Cache Valley virus is a mosquito-borne disease which was first discovered in Utah’s Cache Valley in 1956. It has spread across North America over the decades, posing a threat primarily to producers in regions with significant mosquito populations.

It primarily affects sheep, but it has also been found in other small ruminants such as goats.

No vaccine or treatment exists for Cache Valley virus, which can cause abortions and stillbirths in small ruminants such as sheep.

“We’ve seen producers lose up to 30 per cent of their lamb crop in a single season,” said Saskatchewan-based veterinarian Heidi Dubé, while speaking at the Alberta Sheep Breeders Association symposium in Camrose in October.

“The virus can cause extreme birth defects, including scoliosis, fused joints and neurological complications.”

The virus has been found to only impact pregnant sheep in the first 48 days of pregnancy. Dubé said that although about 65 per cent of sheep which have been tested show exposure to the virus, it is only those in the early weeks of pregnancy that are vulnerable to its effects.

“Non-pregnant ewes or sheep that are pregnant beyond that 48 days typically don’t show any clinical disease at all and are typically able to mount a very good immune response to the virus and have no impact on the pregnancy whatsoever,” she said.

“However, in the case of a pregnant ewe during her first trimester, the virus could cross the placenta to infect the fetus, resulting in the symptoms of abortions, stillbirth, congenital defects and so on.”

Steps for prevention

Dubé said there are certain types of mosquitoes that are known to be more likely to carry Cache Valley virus, but studies have shown that more and more varieties of mosquitoes are being found to carry it as well.

There is no vaccine for prevention, and Dubé says there are none on the way. But other steps can be taken to try to prevent infection in sheep.

Since the virus is solely spread through mosquito bites, the first option would be to adjust your operation’s breeding season to early spring or late fall to avoid mosquito season altogether.

If that is not feasible on your operation, managing standing water in the area could play a large role in minimizing the mosquito population on your property.

“Standing water that doesn’t get disturbed at all is your highest source of mosquitoes. Draining all your water pails or emptying your tire swings or any other source of standing water is worth thinking about,” Dubé said.

“The basic gist is that wherever you can reduce any standing water, I would encourage you to do so.”

Testing infected fetuses

Diagnosis of the virus remains challenging, with most detection occurring through postmortem examination of aborted fetuses.

Dubé said it would be beneficial for producers to have their fetuses or stillborn lambs tested for the virus. At worst, it would give the producer peace of mind that another more serious issue is not present in their flock.

“What I have found when I’ve tested, I really like the elimination of diagnosis.”

Human transmission

Cache Valley virus can be transmitted to humans, although it is rare.

Symptoms in humans are generally flu-like, so human transmissions of Cache Valley virus often go unreported.

Future outlook

Dubé said there are really no expectations for a vaccine or treatment for Cache Valley virus on the horizon. But the hope is that, with time, ewes will be able to develop an immunity to the virus.

“There’s lots of questions about it that we don’t have answers for right now. I think there’s a lot of hope that they get long-term immunity to it, but we really don’t know yet,” she said.

The post Mosquito-borne virus could be devastating to sheep breeding operations appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

On June 7 the federal government announced more than $1.6 million over four years, which will fund multiple genetics-related projects.

Collecting data on beef seedstock operations is a challenge, says Myles Immerkar, chief executive officer of the CAA. Farms are getting larger, and with more cattle on pasture the time to measure and gather data from those animals becomes a more difficult task.

Some don’t have the basics, such as scales, or scales in the right place, he says.

Testing technologies, including artificial intelligence, camera and computer vision systems, will help to find ways to less expensively gather data from cattle production systems.

The Holstein Canada partnership will help the CAA to better understand traits like greenhouse gas emissions and health.

Holstein breeders have worked for years to develop genetic indices around animal health and reproduction, and also now have access to an index that relates to methane production.

“We’re starting to explore new traits, environmental traits that have profitability impact on our members, and those are hard to collect for our members,” says Immekar.

There are traits the CAA has collected that Holstein Canada is interested to understand, he says.

The dairy and beef sectors have been brought closer as greater numbers of dairy cows are bred to beef bulls as dairy farmers breed their top cows to sexed semen.

