News

Missouri prevent plant? Yes and No

A southeast Missouri farmer says half of his acres have been under water for a long time – and the corn and beans he HAS planted are at risk of flooding.

But, Peter Rost, who farms in New Madrid County in the Missouri Bootheel, says he’s not considering prevent plant acres because he’s planted beans as late as July. Rost tells Brownfield Ag News, “That is very fertile ground and we can make a good bean crop even planting late so we have full intentions of goin’ up there and planting. We could make a lot more money with a crop than, you know, with prevent plant.”

For farmers like Mark Scott, in east central Missouri, prevent plant acres will be a reality. He has eight-feet of water on his Mississippi River bottom acres and that’s expected to still be four-feet by June 2^nd, “And it all has to drain,” he says, “It has to go to flood stage before it’ll drain off of it so there’s going to be thousands of acres of prevent planting that wasn’t protected by the Corps levees.”

There is a bright spot for Scott, on his acres that have dried up enough to plant corn. He started planting last Thursday, missed the rain that was forecast for Saturday and hopes to have 50% of his corn acres planted by Tuesday.

Scott farms near Wentzville, Missouri and is president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association.