Saskatchewan producers counting on $80 per acre for their unseeded fields should probably count on a little less.
The $30 per acre payment announced last week as an AgriRecovery initiative and the $50 per acre payment offered to Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. customers are subject to calculations.
For example, the $30 payment will take into account a producer’s seeding intensity for the last two years, which is the farmer’s average percentage of land seeded.
“If you normally seed that land and then you have acres that are unseeded or flooded, then you’ll be compensated for the difference,” said Shawn Jaques, executive manager of field operations for SCIC.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
The corporation is handling the AgriRecovery payments for all Saskatchewan farmers, including those who aren’t customers.
Norm Hall of Wynyard, Sask., said his seeding intensity is 97 percent, so his AgriRecovery payment would be $29.10 per unseeded acre. A farmer with a seeding intensity of 85 percent would receive $25.50.
University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist Ken Rosaasen, who also farms, said fewer farmers practice rotations that include a lot of fallow.
“I think the crop intensity will be very high in most areas, at least up in district 5B where the biggest percent of the unseeded acres as a proportion is,” said Rosaasen from his farm near Preeceville, Sask.
The provincial $50 payment for crop insurance participants is based on four years of seeding intensity, as well as insurance intensity.
“We cover producers for what they normally would seed and insure with Saskatchewan Crop Insurance,” Jaques said.
“The insurance intensity compares what a producer insures with Saskatchewan Crop Insurance compared to what they could insure.”
The payment is also subject to a five percent deductible of the acres normally seeded per legal land description. All the calculations determine eligible acres, which are then multiplied by $50.
An example of the calculation can be found at www.saskcropinsurance.com. Click on “crop insurance” and then on “multi-peril.”
The sample calculation shows that a producer who farms 1,000 acres and normally seeds 85 percent but can only seed 60 percent in a given year, and carries an insurance intensity of 83 percent, would receive $50 per acre on 185 acres, or $9,250.
SCIC general manager Cam Swan said the calculation is complex but is designed to pay out only on actual unseeded acres.
“Farmers in east-central and the northeast are used to this,” he said, referring to flooding and excess moisture in those areas over the past several years.
“Some parts of the province have never had this problem.”
