Southeast Farmers Face Difficult Decisions With Insurance Deadlines Looming

Jun 16, 2020

The president of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) is keeping an eye on the water situation in southeast Manitoba.

Bill Campbell talked about some of the challenges being faced by livestock producers.

"There is excess moisture on the fields. There may be required supplement feeding and with the challenges that the province has had with regards to forage production last year, it's not the time of year when you wish to be feeding cattle. Accessing feed, taking away from 2020's reserves, it really has a lot of implications with that type of moisture that has fallen."

Campbell says farmers in the southeast are facing tough decisions with the crop insurance deadlines looming.

David Koroscil, Manager of Claim Services with Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), was asked about insurance claims so far.

"Not a lot of claims so far, a bit of activity just to have the discussion," he said. "When we have a significant rainfall like we did last weekend, it takes a little bit of time to determine and assess what the damage is and as you can appreciate what we saw last week, some roads were impassable so there's certain fields people couldn't even get to."

Koroscil notes it could take several weeks before the full impact of the damage is known.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.