There’s nothing in the project that targets beef on dairy growth, he says, but the fact that many dairy-beef calves are raised in confinement can mean easier data collection, compared to beef calves running on pastures.

The Angus association knows half of the traits and information on one side of a beef-dairy crossbred and Holstein Canada understands the other half.

“So there’s certainly an opportunity for us to learn from each other with animals that are crossbred. We’re definitely looking at beef and dairy cattle and evaluating them, but for our own individual purposes.

The post Funding to help make cattle data gathering easier appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Chief executive officer Justine Hendricks announced the funding at Canada’s Farm Show June 18, saying she was thrilled to announce the partnership.

“The accelerated breeding program brings together cutting edge science and practical agricultural knowledge. It will bring new crop varieties and livestock genetics to producers and other stakeholders much faster, which will stimulate rural economic growth and increased revenue,” she said.

Hendricks said sustainability is a key part of FCC’s new strategy, and GIFS’ research into just how sustainable Saskatchewan and Canadian crops are compared to the rest of the world highlights farmers’ good work.

“They found that a bushel of wheat grown in Saskatchewan would need to be on a boat and circle the world 3.5 times to reach the same carbon footprint as some of its global competitors, and that’s something to be really proud of,” she said.

GIFS CEO Steven Webb said the funding will help Canada “get back on the productivity gain timeline.”

The FCC program will deliver innovative products faster with better yields, disease resistance and quality traits, he said.

Genomic selection, bioinformatics, speed breeding and computational simulations are already proven to increase the rate of genetic gain for crops and livestock. Webb said the dairy industry has used these technologies for more than 20 years, while corn and soybean breeders have used them for more than a decade.

He said this means breeders at GIFS will get the same access, and that will boost productivity and reduce the time to access new varieties.

The post FCC invests in breeding innovation appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Application forms are expected to be available via Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC) “in the coming days” for funding “to help offset extraordinary costs of feeding livestock to maintain the breeding herd in Saskatchewan.”

Precipitation has remained well below normal in much of Saskatchewan, particularly in western regions, contributing to “a substantial moisture deficit and hindering recovery of pasture and forage ranges,” the province said.

The provincial funding pledged Monday will provide eligible producers with up to $80 per head “as soon as possible” to maintain breeding stock for beef cattle, bison, horse, elk, deer, sheep and goats. SCIC, on its website, said more information “will be available in the coming weeks.”

The funding will be available based on receipts or appropriate documentation for “extraordinary expenses for the purchase of feed or transportation of feed or livestock,” the province said in its release Monday.

Meanwhile, the province said, it “continues to work quickly with the federal government to jointly examine how AgriRecovery could help respond.”

For its part, the federal government said in a separate release Monday that work with drought-affected provinces to finalize AgriRecovery programming is “urgently progressing,” and that it’s already “worked quickly” with Saskatchewan as well as Alberta and British Columbia on joint AgriRecovery assessments.

The feds on Monday announced their initial list of areas eligible for the livestock tax deferral provision for 2023, including 96 RMs and other municipalities in western Saskatchewan.

“We appreciate the province stepping up and providing their portion of the AgriRecovery payment,” Keith Day, board chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, said in the province’s release Monday. “We look forward to a similar announcement from the federal government to provide their funding to ensure our producers get the help they need through these challenging times.”

“We are confident that the federal government is working together with the province to assess how they can provide additional support through AgriRecovery and look forward to seeing what that much-needed assistance will be,” Ray Orb, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Saskatchewan front-loads AgriRecovery funding appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A Scottish company, Dyneval, has created a new semen analyzer that measures a wider range of concentrations of semen than previous testing methods. This will allow veterinarians, beef and dairy producers to have more control over semen quality.

The Dynescanl analyzer is also highly portable, making it more accessible to large farms, veterinarians or other livestock service providers.

“We say to the industry don’t treat all the semen the same. You spend a lot of money making sure you look after the cows in fertility and heat detection. In the same way, you need to be looking at the lifetime of semen,” says Tiffany Wood, CEO and co-founder of Dyneval.

She was at the Ag In Motion farm show recently as part of the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP), a private agri-food investment incubator.

Co-founder Dr. Vincent Martinez developed a novel technique for measuring the motility of microorganisms from intensity fluctuations in video.

