Crop insurance claims coming, USDA official says.

Illinois farmers should begin preparing now for the inevitable crop insurance claims resulting from spring floods and cool weather, an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday. The heaviest damage has been along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in southern Illinois, but planting delays have been statewide, said Brian Frieden, director of the Springfield regional office of USDA’s Risk Management Agency. “This year has been up and down,” said Frieden, who said farmers in most of the state still have time to get in full crops of corn and soybeans.