Manitoba livestock producers facing the extraordinary costs of having to buy and move feed for the winter months following an extremely wet growing season will receive forage shortfall assistance, thanks to a new AgriRecovery initiative. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Ron Kostyshyn announced a new initiative to help affected livestock producers maintain their breeding herds over winter.
“Beef producers play an important role in creating economic growth in Manitoba,” said Minister Ritz. “This support, combined with that available through existing programs, will help producers with the extraordinary costs of accessing forage for their herds over the coming winter months.”
This 2014 Canada-Manitoba Forage Shortfall and Transportation Assistance Initiative will provide:
- Assistance of up to $0.16 per tonne per loaded kilometre for the transportation of forage/feed and up to $0.08 per head per loaded kilometre for the transportation of breeding livestock and their unweaned calves to feed sources.
- For the Lake Manitoba/Lake Winnipegosis regions, forage purchase assistance of up to
- $50 per tonne.
- To ensure payments are targeted to those most affected, payments will be calculated based on individual need and receipts will be required to ensure producers have incurred eligible transportation and feed costs.
“Manitoba farmers in many parts of the province have dealt with unprecedented wet weather and poor growing conditions this year,” said Minister Kostyshyn. “Producers told us what was needed to ensure the health and sustainability of their herd over the winter and this program is a comprehensive response. I know this program has been long-awaited and Premier Selinger and I are pleased we were able to confirm our ongoing support for producers affected by flooding and excess moisture, above and beyond the programs already in place. These new support measures will also help ensure the continued success of our local economy.”
Additional program details and application forms will be available later this week at Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (MAFRD) Growing Opportunities (GO) Offices and online.
There are 460,000 beef cows on Manitoba farms, generating an estimated $620 million in farm cash receipts.
Extreme weather conditions in May and June of 2014 resulted in significant forage shortages for livestock in Manitoba. The downstream flows of the excess moisture created significant flooding on lands around the Lake Manitoba/Lake Winnipegosis regions that were relied upon to produce winter feed for breeding herds, affecting an estimated 75,000 acres of hayland and winter feed production for about 330 farms. This AgriRecovery initiative will help replace the winter feed requirements for the breeding herds.
This federal-provincial initiative is being delivered under the AgriRecovery Framework, which allows governments to respond to unforeseen disasters that result in extraordinary costs for producers and where assistance required is beyond what is available under existing programs. Producers are encouraged to continue to make full use of existing government programs – AgriInsurance, AgriStability and AgriInvest, designed to help them mitigate income and production losses due to disaster events.
