Expect lower crop insurance coverage in 2026

With only a few notable exceptions, grain, oilseed and specialty crop prices are lower than last year at this time. Many prices are dramatically lower. Crop prices around this time are a major determinant of where crop insurance price levels will be set. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that crop insurance coverage will be much lower in 2026 for most producers.

Canola immediately comes to mind when you think about falling prices, but cash canola prices are only about 50 cents a bushel lower than last year at this time. Canola prices have come down a lot in recent months, but are closer to year ago levels than many other crops.

While prices vary by buyer and location, $12.50 a bushel seemed to be a typical canola price in Saskatchewan at the end of December as compared to about $13.00 a bushel at the end of the previous year. For 2025, the Sask Crop Insurance base price for canola was $13.50 a bushel.

The market price for CWRS wheat is currently around $7.00 a bushel, down about 75 cents from last year. Durum is down about a dollar to around $7.80 a bushel. Feed barley has declined from about $5.25 to around $4.60 a bushel depending on location. Sask Crop Insurance prices for 2025 were $4.68 a bushel on barley, $7.74 on hard red spring wheat and $8.01 on durum.

Flax has held up quite well – about $17.75 a bushel a year ago and about $17 today. The only prices as good or better than a year ago are on mustard. Yellow mustard is similar to a year ago at around 41 cents a pound. Brown mustard has been reported at around 37 cents a pound, up from only 32 cents a year ago.

New crop contract prices are yet to be released by buyers for crops like mustard and lentils so current prices are likely to carry additional weight in the setting of crop insurance price levels. Mustard is one of the only crops where coverage levels in 2026 may be better than 2025.

Other crops have seen substantial market price erosion. Red lentils are down from 34 to 22 cents a pound. Large green lentils have crashed from 58 to about 26 cents per pound. The 2025 Sask Crop Insurance base prices were 31 cents a pound on red lentils and 46 cents a pound on large green lentils, which was roughly in line with the contract prices available at the time.

The market price for yellow peas is down more than $3 a bushel to around $7.00. The 2025 Sask Crop Insurance price for field peas was $10.37 a bushel.

Kabuli chickpeas were about 40 cents a pound a year ago and are now around 27 cents. Canary seed has faded from 31 cents to just 19 cents a pound. Sask Crop Insurance prices were 32 cents a pound for Canary seed and 34 cents a pound for large kabuli chickpeas for 2025.

The crop insurance program for Manitoba is typically announced at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon the third week in January. Crop Insurance prices for Saskatchewan are typically announced the latter half of February. Manitoba uses an earlier projection for price levels.

The way the market has gone, it’s reasonable to expect coverage levels to be down substantially in all three provinces. That will make crop insurance coverage less expensive per acre, but it will also mean less protection in the case of a crop failure.