prairie briefs
Research
July 31 is the deadline for applying for a refund under the Western Wheat and Barley Checkoff Program.
Alberta Barley, which administers the program, is reminding farmers who want their checkoff refunded to submit the paperwork before the deadline.
The program provides funding for the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC) and the Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI).
Checkoffs under the program are collected at the point of sale at a rate of 48 cents per tonne of wheat and 56 cents per tonne of barley (.04 cents per tonne of barley sold in Alberta).
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The checkoff is separate from wheat and barley checkoffs collected by provincial wheat and barley commissions.
— CROSS
Crop insurance
Saskatchewan farmers had submitted 400 crop insurance claims by mid-July as a result of the late June flood.
Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. chief executive officer Shawn Jaques said July 14 that pre-harvest claims were coming in and adjusting was underway.
Pre-harvest claims are made when acres are affected by a natural cause of loss and the producer wants to put the crop to another use before harvest.
“We don’t pay those claims unless it’s all acres of that insured crop,” he said.
“For example, if you have 500 acres seeded and insured and you only have 50 acres that are impacted by the flood, we have to wait until the other 450, something is done with them before we determine that loss.”
Farmers who want to chem fallow or turn livestock into a field can file a pre-harvest claim and have the field inspected.
However, most will have to wait until after harvest to find out if they are receiving a payment.
Meanwhile, the corporation received 6,200 claims under its unseeded acreage benefit, which had to be filed by June 20.
— BRIERE
Wildlife
Ten people from Alberta have been charged with killing dozens of wild animals and leaving them to waste near Edson, said the provincial justice department.
The group killed 36 animals: 26 deer, five moose, four elk and one black bear. Their carcasses were found last November. The accused will appear in Edson provincial court Aug. 5.
“I want to thank everyone who helped conclude this investigation by calling in tips,” said justice minister Jonathan Denis.
Derek Brown, Colton Campbell, Michaela Scott, Devan Dozorec and Tiffany Brown face 204 charges.
The others face an additional 119 charges, but can’t be identified because they were younger than 18 during the alleged incidents, or are still younger than 18.
— MACARTHUR
