Make Agricorp your first call if you have an ugly looking wheat stand
The rapidly raising levels of the Great Lakes and the catastrophic flooding that troubles Eastern Ontario should serve as two big indications of the immense volumes of precipitation that Ontario has received in the last six months. The Winter Wheat is not happy. Almost every farmer will have a reduced stand, the discussion turns now to decide whether it is 1% or 100% lost…
In Ontario, we get rain, and we get winter, and every year that poses risk to the success of winter wheat along with other crops. Crop Insurance through Agricorp is the proper method to protect yourself against crop failure to environmental conditions.
We thought we would reach out to Agricorp to obtain a quick checklist for growers with struggling wheat. It is very possible that there are farmers who have never made a re-seeding claim for acres of winter wheat, but they may be doing so this spring. In response, they have created a document to outline how they are Ready to Help, and it can be found at this link. http://www.agricorp.com/en-ca/News/2019/Pages/PI-WinterkillCoverageWhatFarmersShouldKnow.aspx
From a re-seeding claim perspective, I would like to generalize the decisions in to three scenarios. (To the best of my understanding, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.)
Grower A: “I know my wheat is thin, but I really need to keep cereal crop on the acres, I am planning to inter-seed with a cereal crop.”
1) Call Agricorp to report damage, and get a claim file started.
2) Discuss plans with adjuster, may require a field visit. Obtain Release of those acres. Get drill in field as soon as fit.
3) Report the acres that go forward as pure Winter Wheat, and the acres that are now “Mixed Cereal”
Grower B: “I know my wheat is thin in sections, I would like to re-seed to another crop.”
1) Call Agricorp to report damage, and get a claim file started.
2) Discuss plans with adjuster, may require a field visit. Obtain Release of those acres. Spray off the sections to be terminated. Go forward with new crop.
3) Report the acres that remain as Winter Wheat, and the acres that are now new crop.
Grower C: “I know my wheat is thin, but I need straw and have grain sold, I still plan to go ahead with the crop as it is, and hope for the best.”
1) BE SURE TO STILL Call Agricorp to report damage, and get a claim file started. I feel like this step might be overlooked if the field will stay as wheat. If the thin stand is not reported, and the grower submits a very low yield, then there is possibility of a reduction for Production Insurance coverage.
2) Go ahead with the wheat crop, and report harvested yields.
I expect the claim volume to be bigger than ever before at the Agricorp office. Their staff will be very very busy. Please be mindful of that and be polite with the staff and patient with the process. Here’s hoping we don’t have to go through another situation like this any time soon.