Crop insurance and seeding decisions

Grain producers now have their individual specifics for the 2010 Saskatchewan Crop Insurance program. This information is one of the factors to be considered when making spring seeding decisions, especially in regions where moisture is a concern. This year’s program is much kinder to some crops than others. Everyone’s numbers will be different, but here are a couple examples from my crop insurance contract. Even though I’m not in a traditional canola growing region, my crop insurance guarantee for canola grown on stubble is approximately $150 an acre. This is nearly $40 an acre higher than my guarantee for oriental mustard, another oilseed cropping option. For field peas, my guarantee is less than $100 an acre. For both lentils and kabuli chickpeas, two other pulse crops, the guarantee is well over $200 an acre. Hopefully, there will be substantial precipitation and everyone will grow a crop that yields well above their crop insurance guarantees. But if a production problem does materialize, there are some obvious winners and losers when you look at crop insurance coverage. I’m Kevin Hursh.