Soybeans are set to roll up and out of the Red River Valley to the north, east and west.
Manitoba crop insurance will now cover losses on the crop outside the province’s heat belt, and producer representatives think that will result in soybeans growing in places they have never been before.
“It’ll give farmers some backbone to go out and put them in,” said Andrew Saramaga, a producer and chair of the soybean committee of Manitoba Pulse Growers.
“We’ll see a few more acres go west for sure.”
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Manitoba is at the extreme end of the soybean growing zone, and is only within it at all because of recently introduced short-season varieties.
The crop has done well in the Red River Valley, which is hotter and has a longer season that most of the Prairies, but Manitoba crop insurance has covered soy only within parts of the valley. Without insurance to protect against 100 percent losses in the case of a disaster, farmers outside the coverage zone have been wary of the crop.
The Manitoba Pulse Growers asked for a smaller zone outside the valley to be covered in western Manitoba, but the crop insurance administration added a host of zones in the expectation that within a few years short-season hardy soybeans will be able to handle almost all of Manitoba’s growing areas.
Only a few patches of the northwestern farm belt have been excluded from coverage.
The coverage levels are not yet known.
The industry believes that seeded area this spring will be more than 400,000 acres, depending on weather. An early, warm spring will bring good acreage.
In 2002, less than 80,000 acres of soybeans were grown. In 2004, about 125,000 acres were grown. Last year, 316,000 acres were planted.
