I'm hearing a lot of that on here lately. Just so you guys that are advocating that know what's coming, no one in their right mind is going to do that:

In my area, if I don't grow something in 2020 and if I keep the ground clean I'm probably going to go backwards by around $100 per acre if I honestly account herbicide and for lost ROI on the owned ground. On rented ground it's obvious.

I imagine in many areas you don't fertilize very early but in this area most people fertilize over the winter. I was done fertilizing before this coronavirus deal went crazy and before Russia and the middle east decided to cut each others throat trying to produce as much oil as they could.

For this area history shows that I'll probably lose 25-35% of that fertilizer if I wait until this fall and grow wheat instead. So for the yields I shoot for in this area, that's losing maybe $115 total between cash rent or lost ROI, herbicide and fertilizer.

Now try growing corn. If I grow 100 bushel corn (decent but not great yield in my area) and only get $3 cash for it I'm probably only going to lose $50/acre this year.

If I grow 125 bushel corn I'll make $25.

If I happen to have one heck of a year and grow 150 bushel corn I'll make $100 an acre.

Yes, if I have a below average year and grow 80 bushel corn I'll lose $110 but how is that any different than doing nothing?

Doing nothing I have a 100% chance of a large loss. If I do something then I'll at least have a shot of things turning out OK. Maybe prices come back. Maybe yields are better than normal.

I guess I'm saying price is going to have to get a lot worse, even on rented ground for "keeping the planter in the shed" to be a good idea.

I would think the math is even worse in higher yielding areas where land value is a lot higher. If you have $300 cash rent are you really planning on going backwards by $320 to $370/acre depending on what you've already done to it this year? Or are you going to try to grow 250 bushel corn and get $750 of gross income to limit how far backwards you go this year?

I will say that if I see that prevent plant may be a possibility this year, I don't think I'm going to kill myself trying to get everything in if prices are still pretty low during planting season but If I have the window, it's going in the ground unless prices get MUCH worse than they are now.