Manitoba farmers will have five extra days to get their crop in and still qualify for crop insurance.
The president of Manitoba’s farm lobby group said the extension will help flooded farmers in the Red River Valley as long as the weather continues to co-operate.
“It’s going to depend on Mother Nature,” said Les Jacobson of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
“If those five days are all rain days, it isn’t going to help at all.”
Farmers have asked the provincial government to extend crop insurance deadlines in the past. But the insurance corporation has been reluctant to make changes that could affect the soundness of the program.
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Crop insurance officials say farmers planting during the last week of current deadlines can hope to achieve only 80 percent of the yield potential of their crops.
Agriculture minister Harry Enns said he didn’t know what effect extending the deadlines would have on the integrity of the crop insurance program.
What next year?
He said the deadlines may be moved back next year. But he told reporters the crop insurance corporation hopes to offer a more flexible program next year where farmers could still buy some insurance if they plant after the deadlines. Enns also hopes farmers will get more options for buying unseeded acreage insurance, now for sale only in the fall.
KAP has hired Bob Hodgson of Roland, Man. to help co-ordinate seeding in the home stretch.
Jacobson said Hodgson’s wages will come from the federal and provincial governments, which have yet to officially xannounce their involvement.
Hodgson will match offers of farm labor and custom seeding with farmers who need it.
Jacobson said about 200 farmers from Ontario plan to come in groups of 50 for a week at a time to help out.
