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Farmers encouraged to submit AgriStability forms

Sep 25, 2018 | 5:00 PM

An important deadline is looming for Saskatchewan farmers as this Sunday marks the initial deadline for producers enrolled in the AgriStability program to submit their 2017 program forms.

AgriStability policy manager Rae Groeneveld told farmnewsNOW they have had a normal response for this time of year.

“For the 2017 year we have 11,800 producers in the province, enrolled to participate and up until this point we’ve got just over 5,000 of those producers that have subnmitted their forms for the program,” he said.

Because Sept. 30 falls on a Sunday, Groeneveld said Saskatchewan Crop Insurance (SCI) will extend the deadline to the next business day Monday. Any forms received after Monday, are subject to a penalty fee and Dec. 31 is the final deadline for submitting program forms with penalty.

The program forms themselves contain all the information of what happened on the farm in 2017 including income, expenses and what happened with inventory. Groeneveld said agristability payments are calculated based on the margin difference between 2017 and what happened historically on the farm for the previous five years.
 
“If that dropped 30 per cent below their historical margin, that’s what puts them into a benefit position,” he said.
 
Groeneveld said some of the issues in 2017 driving the need for assistance were dry conditions and a shift in the livestock market, where some producers were caught in a price decline. Producers have been given a few options to submit their forms. Forms can be dropped off at any one of the province’s SCI customer service offices, by fax or online.

 

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell