Farmers should contact their crop insurance representative before destroying unharvested crops — even if they don’t expect to qualify for a payment, a Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation official says. David Van Deynze, MASC’s vice-president of insurance operations, said if the crop is badly degraded, or impractical to harvest, adjusters will still estimate the yield that will be added to the farmer’s long-term average. That affects coverage in the future; the higher the farmer’s long-term average yield, the higher the coverage. A second reason to call first is that the farmer might be eligible for a payment. But if the crop is destroyed before an adjuster can inspect it, crop insurance assumes the yield of the destroyed crop is the same as farmer’s coverage. “So there’s a big penalty to not call us (before destroying a crop) if you’re in a claim position,” Van Deynze said. “Again if they are not in a claim position then it matters less in terms of dollars, but it still matters in terms of their future coverage. Hopefully that’s enough incentive… ” Van Deynze said even though harvest has been on hold in the province since mid-September, there have been few calls to MASC offices from farmers concerned about not being able to harvest. “I don’t think the recent (bad) weather has really spurred that on a whole lot,” he said in an interview Oct. 12. “We’re in a bit of a holding pattern here quite honestly. We’re not getting a ton of calls. We’re getting some ‘what if’ calls to make sure farmers know how their insurance works, but nobody that I’m aware of is really in a giving-up mode yet, which is good… ”

How it works

Individual crops are insured based on the farmer’s long-term average yield from the whole farm, not individual fields. So, for example, a farmer with an average wheat yield of 50 bushels an acre who purchased 80 per cent coverage is guaranteed a yield of 40 bushels an acre under crop insurance. But in addition to insuring yield, crop insurance insures grade. The grade guarantee for red spring wheat (Canada Western Red Spring varieties) is No. 2. If the grade falls below the guarantee, the farmer’s yield is adjusted lower using a factor determined by the difference in value between the guaranteed grade and the grade of the harvested crop, Van Deynze said. That means if a farmer’s yield matched his or her coverage, but the grade was less than a No. 2, that farmer would be eligible for a crop insurance payout. Unless a farmer is in a claim position, it’s unlikely MASC will inspect unharvested crops this fall, he said. “Even if we went to look at it this fall we wouldn’t be able to advance him any money anyway because the math doesn’t work out,” Van Deynze said. There’s also a possibility of harvesting the crop in the spring, which would affect the final yield.

The farmer’s call

But the decision to destroy a crop is always up to the farmer. “We might go there and say ‘harvest it or not, but we think you’ve got 60 bushels of wheat out there so we’re counting 60 bushels on your claim whether you like it or not,” Van Deynze said as an example. “But if (the farmer) chooses not to harvest it (the farmer) still doesn’t have to.” However, MASC will try to inspect unharvested crops this fall for farmers who are likely in a claim position, he said. “There might be an opportunity to advance (the farmer) some money,” Van Deynze said. “But for most producers this year I think the crop was good enough that there’s probably not going to be a lot of opportunity for that.” Where farmers are in a claim position, MASC will reassess the yield in the spring. If the crop is harvested, MASC will measure bins to recalculate the farmer’s final claim. As of Oct. 9, Manitoba Agriculture estimated 80 per cent of Manitoba’s crop had been harvested. With most crops yielding relatively well, many farmers will not be in a claim position, even if they can’t harvest the rest of their crop. Van Deynze suspects farmers haven’t been calling because they expect to get the rest of the crop off. Yields have been decent, so there’s also an incentive to get it if they can, he said. And because of that, and the fact that a lot of crop has already been harvested, many farmers won’t be eligible for a crop insurance claim, even if they can’t get the rest of their crop harvested. Longtime farmers have seen harvest delays before, Van Deynze said. Often the weather improves enough in October or November to collect the rest. “If the weather improves we could still get a lot of combining done before the snow flies — or maybe not if it flies tomorrow,” he said. But with days getting shorter, so too are the hours suitable for combining, he added. Last week Manitoba Agriculture estimated 100 per cent of the peas, 97 per cent of the cereals, 87 per cent of the canola and 60 per cent of the soybeans were in the bin. However, less than five and 15 per cent of the sunflowers and corn, respectively, were harvested. The provincial average belies the fact that areas outside of the central region have a greater percentage of all crops still in the field. Conditions are even more dire in Alberta where farm groups as of last week estimated there were 7.8 million acres of unharvested crops worth more than $3 billion. “The conditions at this point in the fall are worse this year than in 2016 when weather caused many acres to remain unharvested in Alberta,” Alberta Pulse Growers chair D’Arcy Hilgartner said in a news release. As of Oct. 10, it was estimated that 26 per cent of Alberta’s canola was unharvested along with 57 per cent of the wheat and barley and 34 per cent of the pulses.

What’s ahead?

As of press time the forecast was calling for sunshine and near-normal temperature for several days this week. If it holds, farmers will be pushing hard to get the rest of this year’s crop off and in the bin.

Doing the math

Here’s why some farmers won’t get a payout. Say a farmer’s wheat coverage is 40 bushels an acre and he or she has harvested 80 per cent of their wheat with an average yield of 60 bushels an acre. Even if there is zero yield on the unharvested 20 per cent, this farmer’s average wheat yield is 48 bushels an acre — eight bushels higher than the coverage. Source - https://www.manitobacooperator.ca