This extends the $250,000 limit, which was set in March 2025.

Producers can receive an additional $250,000 interest free on canola only for a total of $500,000.

“By increasing the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program, we’re helping farmers manage costs, while giving them more flexibility to market their products on their terms,” Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Heath MacDonald said in an April 1 news release.

The program offers up to $1 million to Canadian farmers based on the expected value of their agricultural products. Twenty-four industry groups across Canada deliver the program.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture praised the extension of the $250,000 interest-free limit.

“Maintaining the $250,000 interest free portion reflects the realities farmers are facing today,” said CFA president Keith Currie.

“We are seeing continued volatility in input costs, supply chains and global markets, and this type of support is important in helping farmers navigate those pressures.”

“We look forward to continuing to work with government to secure a permanent increase to the interest free portion of the program, so that producers have the predictability they need to make informed business decisions in an increasingly complex operating environment,” he added.

Under the 2026 Advance Payments Program, farmers can apply for up to $1,000,000 in financing, including:

• Up to $100,000 interest free on more than 50 commodities
• Up to an additional $400,000 interest-free on canola only
• An interest-bearing advance rate of prime less 0.25 per cent

CCGA will begin issuing funds on April 1. The Advance Payments Program is a federal program which the CCGA administers.

In June 2023, a review of the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act, which regulates the APP under the guidance of Agriculture Canada, was tabled before Parliament. The APP program is meant to provide relatively low-cost cash advances for farmers, but the review noted four farmer-facing changes that could improve the system.

Why it Matters: APP, particularly the interest-free portion of the lending program, has been the subject of back-and-forth between farmers and the federal government in recent years.

To date, only one has been tested as policy.

Create a more risk-based approach to credit-worthiness

This suggestion is being piloted for the current APP program year (April 2025 to March 2026). The new structure of the program puts more weight on repayment history. Producers with a good track record under the program can receive advance issuance more quickly, an Agriculture Canada spokesperson said in an email.

In the process, it will allow administrators to dedicate more time and effort to applicants struggling to repay their loans.

“The new credit-worthiness provisions will save time and resources for APP administrators and low-risk applicants without increasing risk,” the spokesperson said.

“(The change) was a result of us for seven years pushing on the department that we need to streamline the credit-worthiness for customers who are not a credit risk to the program,” said Dave Gallant, vice-president, finance and APP operations, with the Canadian Canola Growers Association, which is the largest APP administrator.

“Essentially, a farmer who’s been with the program for four of the last seven years who has not defaulted in the last four years, that used to be five years, we don’t have to do a credit score on.”

Streamline APP limit changes

Agriculture Canada said this recommendation would make for easier adjustment if the interest-free limits of the APP are increased in times of crisis, as they have been repeatedly in the last five years, most recently in the case of canola advances, as well as an earlier increase for APP applications in general, following pressure from farm groups.

If implemented, it would require Agriculture Canada to notify producers and APP administrators of the change early enough for preparations to be put in place, said Gallant.

He said the recommendation is based on recent cases where the department set its interest-free limits after the APP year had already started, causing headaches for both administrators and producers.

“Administrators … are often the last or second-to-last group of people to know that the changes are coming, and so (Agriculture Canada) has tried to — or is trying to — put process in place that would allow us as administrators to have a heads-up earlier,” Gallant said.

Reduce need for priority agreements

Agriculture Canada currently requires APP applicants to have priority agreements signed by any other creditors, using the advance commodity as security.

“The creditor must agree to give the APP program administrator first priority for payment when the commodity is sold,” wrote the department spokesperson.

“Obtaining these signed agreements can be burdensome for the producer and, without them, the producer is not eligible for an advance.”

However, under the recommendation, priority agreements would no longer be required in most cases. Instead, program administrators would register liens with the applicable provincial property registrar at the time of advance.

“Doing so would notify all other creditors that the producer has an APP advance and identify the commodity used as security. APP would no longer always need first priority on the proceeds of sale,” the spokesperson said.

Apply a risk-based audit for proof of sale

Under current legislation, loan recipients must provide proof of every sale of the commodity used as collateral on the APP loan.

With a risk-based audit approach, producers would only be required to provide proof of sale documentation at the request of APP administrators, the spokesperson said, meaning producers would only occasionally be required to submit these documents.

Farmers can access to up to $500,000 interest-free with a maximum eligible advance of $1 million.

For 2025, the interest-free component includes up to $250,000 for any commodity eligible under the program, plus an additional $250,000 for canola only.

The necessary regulatory amendments took effect on Sept. 16. These provide for a temporary doubling of the interest-free portion for canola advances under the Advance Payments Program. Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA), which administers the program in Western Canada, began issuing advances on Friday, the association said in a news release.

“CCGA will reassess all current 2025 customer advances and reallocate the interest-free and interest-bearing portions of those advances in a way that maximizes the interest-free benefit available to eligible farmers,” said Dave Gallant, CCGA’s Vice-President, Finance & APP Operations.

