Farmers have until July 15 to seed greenfeed crops
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Saskatchewan is giving producers more time to seed and insure greenfeed crops because of dry conditions.
Yesterday, David Marit, Saskatchewan’s ag minister, and Marie-Claude Bibeau, the federal ag minister, announced that farmers now have until July 15 to seed greenfeed crops and still be eligible for crop insurance. The previous deadline was June 30.
Producers who have crop insurance can plant and insure any cereal greenfeed crop. Farmers who didn’t previously include greenfeed on their insurance contracts are also eligible.
“Current dry conditions across the province are forcing producers to revisit how they are managing their forage and pastures,” Marit said in a statement yesterday.
Indeed, farmers are looking at different forage management strategies, said Tamara Carter, president of the Saskatchewan Forage Council.
“For many Saskatchewan producers, 2019 is third consecutive year of drought and they have exhausted all of their carryover feed,” she told Farms.com in an email.
“Their hay is not growing and they are looking at alternative feeding strategies such as greenfeed. While (the extension) comes too late for the hay crops, producers will now be able to seed crops for greenfeed with some level of protection and risk management.”
The crop insurance deadline extension will give producers extra time to wait for optimal planting conditions, said Cory Jacob, a crops extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
“Some farmers delayed planting to see if it would rain or not,” he told Farms.com. “We’ve had rain here that has been helpful, so those producers might feel better about seeding some greenfeed.”
Saskatchewan Crop Insurance is also waiving some criteria from the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program.
As dry conditions continue, the 60-day continuous criteria will be waived for the 2019 grazing season.
Under normal circumstances, producers must be able to prove that they’ve owned calves for 60 continuous days throughout the policy.
The province’s farmers – with the exception of some greenfed and silage producers – are almost finished planting, Saskatchewan Agriculture’s June 10 crop report said.
David Marit/Saskatchewan Agriculture photo