Crop Insurance rule should be re-evaluated

A lot of crops in West Central and North Western Saskatchewan are going to be terminated in the next couple of weeks. By terminating a failed crop with herbicide or tillage before July 15, the land qualifies as summerfallow for next year’s Crop Insurance coverage and that means a higher yield guarantee. Producers are talking with Crop Insurance offices and weighing their options, but it’s clear that more and more fields in the dry regions are not going to produce a crop worth harvesting. One Crop Insurance rule that has always struck me as odd is how stubble crop and summerfallow crop yields are pooled for any particular crop. Let’s say you have wheat seeded on both summerfallow and stubble. The stubble crop fails, but the chem fallow produces a reasonable crop. The summerfallow yield offsets the stubble yield shortfall thereby reducing or eliminating any Crop Insurance support. This rule affects management decisions. Some producers purposely avoid having the same crop on both summerfallow and stubble. That could be tough next year in areas where a lot of land is going to qualify as summerfallow. A simple pre-harvest inspection should be enough to prevent any fraudulent activity on summerfallow versus stubble making it feasible to separately insure the same crop seeded on both. I’m Kevin Hursh.

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Kevin Hursh, PAg, CAC