Ottawa’s proposal for an improved AgriStability program could give farmers short-term gain for long-term pain, Manitoba’s agriculture minister Blaine Pedersen warns. At the online federal-provincial-territorial agriculture ministers’ meeting on Friday, federal Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau proposed dropping AgriStability’s maximum reference margin, and increasing the compensation rate from 70 to 80 per cent retroactively this […] Read more
AgriStability proposal could have hidden cost, Pedersen warns
Manitoba's ag minister warns Bibeau's plan may hurt crop insurance, AgriInvest funding
New AFSC boss makes for the third one this year
Reading Time: < 1 minute Agriculture Financial Services Corporation has appointed Darryl Kay as its new CEO. Kay has worked with the crop insurer and lender for nearly a decade, most recently as chief financial and innovation officer. Kay takes over from Jerry Bouma, a board member and agri-food management consultant who has been interim CEO since Steve Blakely retired […] Read more
Trump’s payments to farmers hit all-time high ahead of election
Canadian growers seek level playing field
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. President Donald Trump is assuring a bumper year for farmers as the Nov. 3 election approaches, with record government subsidies projected to make up more than a third of farm income in 2020. The aid programs could be key to Trump’s chances of success in swing states such as Wisconsin, […] Read more
Manitoba winter wheat, fall rye seeding deadlines extended
MASC spots growers an extra two weeks
Manitoba’s provincial crop insurance agency will spot growers of fall rye and winter wheat an extra couple of weeks to get insurable crops in the ground. Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. (MASC) announced Tuesday that growers can get full coverage on winter wheat or fall rye seeded from Aug. 15 to Sept. 25, and reduced coverage […] Read more
Monday’s storm hit an estimated 37.7 million acres in U.S. Midwest
Chicago | Reuters — A storm packing hurricane-force winds on Monday impacted 37.7 million acres of farmland across the Midwest, including 14 million in Iowa, the Iowa Soybean Association said on Friday, citing estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The toll from the derecho storm has worsened as farmers and grain handlers have spent […] Read more
Assessing hail damage assessments
Reading Time: < 1 minute Agriculture Financial Services Corporation wants to see how its assessments of hail claims compares to the evaluation of farmers who assessed damage in their fields. The comparison will help “determine the future of adjustments at AFSC and may assist with adjusting speed in the future,” the crop insurer said. A link to the very brief […] Read more
Ontario to insure for crop loss due to lack of labour
AgriInsurance offering hailed as a first in Canada
Ontario’s federal/provincial AgriInsurance program has been temporarily expanded to include coronavirus-related labour shortages as a covered cause for crop loss. Producers already enrolled in an eligible production insurance plan and hit by crop losses due to labour disruptions during the 2020 growing season will be able to get further insurance coverage, the Ontario and federal […] Read more
Insurance customers’ contact info dropped into MASC email
Crown crop insurance agency warns of privacy breach
A contact list of crop insurance customers at Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. has gone out via email to several dozen of the Crown ag insurance agency’s customers. MASC on Monday said a file containing names and contact information of an unspecified number of AgriInsurance clients was “attached in error” to an email sent last Tuesday […] Read more
Crop insurance claims being made a priority
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ensuring outstanding crop insurance claims on unharvested acres are processed prior to seeding is one of three top priorities that Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley are focusing on in discussions with government officials, the two farm groups say. In an April 27 update, the cereal commissions said Agriculture Financial Services Corporation “has been implementing its […] Read more
Saskatchewan to bump up AgriStability interim payouts
Allowable percentage of final benefit raised
Saskatchewan farmers hoping to boost cash flow with an AgriStability interim payment can now apply to get up to three-quarters of their final payment for 2020. The Saskatchewan and federal governments announced an agreement Friday to increase the 2020 AgriStability interim benefit payment percentage to 75 per cent for producers in that province, up from […] Read more