Eric McLean was happy when he heard that Manitoba Crop Insurance was going to include soybeans.
He has been experimenting with the crop since 2006 and this year planned to increase his production to 100 acres. He would have liked to have an insurance backstop.
Then he found out the bad news: he lives eight kilometres outside the coverage zone.
“What we’re facing here is an imaginary boundary for simplicity’s sake,” said McLean, an Oak River seed grower, in an interview during the Keystone Agricultural Producers convention in Winnipeg.
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“There aren’t many guys doing what we’re doing, so we’re hoping crop insurance will give us a chance. It would not be a major pilot project to let those of us who have been trying this crop have the same coverage.”
Manitoba Crop Insurance recently announced it was expanding the soybean coverage area to include almost all of Manitoba’s growing regions, except for a few areas that are generally much colder than the rest of the province.
Manitoba Pulse Growers was thrilled with the announcement because it had requested a much smaller area be approved. Crop Insurance said it was expanding the zone because new varieties were coming that will make it safe to grow soybeans in many areas outside the Red River Valley and the agency did not want to have to continually expand the area for which it provides coverage.
McLean concedes that his area gets fewer heat units than generally required for older varieties of soybeans, but his experience so far has been good. In 2006, he planted a five acre test plot that fared well and in 2008 he put in 27 acres.
On good land, both zero-tilled and conventionally tilled, the soybeans yielded about 40 bushels per acre.
“And last year wasn’t considered a year of abundant heat units,” said McLean.
He is hoping Manitoba Crop Insurance will make exceptions for farmers like him who have been already growing the crop and know its sensitivities. By providing them with the minimum coverage, the agency will be able to see how soybeans perform in these fringe growing areas.
“This crop is exciting,” said McLean.
“It’s a new opportunity for us and we’d like to feel more confident taking it.”
