Meanwhile, about 40 farmers, who, like Farrell, were unable to plant because of wet conditions, gathered Thursday morning in a Larimore cafe at a crop insurance meeting sponsored by Bremer Bank and AgForce Insurance Services Inc., Fargo.

Interest in a type of crop insurance called "prevented planting" is high because field conditions in the Larimore area and in other pockets across the county and state are so wet that farmers doubt they will get into some of their fields to finish planting crops this spring.

Prevented planting pays farmers for a certain percentage of their crop losses if they are unable to plant the insured crop by a specified date.

Based on calls from farmers and insurance agents, prevented planting payments to North Dakota farmers likely will total about $47 million this year, said Doug Hagel, regional director of the Risk Management Agency in Billings, Mont. Although the agency won't have official figures on prevented planting until after June 30 when farmers file their acreage reports with crop insurance agents, it appears that North Dakota's prevented planting payments resulting from wet conditions will be one of the highest in the United States, he said.

The wettest areas of the state are in counties along and bordering the Red River Valley such as Griggs, Steele, Traill, Cass, Barnes, Eddy, Foster, Stutsman, and Wells, Hagel said.

AgForce Insurance Services already has had adjusters out taking pictures of wet fields in the Larimore area in anticipation of prevented planting claims, AgForce agent Galen Nettum told farmers at the Larimore meeting.

Larimore farmer Jack Shide has only 10 percent of his 6,000 acres planted so far this spring. This will be the third straight year that Shide will be unable to get into some of his fields.

Farmers who sign up for crop insurance can plant crops for 25 days after the prevented planting deadline, but their payments are reduced each day after the deadline.

Farrell, a neighbor of Shide's, already knows that about 50 percent of his corn acres will be eligible for prevented planting. He was only able to get in half of his planned corn acres before the May 20 prevented planting deadline for the crop. He doesn't think he will be able to plant another crop on those acres because of the wet conditions.

Farrell has planted only 30 percent of the total 5,500 acres he farms near Larimore and Arvilla, N.D. He hopes he will soon double the amount he's planted, but whether that happens will depend on how much rain falls in the next couple of weeks. Extremely wet conditions since 1993 have left the soil so saturated that it only takes a shower to keep Farrell and his neighbors out of the field.

"A quarter inch of rain and you're stopped for a couple of days," Farrell said. Other than a couple of stretches where he worked three or four days in a row, he's been unable to work in the field for more than a day or two at a time without getting rained out.

Fields aren't any drier in some areas west of Larimore. Mike Kelly, who farms near Niagara, N.D., has about 40 percent of his 2,200 acres planted. He already knows he'll claim prevented planting on acres where he planned to plant corn and canola. Today is the deadline for prevented planting on canola.

While Kelly wishes he could get all of his crops planted, he believes claiming prevented planting is better than getting the crop planted, only to have it destroyed by summer storms.

"We had a terrible year last year. Last year we got the whole farm planted, every acre, for the first time since '93." Then in mid-June 14 inches of rain and hail fell, damaging some crops and destroying others.

At least with prevented planting, Kelly won't have the expenses of fuel, fertilizer, seed, chemicals and labor. But he won't make a profit, either.

Prevented planting payments typically are enough for farmers to pay the land rent with a few dollars extra, said Nettum, the AgForce insurance agent. By the time they pay for the fuel to work the ground they are unable to plant, they may even lose money.

"It's not like the insurance company pays them and they go to the lake and go fishing for the summer," Nettum said.

For Kelly prevented planting is "just a break-even deal. It helps us tread water for another year."