The deadline to make changes to 2017 excess moisture insurance (EMI) coverage is Nov. 30.
That’s also the deadline for new farmers who haven’t had crop insurance before to get higher EMI coverage rather than just the basic.
Excessively wet fields this fall increase the possibility that some won’t get seeded before the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation’s (MASC) spring-seeding deadline.
“We are getting lots of phone calls and inquiries about maximizing (EMI) coverage knowing that their fields have standing water in them already,” said MASC’s acting manager of claim services David Koroscil.
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Farmers enrolled in AgriInsurance automatically get $50 an acre EMI coverage if fields are too wet to seed before MASC’s spring-seeding deadline. There’s a five per cent deductible on acres insured.
However, for an additional charge farmers can get $75- and $100-an-acre coverage.
Farmers who haven’t had an EMI claim for a while sometimes reduce their coverage to pay less premium, Koroscil said. But some farmers will boost their coverage if they suspect they are more likely to be in a claim position. Farmers will also buy down their deductible.
Every year a farmer has an EMI claim the deductible increases five per cent. But it also drops by the same amount following years without a claim.
“EMI is on total eligible acres,” Koroscil said. “Basically all your eligible cropland is included with the exception of fall rye or winter wheat because you already have a crop in the ground and we are insuring that crop. And forages are not in it. So if you had 1,000 acres of crop… the deductible is five per cent of the 1,000 acres (or 50 acres).”
All farmers enrolled in crop insurance pay 52 cents an acre for the basic $50-an-acre EMI coverage, MASC’s website says. The farmer’s 52 cents is 40 per cent of the total basic premium cost.
The cost of increasing EMI coverage is available on the MASC website.