“We are responding quickly so that all farmers can benefit from this change and will notify existing customers about the program changes and any actions required on their part.”

Farmers can apply for up to $1 million in financing in 2025, with up to $500,000 interest-free, and the remaining at an interest-bearing rate of prime less 0.25 per cent.

Ottawa announced the program changes in early September as part of a spending packaged geared towards aiding the canola sector amid crippling Chinese tariffs, and boosting domestic biofuel production.

“When the program changes are approved, CCGA will take action to implement the higher interest-free benefit for canola quickly so that all farmers, including those who already have a 2025 cash advance, can benefit,” said Dave Gallant, the association’s vice-president, of finance and APP operations in a Tuesday news release.

“CCGA will notify existing customers about the program changes and any actions required on their part. We hope to make the process seamless for all farmers.”

Ottawa announced late last week it would temporarily increase the interest-free portion for canola advances in the Advance Payments Program to $500,000 from $250,000 to aid farmers facing market disruptions due to Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola. The change will be in place for the rest of 2025 and the 2026 program.

CCGA said it is awaiting further details from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as the changes work through the regulatory process.

“At this time, information is limited, so we encourage farmers to await further details from CCGA either from our website or through our normal customer communications channels,” Gallant said.

Canola groups underwhelmed by federal support

Federal aid initiatives for the canola sector included $370 million in biofuel production incentives aimed at making Canada’s producers more competitive with their counterparts in the United States.

The Liberal government also announced it will invest an additional $75 million over five years in Agriculture Canada’s AgriMarketing program starting in 2026-27.

The money will be spent on expanding the program into high-growth areas such Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.

Canola groups said they were underwhelmed by the federal government’s aid measures.

“The measures announced today do not reflect the seriousness of the challenge facing the value chain,” Chris Davision, president of the Canola Council of Canada said in a press release.

“We have communicated the need for appropriate financial and policy supports, and the federal government has missed the mark.”

Farmers shouldn’t have to borrow: CCGA

Canadian Canola Growers Association president Rick White said farmers should not be expected to borrow their way out of the situation.

“The Advanced Payments Program is not designed to provide the required support canola farmers need under this situation,” he said in the joint press release.

Davison said the government failed to recognize the extensive impacts on the rest of the value chain, noting that exporters and processors are also facing “significant financial impacts” due to the closure of the Chinese market.

The groups were happy to see there was some support for the biofuel sector but noted that the incentive does not go far enough in driving meaningful additional domestic demand for canola.

They called on Ottawa to provide “meaningful and impactful” support for an industry navigating a trade crisis and to “pursue all avenues” for resolving the dispute with China.

—With files from Sean Pratt

Those prices have stayed afloat in 2025, despite worries earlier this year that tariffs would end the party early.

It’s a welcome shift for cow-calf producers, whose market has sunk into signficant price valleys several times in the last 25 years.

While the influx has given beef producers financial wiggle room, what they’re doing with that money depends on farm size, location and individual priorities, among other factors.

Fraser Schram, co-owner of Northfork Ranch Supply in Cartwright, Man., said the farmers he talks to are being cautious. They’re still focusing more on needs than wants.

“They’ve been very wary to this point,” said Schram, whose store has a service area of about 100 kilometres.

“For 10 years, we listened to forecasts that the prices were going to go up, and then there always seemed to be a dark swan event: BSE came along and that blew things out of the water, and then COVID didn’t help. And so nobody is very confident that this is real.”

Connor English, a beef and perennial forage producer northwest of Brandon, Man., said his main priority is cutting costs in any nook and cranny it’s feasible to do so. That includes feeding practices that reduce costs and labour.

In other words, he’s preparing for when the bottom finally falls out of the cattle market.

He’s not focusing on darkening clouds, he insists. He’s looking at their silver linings.

“Right now, with the high market, we can try a few things that maybe we didn’t want to try when the market was low just because (we’re) not as comfortable to try new things when the budgets are that much tighter,” he said.

Schram, who was once a beef producer himself, is as happy as anyone about current cattle prices, but he’s not sure it’s sustainable, especially on the consumer end.

Beef has “become a middle, upper-class food for people to buy,” he said.

“I look at it a bit like lobster now. The way we used to look at lobster was that you had it once or twice a year, and that’s becoming what’s going to happen with beef. It’s a supply-demand thing, and the supply is so low right now. And honestly, I don’t know whether that’s going to turn around anytime soon for the cattle producers. I hope not, but for the consumer, it’s tough.”

Low cattle supplies have been sticky thus far in both the United States and Canada, with herd numbers facing an extended low period following critical and widespread drought early in the decade.

Across the Prairies, beef operations dropped 650,000 head between 2021 and 2024, or about 7.3 per cent, according to data from Statistics Canada.

While high prices would normally incentivize farms to build, industry instead noted an alarming number of herd dispersals.

In March, Tyson Foods chief executive officer Donnie King said U.S. beef producers might finally be entering a rebuild cycle.