Other technologies use algorithms that track cells frame to frame, which means they don’t track at as high or low concentrations.

“Liquids with bits in it,” says Wood, and one of the most obvious “liquid with bits in it” would be semen.

Bull semen motility varies dramatically, especially given how much it is processed and how long it has been stored.

Sexed semen has become popular as a way to choose with high probability whether a breeding will result in a male or a female offspring. The challenge is that the fertility of sexed semen isn’t as high because it has been processed.

Wood says that the industry is learning more about insemination timing for sexed semen. An example of sexed semen she had evaluated with the machine showed that motility started to decline after 90 minutes. That means that sample would need to be used quickly. If that is understood using the Dyneval testing, then that bull’s sexed semen can be managed differently.

Many beef ranchers already evaluate a bull’s semen before breeding season. The Dyneval system would allow that to be done closer to the farm.

On a dairy farm, Wood says the system would allow a farmer to evaluate the quality of the semen they have received or have in storage, resulting in better insemination timing.

She says that calculations for a 900-cow herd she visited recently showed that the $17,000 machine would pay for itself within a year in improved insemination timing and conception rate.

“In the UK, a number of veterinarians  are using it, helping with pre-breeding parameters on dairy farms.”

There are also applications along the dairy semen supply chain for more easily checking quality, she says.

The unit is available now directly from Dyneval, but the company is in Canada looking for distribution partners.

The system currently measures bull and sheep semen, with equine and pigs coming soon.

–Updated March 15, 2024. Clarifies that GAAP is not affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan.

The post At Ag in Motion: New tester monitors bull fertility appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Tuesday released the initial list of designated regions in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan where livestock tax deferral has been authorized for 2022.

Those include most of southern Alberta up to around Stettler and Olds; nearby rural municipalities in western Saskatchewan; most of agricultural Manitoba; and some parts of west-central Saskatchewan southwest of Saskatoon (full list and map below).

Regions eligible so far were identified based on weather, climate and production data in consultation with industry and affected provinces, the federal agriculture department said Tuesday. Criteria include forage shortfalls of 50 per cent or more, whether caused by drought or excess moisture.

In areas designated for the deferral in a given tax year, eligible producers who had to cull breeding herds by at least 15 per cent may defer part of the income from those sales until their next non-designated tax year.

If the herd was cut by at least 15 per cent — but by less than 30 per cent — then 30 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Where a producer reduced a breeding herd by 30 per cent or more, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Thus, in the 2023 tax year — or in the next tax year in which the designation is lifted off a specific municipality — the deferred taxable income from those sales can be at least partially offset by the cost of reacquiring breeding animals.

The ag department said Tuesday it would keep monitoring conditions across Canada to see if more designations are needed.

Some farm and ranch organizations had already been calling for deferral designations for the 2022 tax year to be made as soon as possible.

“Many areas of western Saskatchewan are still dealing with unprecedented drought, which is leading to herds of cattle being sold,” Scott Owens, a farmer in the western RM of Eldon and vice-president with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), said in such a statement in early June.

“If they haven’t already, many producers are running out of feed, and the pastures have not recovered from a lack of moisture last year and during the winter.”

By mid-November 2021, drought designations for the deferral for the 2021 tax year had reached all of Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario, all of agricultural Alberta and Manitoba, and much of agricultural British Columbia. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

Initial list of designations, 2022

Alberta: Calgary, Taber; counties of Cardston, Cypress, Foothills, Forty Mile, Kneehill, Lethbridge, Newell, Paintearth, Pincher Creek, Rocky View, Starland, Stettler, Vulcan, Warner and Wheatland; the municipal district of Willow Creek; and “special areas” 2, 3 and 4.

Saskatchewan RMs: Antelope Park, Biggar, Buffalo, Chesterfield, Deer Forks, Enterprise, Eye Hill, Fertile Valley, Frontier, Grandview, Grass Lake, Happyland, Harris, Heart’s Hill, Kindersley, Maple Creek, Mariposa, Marriott, Milden, Milton, Monet, Montrose, Mountain View, Newcombe, Oakdale, Perdue, Pleasant Valley, Prairiedale, Progress, Reford, Reno, Rosemount, Round Valley, Snipe Lak, St. Andrews, Tramping Lake, Vanscoy and Winslow.

