Helpless.

That’s how Illinois farmer Megan Dwyer felt after forty days of rain left her family farm’s Coal Valley, Ill., fields swamped last spring. Dwyer, who farms 700 acres of corn, soybeans and alfalfa with her father Richard, watched the calendar turn to June with only a handful of acres planted.

That scene played out for thousands of row crop farmers over most of the corn belt, leading to nearly 20 million acres of prevented planting acres. Now, nearly a year later, relentless storms have plagued most of the south and Midwest again, putting further pressure on farmers who desperately hoped to hit the reset button and get ‘back to normal.’

“I don’t know anyone who didn’t finish up in December if not January,” Dwyer says wearily. “It was just a year that would not end. We’re going into spring with river and soil saturation levels higher than last spring, so another wet spring will be problematic.”

Feeling distracted

Many farmers hoped for a big rally after last year’s crazy weather, but unlike the drought of 2012, these markets saw ‘rain makes grain.’ Then Black Swan events like Coronavirus amid trade wars added to the frustration and tanked markets even further.

Now, despite new trade deals, some farmers may be lulled into hoping for more government help instead of doing what they do best – planting and planning for profit.

Related:Farm tech helps manage the madness

“Farmers seem as distracted as I’ve seen in 15 years,” says Steve Johnson, Iowa State University farm management specialist. “There’s a lack of focus in the countryside. Most farmers are still hanging on to 2019 bushels and focused on last year’s wet corn and weather; they’re still focused on things out of their control, and it’s distracting them.”

Johnson believes farmers are pushing risk management decisions later in the winter, based on what he’s seen from slower signups for ARC/PLC and crop insurance. “That’s not going to bode well if you’re holding large amounts of unpriced bushels from the previous year, and it won’t bode well for making pre harvest sales either,” he says.

“We’re going back to a pattern reminiscent of 2004-2006,” he observes. “We’re not making much money and we’re becoming more dependent on the federal government rather than the marketplace. Farmers are talking about how they have to have an MFP payment in 2020 to make a profit.”

To be sure, a core group of producers – maybe 20 to 30%, he estimates – have their eye on the ball, concentrating on lower costs, minimizing risk, and selling rallies. But the late 2019 planting season followed by late harvest and continued wet conditions has made a stressful time of year more difficult. Much of the U.S. is primed to suffer multi-billion dollar flood losses, with farmers already steeling themselves for another round of planting delays.

Related:Risk management - or disaster management

Be proactive

Rain or shine, how can you stay Zen in all the spring planting chaos?

First, put together a plan; work the plan; and then call an audible when it’s time to change the plan. Consider these useful tactics from Johnson:

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Time Management

Work through the 'what-if' list

How you deal with the unexpected can have dramatic impacts on your bottom line at the end of the year.  Ask yourself these questions:

Have a written plan to answer all these questions and share it with the team.

“If our combine catches fire we know where we can quickly get a replacement or can hire custom help to get us through the remainder of harvest,” says Waters. “Likewise, with other machinery we work with reliable dealerships that can provide timely service when needed or provide a replacement machine or implement for repairs requiring extended downtime. For minor repairs, we plan for breakdowns by having a supply of commonly used parts on hand to reduce downtime.”

Even so, it’s tough to keep calm when Mother Nature has other ideas.

“People forget all the work that goes into putting in a crop and how much faith you have to put into the weather,” Dwyer says. “It’s tough to put together a plan and have very little control of the outcome.”