In central Illinois this lands in early June for corn (check your county's actuarial documents for the exact date).
  • Late planting period — typically the ~25 days after the final date. You can still plant, but your guarantee drops by about 1% per day. Plant after the period ends and coverage falls further.

Once the final date passes, each field becomes a three-way decision: plant late with a reduced guarantee, take the PP payment, or plant another crop under its own rules.

What PP pays

The PP payment is a percentage of your original production guarantee — for corn the base has commonly been around 55%, with optional bought-up coverage available (percentages are set by RMA and have changed over the years; confirm current ones). Because it's keyed to your guarantee, your APH and coverage level drive the check here too.

Eligibility has real conditions: acreage must be eligible (generally planted and harvested in recent history), the cause must be widespread rather than a field-specific drainage failure, and cover-crop / haying / grazing rules on PP acres have specifics worth confirming in the current year.

The decision nobody enjoys

Late in a wet spring, the honest comparison is:

  • Plant late: reduced guarantee, late-planted yield drag, but a crop to sell.
  • Take PP: a known payment, no crop income, input savings, and next year's rotation to think about.

Run it with real numbers — your guarantee, realistic late-plant yield, input costs already sunk versus still avoidable — not with the coffee-shop consensus. And loop in your agent before disturbing any acre you might claim on.

Dates, percentages, and PP rules are set by USDA RMA and vary by county, crop, and year. Confirm current specifics with your crop insurance agent.

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