The long-standing program allows livestock producers affected by drought to defer income of sales made from their breeding herd due to drought.

This is an early designation and there will be additional areas throughout the year as additional information is required. This is the link to a map showing designated areas and below that is a list of rural municipalities covered in each province. About 160 Saskatchewan RM’s, or just over half, are covered in the initial designation.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau made the announcement after touring a cow-calf operation in the Interlake region, north of Winnipeg. She also committed federal funding to recent Crop Insurance changes to make drought-damaged crops available for feed.

AgriRecovery assessments are also underway with five provinces impacted by drought.

“We are working around the clock to turn those (assessments) around as quickly as possible to help farmers with the extraordinary costs they face,” Bibeau said.

AgriRecovery could include direct assistance to producers for the added cost of livestock feed, transportation and water infrastructure.

Bibeau also repeated Ottawa’s offer of raising the AgriStability compensation rate from 70 percent to 80 percent, saying it would provide farmers across the country an additional $75 million per year. Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba rejected the proposal earlier this year, saying it was too costly for smaller provinces with large agricultural land bases. The Prairie governments believe Ottawa should cover a large portion of the cost.

(Above picture–Federal Ag Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on a farm in the Interlake region of Manitoba, north of Winnipeg)