Just because you’re selling winter wheat into the feed market, doesn’t mean you should report it to crop insurance as grading “feed.”
While doing so won’t affect a claim, or your individual long-term coverage, it could over time negatively affect the province-wide crop insurance grade guarantee for winter wheat, which currently is No. 3 Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW), David Van Deynze, Manitoba Crop Insurance Corporation’s claims services manager, said in an interview March 23.
“Part of the obligation of our (crop insurance) program is to insure producers from a quality perspective no better than the long-term average,” David Van Deynze, Manitoba Crop Insurance Corporation’s claims services manager, said in an interview March. 23.
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That long-term average is determined by the data reported to MCIC by producers, which makes the misreporting a potential issue for farmers.
“If winter wheat growers are always reporting their crop as grading feed because that’s the market they sold to, but that’s not the grade, we’re going to look at this data over the long term and say, ‘look, winter wheat is most often grading feed,’ and that’s what the grade guarantee will become,” he said.
That price will typically be lower, which at the end of the day will translate into lower coverage for farmers, Van Deynze said.
“We’re aware of the potential for that to happen and we’re trying to figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t negatively impact producers,” he said.
The easiest way is for farmers to get a grade from the feed mill or other buyer they can include in their Harvest Production Report to MCIC.
The need to accurately report winter wheat grades to the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation was raised during the Winter Cereals Manitoba annual meeting in Portage la Prairie March 16.
Growers should also note that not all winter wheat is necessarily the same when it comes to grade guarantees under crop insurance.
The grade guarantee for CDC Falcon winter wheat is No. 1 Canada Western General Purpose (CWGP). Although CDC Falcon is a winter wheat and listed in Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation’s winter wheat category, it’s in the Canadian Grain Commission’s CWGP class. The same applies for other winter wheats in the CWGP class.
