Following a notoriously wet planting season, data from the Risk Management Agency (RMA) indicated that prevented planting claims for the year could exceed $1 billion. As of July 1, the RSA reportedly had paid out $151 million in prevented planting claims, up $39 million from the week before.

Bill Northey, the USDA’s undersecretary of farm production and conservation, commented on the RMA’s data, saying, “We expect that to certainly pass the $1 billion  mark, if you look at the acres in the prevent plant area.” According to additional RMA data, prevented plant claims have only broken $1 billion five times since 2009, with the peak of $2 billion being reached in both 2011 and 2013.

RMA’s chief of staff, Keith Gray, mentioned that most claims are coming from the upper Midwest and the Mississippi River, saying, “Those river basins that have been in the flooding areas are where a large majority of prevent plant claims that we’re seeing [come from].” Gray also mentioned that RMA would have a better projection for the total amount of prevented plant claims by the end of the month.