Keystone Agricultural Producers say the $50 per acre compensation payment for flooded or unseeded acres is insufficient.
Delegates to the group passed a resolution last week in Brandon requesting the basic coverage for excess moisture increase to $70-90 per acre from $50.
Since 2000, when the Excess Moisture Insurance was created, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. has compensated producers who are unable to seed crops before June 20 due to flooding or excess rainfall.
The basic coverage of $50 per acre is provided automatically, as part of AgriInsurance, at a cost of 30 cents per acre. Producers can receive $65 per acre if they pay a higher premium.
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Most of the producers at KAP’s policy meeting in Brandon agreed the basic payment of $50 per acre isn’t nearly enough in today’s era of high input costs. But a few KAP members questioned the need for more compensation.
“What costs are you actually incurring that have increased?” asked Bill Campbell, who is from Minto. “My taxes run between $7 and $10 per acre and Roundup is now three bucks an acre. You get it custom applied and that may run you $10 an acre. So I’m looking at $20 an acre… is the cost that I have for that year on that land.”
Weldon Newton of Neepawa disagreed: “All that is, is farmer arithmetic. There’s far more costs involved,” he said. “I don’t think it would hurt to look at this again to see if we can’t come up with a better number. It’s 10 years old.”
Chuck Fossay agreed with Newton, adding that Campbell ignored several costs.
“If you own the land and it’s free and paid for, maybe your costs are $10 for taxes and $10 for Roundup,” said Fossay, who farms by Starbuck.
“But if you’re renting land and you’re paying $50 to $75 an acre for rent. And you also have to consider if you applied anhydrous in the fall and have been unable to seed that field.”
KAP delegates raised several other concerns regarding flooding and insurance coverage.
Ernie Sirski, a grain producer in the Dauphin area, introduced a resolution asking the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. to review its methods for appraising potential yields.
“Determining their final yield factor has to do with plant numbers and not with plant viability,” said Sirski, a director of Manitoba Canola Growers Association.
“David Koroscil, manager of insurance projects and sales at MASC, said the insurer has heard from producers this spring.
He said basing assessments on plant viability is easier said than done.
“It’s very difficult to determine whether or not a plant will survive and I think that’s where the issue arose this year,” he said.
Growers dissatisfied with the projected yield of their crop have the right to refuse the assessment, he said.
“Normally what we would do is send out a second, more experienced adjustor, to go in that field once again.”