Schram said there’s a lot of interest in solar-powered watering systems and electric fencing among his customers. He attributed much of that interest to financial incentive programs that the Manitoba government has rolled out for both.

“A lot of the provincial money that is being spent (on) farmers is on … temporary grazing equipment and solar-powered water systems that help people do a better job of keeping cattle out of waterways and out of dugouts and give them pressure water, etc.,” he said.

English is taking his purchasing focus off equipment that inevitably depreciates in value and more toward products that build wealth.

“I’m trying to just ensure that whatever we’re purchasing right now is an appreciating asset and we’re not going to be getting ourselves into any long-term debts that are just going to continue to depreciate,” he said.

“So we’re trying to stay away from things like upgrading loader tractors, balers, haybines — that sort of thing — and looking at other options.”

With feed being the biggest expense on his operation, extra hay turned out to be a good investment for English over the winter and spring.

Producers in Manitoba have had recent experience with the feed scramble during drought years such as 2021.

“We’ve gone out and secured a lot of winter feed, enough for two or three years worth, and we can really utilize that in a fashion in our feeding system. We’ll bale-graze cows — it takes really minimal labour and and we’ve kind of locked in a feed source at a very low cost for many years to come,” he said.

English doesn’t bother speculating much on how long high cattle prices are going to last. They’re outside of his control, he said.

What producers do have control over, he said, is purchasing livestock price insurance policies to set price floors for their cattle.

The business risk management program is meant to protect producers from price volatility and is enjoying a moment in the sun, given potential volatility from tariffs. At the same time, many producers have historically considered the non-cost shared program prohibitively expensive.

Past that, the producer has sold some cows and plans to sell a set of cow-calf pairs he considers “way overvalued” at this point in time.

“I think there’s lots of opportunity for moving out high-valued animals right now. Bred cows or cow-calf pairs seem to be very, very high-value, probably much higher than they have ever been.”

Government funding and lending programs can also be an indicator of what beef producers are buying. Dave Gallant is vice-president of finance and Advance Payment Program (APP) operations for the Canadian Canola Growers Association, the largest administrator of the federal loan guarantee program.

APP offers farmers up to $1 million in advances per year with the first $250,000 interest-free. Despite its canola ties, the association administers the full spectrum of the program, including beef cattle applicants.

Emphasizing the small sample size from a limited time frame of the 2025 APP season, Gallant said beef applications as of May 20 saw “50 per cent more applications for about 50 per cent more money,” compared to the same day in 2024.

General feedback — much of it anecdotal — suggests a number of beef producers are actually using funds to expand and rebuild their herds, said Gallant.

“The vast majorities are looking to either expand their herd or buying breeding stock, whereas in prior years, a lot of our conversations with the cattle producers mostly hung around feeding those cattle with the funds that they were borrowing.”

Gallant said that payback among beef cattle borrowers is happening at “a normal pace.”

Most aren’t rushing to pay back their loans before deadline to avoid extra interest.

“Farmers are paying off their advances about normal relative to any other prior years, so we’re not seeing any rapid repayments of advances simply because prices are higher for cattle,” he said.

Beef-related applications to another APP administrator group — the Manitoba Livestock Cash Advance program — are also coming in at higher numbers, said chair Mark Good. He credits it, in part, to heavier marketing of APP in 2024.

Good suggested that beef producers are using cash advances to pay down lines of credit to avoid rising interest. Equipment updates, dugouts and fencing are also high on the list, particularly with the incentives available through provincial beneficial management practice programming — cost-shared projects that the province links to sustainability.

Good, who is a beef producer himself, plans to submit his own Manitoba Livestock Cash Advance application in the near future.

He added that he has used extra revenue from cattle sales to buy a new aluminum stock trailer, in advance of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“I got a little spooked when the Americans talked about putting 25 per cent tariffs on aluminum,” he said.

“I could barely afford it now, but I can’t afford it if the tariffs go on and the price goes up.”

“CCA has been advocating for the limit to be kept at $350,000, but increasing it to $250,000 is positive for producers across Canada and will help keep the beef cattle sector economically competitive in an unsteady economic environment,” the organization said in a news release on Tuesday.

Follow all our coverage of the tariffs situation here

On Friday, the federal government announced a slate of funding geared toward protecting Canadian farms and businesses in the face of U.S. tariffs and trade disruptions.

At the same time, it announced it would set the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $250,000, rather than the previously announced $100,000.

The $100,000 limit would not have accounted for inflation and rising input costs, CCA said.

“Keeping the interest-free portion higher than $100,000 is a helpful tool in keeping our sector competitive and sustainable in the long term,” said CCA president Nathan Phinney in the release.

“CCA will continue to engage with the federal government on this file regarding next steps to ensure that the increase is made before the growing season starts,” he added.

Tyler McCann, managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, said he was glad to see the government taking some action.

“Now, when there is heightened uncertainty and when farmers are looking at potentially more expensive inputs going into this growing season, giving them that access to the higher APP amount is a good, easy thing to do,” he said.