Insurance deadlines pass under wet skies

The Federal deadline to qualify spring wheat plantings for full insurance came and went Sunday, with officials reporting several farmers missing the date.

“We really haven’t had a lot of farmers come in yet,” said Kathy Wolfe, director of the Whitman County office of the federal Farm Service Agency. “But we have got a few guys in that have already reported they may have prevented plantings.”

The USDA’s Washington office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, or NASS, reported Monday farmers in the state had planted 87 percent of their expected spring wheat crop, down from the 96 perc...