By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture says farmers this spring were able to plant all but a few thousand acres of the land that was deluged by last year's flooding along on the Missouri River.
When farmers can't plant their crops because of flooding or other weather conditions, they're able to collect "prevented planting" payments through their insurance.
USDA numbers show that farmers received the payments for only about 4,900 acres of unplanted Missouri River cropland in about 20 counties in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.
The Missouri River basin land was flooded after record runoff forced massive releases of water from upstream reservoirs.
The USDA data also shows farmers planted most of the land inundated after the intentional breaching of the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri.