Alberta is set to launch Canada’s first crop insurance product for malt barley this year. The province’s Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) last week said it will now provide insurance coverage for a malting end-use for growers with malt barley contracts. The coverage is subject to a contract from a licensed buyer, with a minimum of 40 tonnes contracted, AFSC said. However, clients won’t be able to insure both malt barley and commercial barley for the same crop year. If both malt and feed barley varieties are grown on the same farm, coverage will be restricted to commercial on all barley acres a producer grows. Among other changes for 2016, organic producers will now be eligible for production insurance, through a new option that will work “similarly” to AFSC’s standard production insurance programs. AFSC’s annual insurance program has been changed to include winterkill as a designated peril for pedigreed alfalfa seed production loss insurance. Individual coverage will now be available through the bee overwintering insurance program. More changes will also be made to field pea insurance “as the crop shifts to an edible end-use,” AFSC said, and a new distinct category will be set up for yellow dry beans. AFSC clients will also see a 14 per cent increase in dollar coverage per acre in 2016, the province said, due to “a combination of increasing spring insurance prices and yields.” Source - canadiancattlemen.ca