Manitoba: municipalities of Alonsa, Argyle, Armstrong, Bifrost-Riverton, Boissevain-Morton, Brenda-Waskada, Brokenhead, Cartier, Cartwright-Roblin, Clanwilliam-Erickson, Coldwell, Dauphin, De Salaberry, Deloraine-Winchester, Dufferin, Elton, Emerson-Franklin, Fisher, Gimli, Glenboro-South Cypress, Glenella-Lansdowne, Grahamdale, Grassland, Grey, Hanover, Harrison Park, Headingley, Killarney-Turtle Mountain, Lakeshore, Lorne, Louise, Macdonald, McCreary, Minto-Odanah, Montcalm, Morris, Norfolk-Treherne, North Cypress-Langford, North Norfolk, Oakland-Wawanesa, Oakview, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Prairie Lakes, Rhineland, Ritchot, Riverdale, Rockwood, Roland, Rosedale, Rosser, Souris-Glenwood, Springfield, St. Andrews, St. Clements, St. François Xavier, St. Laurent, Stanley, Ste. Rose, Tache, Thompson, Victoria, West Interlake, West St. Paul, WestLake-Gladstone, Whitehead, Woodlands and Yellowhead; city of Winnipeg; Division No. 17, Unorganized; and Division No. 18, Unorganized (east part and west part).

The post Initial drought list ready for 2022 livestock tax deferrals appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“The minimal time invested into acclimating is well worth the results,” said the Stettler-area producer.

It all started when Neilson and husband Lance contacted Olds College inquiring how they could make heifers more fertile. Normally having eight to 10 per cent of heifers come back open is considered normal, but Neilson wanted to decrease that number.

They ended up in contact with Désirée Gellatly at the college’s Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production. The researcher had an idea of getting heifers used to running through chutes prior to AI breeding, and Neilson — hoping to both gain quieter heifers and to increase fertility — agreed to be part of Gellatly’s study.

It was a bit of an eye-opener.

“We have always raised quiet cattle that are pail fed and calm,” said Neilson. “A quiet pail-fed heifer doesn’t necessarily translate into a calm, low-stress heifer in other situations, we learned during the study.”

The heifers were assessed and given a score by body weight, body condition, and reactivity (based on exit speed and how they stood in the chute). The heifers were split into four groups — two would be acclimated to the handling facilities and two would be control groups.

“Two weeks out from when we wanted to start the artificial breeding process, I would go out into the two (soon to be acclimated) groups and pail feed them, talk to them softly, walk around them, get them used to human contact,” Neilson said. “They got their grain, and they knew that I was safe.”

She first put them through the chute six days prior to breeding.

“They just ran through the system, there was no catching, no stopping, they just ran through the chute to let them get used to it.”

The heifers were rewarded when they exited the chute with a trough of grain. Two days later, the heifers were run through again, but they were stopped in the chute (not caught in the head catch) for five seconds. Again, the heifers were rewarded with grain after exiting. After another two days they were run through the chute a third time, and stopped for 15 seconds before exiting and reaching their trough of grain.

The day of breeding, all the heifers (including the control groups) were run through the handling facilities (with no rewards for anyone), artificially bred and put on the same pasture for the summer. Come fall, they were preg checked and Gellatly found the conception rate for the acclimated heifers was 2.23 per cent higher.

Many have long argued that the more often you run cows through a chute, the more skittish — or ‘sour’ — they become.

That was not Neilson’s experience.

“There was an additional advantage of acclimation when it came to handling the animals in the pen, the alley system and if they needed assistance calving,” she said. “In every situation, the acclimated heifers were less nervous and easier to work with. We will be adopting the acclimation process for all heifers on our farm.”

There is a time investment, but it is “very minimal,” she added.

“The producer would only have to spend two weeks prior to wanting them to go through the chute (for AI, as an example). Every two days go out and spend 10 to 15 minutes pail feeding them in the pen. Then running them through took 30 minutes to an hour. It is very minimal extra time you have to spend for the result that we have seen.”

The Neilsons will be participating in a further study and some of their heifers will be followed to see if their increased conception rate persists in subsequent years.

