The Manitoba government has promised to introduce insurance programs for the province’s cattle, hog and honey producers.
Keystone Agricultural Producers president Rob Brunel welcomed the announcement, which was made in the government’s recent speech from the throne.
“We don’t typically hear a lot about agriculture in the throne speech … but there were a few mentions of agriculture (this time),” Brunel said.
“Specifically livestock insurance, which is a good thing because we’ve been looking for that for some time.”
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Details of the insurance programs will be released later, but the government said it wants to help producers manage risk in three agricultural sectors.
“Talking to the (agriculture) minister afterwards, he was talking specifically of beef, hogs and bee insurance,” said Brunel, who attended the Nov. 16 throne speech at the provincial legislature. “We’ve been working on those and it’s something that will help those producers.”
The government also said improving drainage in rural Manitoba is a priority, especially in the Interlake.
“More resources will be added to help address these problems,” said lieutenant governor Philip Lee while reading the speech.
The additional money for drainage will be welcome in the Interlake and Westlake regions, where grain and livestock producers have suffered through three consecutive years of flooding.
However, Brunel said the province won’t have to dig multiple drains in the region.
“I would say the majority of it is more of a maintenance issue. Our drainage system is essentially plugged with cattails.”
