Unseeded acreage debate
I had a heated discussion yesterday with a producer from east central Saskatchewan. He only got 25 per cent of his crop seeded and he supports the idea of increasing the Unseeded Acreage Payment to $100 an acre. The less than $50 an acre currently available under crop insurance is going to leave him in a bad position. By comparison, his crop insurance coverage for canola is about $220 an acre, while wheat is at $140. I’m opposed to doubling the Unseeded Acreage Payment because that would be out of sync with the rest of the crop insurance coverage levels. At $100 an acre, unseeded acreage would be more lucrative than what many producers have for full coverage. I appreciate the position of producers with a large unseeded land base and I was feeling a bit hypocritical after the extended discussion because I was able to get my land seeded. As fate would have it, later in the day my farm was hit with two or three inches of rain in a very short period of time. There are water washes and sloughs everywhere. It’s a mess. On top of that, I wonder how many times I’ll need to spray my chickpeas with fungicide when they’re getting rained on every second day. The problems producers are facing go beyond the unseeded acreage. I’m Kevin Hursh.