(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Agriculture roundup

Agriculture Roundup for Friday May 15, 2020

May 15, 2020 | 9:40 AM

The COVID-19 assistance program was launched on Thursday, and feedlots and cow-calf producers will see some of the benefits.

The support will include $5 million for the province’s share of costs associated with the national AgriRecovery set-aside program, while the other $5 million will help partially offset an increase in premium costs under the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program (WLPIP).

Feedlots have been backing up as the two big processing plants in Alberta struggle to increase slaughter numbers, and it could be a few months before fed cattle deliveries return to normal.

David Marit, Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Minister, said there are usually about 3,500 head ready to go to the market this time of year, and recently there were under 400 fed cattle from Saskatchewan that were processed in Alberta.

He said they estimated last week about 15,000 head of market-ready fed cattle been affected by the slowdown in processing.

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Arnold Balicki from Shellbrook is the Chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, and said the set-aside is an excellent program.

He said it will take a while to get up and running, but the bottleneck of cattle needs to be dealt with, and the feedlots need to be able to buy cattle from cow-calf producers.

Balicki said the entire industry needs to work together to get through the situation.

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The signup deadline for the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program has been extended to June 18.

The program is administered by Saskatchewan Crop Insurance, and Vice President of Operations Jeff Morrow said the sign-up rate is behind normal, with just six per cent of the marketable calf crop is insured right now.

The highest number they’ve seen at this point in the past is 17 per cent.

Price insurance sets a price floor and would protect producers from future price fluctuations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974