MBP director Trevor Atchison (behind him are Gerry Ritz, James Bezan, Stan Struthers and Tom Nevakshonoff)

 

 

Manitoba Beef Producers is welcoming the new assistance program for livestock producers facing feed shortages due to flooding. The 18 million dollar Canada-Manitoba Feed and Transportation Assistance Program was announced on Friday.

The $18 million program has two components:

- Flooded producers are eligible for feed assistance of up to $30 per ton (2000lbs or 907kg), based on a percentage of normal production. For example, a producer that harvested 75 percent of his/her normal hay crop would receive 75 percent of this payment. A producer requires approximately 3.7 tons of hay to sustain a single cow for the winter, meaning a full payment would be in the range of $100 to $120 per head. A 10 percent deductible will be applied to the feed assistance.

- The second component of the program comes in the form of transportation assistance. Producers who must transport feed to livestock are eligible for up to $0.22 per tonne per loaded mile. $0.10 per head per loaded mile is available for farmers who have to move animals to feed. The transportation payment rates vary according to the type of feed and animal. The minimum distance is 25 kilometres while the maximum distance for which producers can be compensated is 350 kilometers.

"This means the issues and hardships cattle producers have been facing have been recognized. It gives them tools to work with to hopefully help them move forward, whatever they need to do to keep their operation going," says Trevor Atchison, MBP director.

Ideally, he says the program would have been announced earlier in fall.

"Some producers have already made the decision to sell their herds. Every auction mart you talk to, their sales have booked up. Certainly some have sold out because they didn't have the feed," he says.

Atchison says the program announced by the government differed from the MBP proposal, in that they asked for a per-head payment.

MBP is pleased the program was rolled out on an individual farm basis, rather than a municipal or regional approach.

He says they look forward to timely implementation of the program. Application forms were made available through MAFRI the minute the program was announced on Friday.

~ Monday, December 20, 2010 ~