“A replicate study with some changes that we feel will improve the fertility increase. A group of these will also be followed for life,” she said.

But Neilson is already a convert. The acclimated heifers are easier to move, don’t balk when entering the barn, and stay calm when the Neilsons come into their pen.

“It’s just an overall better experience,” she said, reiterating the time commitment is not large.

“Every other day pail feeding in the pens for two weeks leading up to breeding, combined with heifers going through the handling system six days, four days and two days prior to breeding is a small amount of effort for a significant improvement to your bottom line.”

The post Been there, done that: Acclimating heifers to chutes pays dividends appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday showed 2017 farm equity climbed to $535.3 billion, up $34.6 billion from $500.75 billion in 2016.

“I think it points to an industry where we’ve come off of some good times over the past five-plus, 10 years, and we’re continuing to see a little bit of slowing on some perspectives,” said Craig Klemmer.

“But also, I think there is still optimism in the industry.”

While he projected a slowdown in growth, he said farm asset values will continue to appreciate.

According to the StatsCan report, farm asset value rose 6.9 per cent compared to the year previous, to $632.2 billion nationwide in 2017, mostly due to higher farmland values.

Farm real estate climbed by 7.8 per cent to $480.1 billion and now accounts for more than three-quarters of total farm asset value.

A recent FCC report showed farmland values rising by 8.4 per cent, so the two reports taken together indicate that investors are seeing opportunities, Klemmer said.

“I think, overall, where we’re sitting right now, is that we’re seeing a very balanced, stable market, where assets are increasing, revenue is increasing and debt is increasing, in kind of a fairly stable trajectory at this point.”

Market disruptions and trade concerns will affect farm revenue and need to be monitored, he said. As well, the Bank of Canada has said it will raise interest rates this year, which will increase the costs of borrowing and could stress farmers’ abilities to pay down debt.

But the farm debt-to-asset ratio points to a healthy industry, he added. That ratio reached 15.3 per cent in 2017, according to the StatsCan report, slightly above the five-year average of 15.2 per cent.

“So, I think there are some pretty good stories,” Klemmer said.

Nationwide for 2017, farmers recorded assets of $632.2 billion with liabilities of $96.9 billion.

Manitoba farmers recorded assets of $49.984 billion with liabilities of $8.981 billion; Saskatchewan farmers, $114.436 billion in assets and $14.663 billion in liabilities; and Alberta, $173.365 billion in assets and $22.375 billion in liabilities.

Farm inventory values also rose, contributing to the overall increase in asset values.

The total value of crops, livestock, inputs and poultry increased six per cent from 2016, to $47.3 billion. It marked the first year inventory values have increased since 2014.

Farm inventories of market livestock and poultry increased the most, rising to $8.7 billion, a 7.2 per cent increase from 2016. The increase was credited mainly to higher prices for calves, which rose 6.4 per cent, and steers, up 5.2 per cent.

Breeding livestock inventory values increased 5.2 per cent to $13 billion, on the back of higher prices for beef cows (up 4.8 per cent) and milk cows (up 4.1 per cent).

Higher year-ending stocks for canola and soybeans were cited as the main reason for the increase in crop inventory values.

Soybean inventory value rose 44 per cent, while canola rose 9.5 per cent, compared to 2016.

Those numbers point to the growing popularity and the high value of those two crops, Klemmer said.

Many farmers may be holding crops in their bins longer, waiting for better prices, he added.

Canola and soybeans made up 86.5 per cent of the 2016-17 increase in crop inventory value and 39.8 per cent of the total crop inventory values for 2017.

— Terry Fries writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

The post Ag balance sheet points to stable farm economy appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The federal government on Tuesday announced a second list of drought-designated regions where the livestock tax deferral provision will be allowed, along with the areas of Ontario, Quebec and Alberta designated in the initial list in November.

Also, the government said, its “ongoing analysis” shows a final list of designated regions will be needed for the 2016 tax year. That list is expected to be released as soon as it’s authorized.

In Alberta, the City of Calgary, County of Newell and Mackenzie County are now also designated, while in B.C., four census subdivisions (as per the 2011 census) have been added to the list, including Kitimat-Stikine A, B and D and Skeena-Queen Charlotte E.

