GrainsWest Spring 2020

Spring 2020 Grains West 20 “It’s difficult to say at this point how much worse it’s going to get because some of these crops received a lot of rain and snow already,” said Beswitherick when he spoke to GrainsWest in January. “It wasn’t like it was No. 1 wheat that is now being downgraded. It was probably No. 3 or feed wheat anyway.” Addressing the animal damage aspect, Beswitherick said while the grading system that’s in place is not zero-tolerance for excreta, the threshold for contamination is very low. Excreta tolerance for wheat, for example, is .03 per cent. If it exceeds this number, it will receive a sample grade. Beswitherick reminds farmers to be aware, quality-wise, of what they’re harvesting in the spring. “It’s really about knowing what you have and then making appropriate marketing decisions,” he said. For more on marketing spring-harvested grain, see Market Monitor (page 44). “It’s more about what the crop insurance agencies can do for producers,” he said. “That’s where the help comes from right now.” COVERAGE QUESTIONS Crop insurance will bring some relief for farmers hit hard by harvest 2019. Among the range of available options are the AgriStability and AgriInsurance programs. The AFSC production insurance program includes a benefit for unharvested acres, said Jackie Sanden, the Crown corporation’s product co-ordinator. It provides an advance payment on potential production losses. “Clients’ harvested production by crop type must be below their coverage guarantee to be eligible,” she said. The unharvested acreage benefit provides a payment of up to 25 per cent of dollar coverage on eligible unharvested acres that exceed 20 per cent of the total insured crop, said Sanden. In situations where a small number of abandoned or unharvested acres remain, AFSC may offer a preliminary payment or a post-harvest advance, which pays a portion of the estimated loss right away based on the client’s harvested production report. AFSC may also elect to finalize the post-harvest claim, she added. When harvest is considered delayed in an area due to the onset of winter, AFSC will extend production insurance coverage to unharvested insured crops until they can be combined in the spring or managed by other means. When the unharvested acres of an insured crop are harvested in the spring, the client will need to submit a revised harvested production report to AFSC to initiate the post-harvest inspection process to finalize the claim. If some or all of the unharvested acres of an insured crop are not going to be combined, but will be “Once a client is able to harvest in the spring, or decides to put the acres to another use, they notify AFSC to assess the actual overwinter losses through an on-farm inspection and calculate the final indemnity.” —Jackie Sanden FEATURE