Manitoba’s provincial crop insurance agency will launch a pilot program in 2010 insuring ranchers for a given number of days they can keep their livestock on grass.
The pasture days insurance pilot program, developed by Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. (MASC) in conjunction with the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, Manitoba Forage Council and Keystone Agricultural Producers, was announced last week at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon.
The pilot program will “investigate a new approach,” in which eligible livestock producers would be protected against having to remove animals from pasture prior to the guaranteed number of days, on account of reduced grazing capacity due to drought or excess moisture conditions.
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The province saw both ends of the moisture spectrum during the 2009 growing season. Ranchers lost usable grazing land to drought in the southwest and to excess moisture in the Interlake region between Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg.
Overall, however, “the unusually hot temperatures we experienced this past fall were good for crops throughout the province, mitigating some of the negative effects of a very cool summer,” Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers said in a release.
“The surprise weather was also good for the AgriInsurance program, allowing it to break even.”
AgriInsurance dollar coverages available through MASC will go up by one per cent and premium rates will drop by four per cent overall compared to 2009, the province said in a release.
Also in 2010, MASC plans “a new approach” with its Young Farmer Crop Plan Credit. Young farmers taking part in AgriInsurance for the first time will now be provided with a one-time credit of $300, on the condition that they prepare cropping plans to the provincial ag department’s standards.
Time to buy EMI
As well, while basic excess moisture insurance (EMI) will continue to apply to all Manitoba AgriInsurance contracts, producers will now pay 30 cents per acre, or 40 per cent of the related total premium cost, starting in the 2010 crop year.
Basic EMI coverage of $50 per acre had been included at no premium cost for the past 10 years, in which time $112 million in basic EMI payouts have been made to eligible producers, the province said.
The new premium structure falls within the standard cost-sharing formula under the federal-provincial Growing Forward agreement, the ag policy framework in which AgriInsurance is funded.
The new premiums are also “consistent with how this type of program benefit is funded in other provinces,” Struthers said.
Among the provinces, Manitoba has the highest level of AgriInsurance participation, with over 85 per cent of annual crop acres enrolled.