In Ontario, newly designated areas include the cities of Belleville, Kingston, Niagara Falls, Peterborough, Port Colborne, St. Catharines and Welland; the towns of Fort Erie, Greater Napanee, Grimsby, Lincoln, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Pelham; the townships of Frontenac Islands, Leeds and the Thousand Islands, Loyalist, Madoc, South Frontenac, Stone Mills, Tyendinaga, Wainfleet and West Lincoln; the municipalities of Centre Hastings, Trent Hills and Tweed; and Haldimand County.

In Quebec, the municipality of Duhamel is now also designated, as are the Nova Scotia municipalities of the counties of Annapolis and Kings and of the districts of Argyle, Barrington, Chester, Lunenburg, Shelburne, West Hants and Yarmouth.

Low moisture levels resulted in “significant forage shortages” for livestock producers in all affected areas, the government said Tuesday, and one option for producers to manage feed supplies is to reduce their breeding herds.

“This tax deferral will help producers manage the impacts of the drought, and to focus on rebuilding their herds in the coming year,” Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in a release.

The tax deferral provisions allow livestock producers in prescribed regions to defer portions of their 2016 sale proceeds of breeding livestock, until the next tax year. Producers can request the tax deferral when filing their 2016 income tax returns.

The intent of the deferral is to reduce the tax burden associated with the sale, as the cost of replacing the animals at least partially offsets the deferred income.

To be eligible for the deferral, a producer’s breeding herd must have been reduced by at least 15 per cent. If the breeding herd has been reduced by at least 15 per cent, but less than 30 per cent, then 30 per cent of income from net sales may be deferred.

Where the herd has been reduced by 30 per cent or more, however, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Proceeds from deferred sales are then included as income in the next tax year. If an area qualifies for a drought or excess moisture/flood designation in consecutive years, producers may defer sales income to the first year in which the area is no longer designated.

The deferrals are requested if impact on a designated area is deemed “significant,” defined as forage yields of less than 50 per cent of the area’s long-term average. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Drought-related livestock tax deferral zones expand appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay on Tuesday released the federal government’s initial list of municipalities designated for the 2016 deferral.

In Alberta, those areas include Clearwater, Lethbridge, Mountain View, Red Deer, Rocky View, Vulcan and Wheatland counties; the municipal districts of Bighorn, Foothills, Pincher Creek, Ranchland and Willow Creek; the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass; and the Banff (No. 9) and Kananaskis improvement districts.

Further east, the list covers southern and eastern Ontario farms around 14 cities including Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton; 10 municipalities; 15 towns; 48 townships; and the village of Merrickville-Wolford.

In Quebec, the list covers much of the Laurentides, Outaouais and Monteregie regions and includes farmland around the cities of Gatineau, Lachute, Mirabel and St-Jerome plus 46 municipalities, 10 towns, seven townships and the Parish of Brebeuf.

The tax deferral provisions allow livestock producers in prescribed regions to defer portions of their 2016 sale proceeds of breeding livestock, until the next tax year. Producers can request the tax deferral when filing their 2016 income tax returns.

The intent of the deferral is to reduce the tax burden associated with the sale, as the cost of replacing the animals at least partially offsets the deferred income.

To be eligible for the deferral, a producer’s breeding herd must have been reduced by at least 15 per cent. If the breeding herd has been reduced by at least 15 per cent, but less than 30 per cent, 30 per cent of income from net sales may be deferred.

Where the herd has been reduced by 30 per cent or more, however, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Proceeds from deferred sales are then included as income in the next tax year. If an area qualifies for a drought or excess moisture/flood designation in consecutive years, producers may defer sales income to the first year in which the area is no longer designated.

The 2016 designation will be the second in a row for affected areas of Alberta, as all but the province’s far northeast received drought designations for 2015.

Preliminary designations are usually made on the basis of spring moisture and summer rainfall, supplemented with estimates of forage yield, while final decisions and other adjustments are made when all forage yield information is available, usually in December.

The deferrals are requested if impact on a designated area is deemed “significant,” defined as forage yields of less than 50 per cent of the area’s long-term average. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Drought-hit tax deferral zones named appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.