Provincial livestock insurance would be of interest to farmers says OFA president

Friday, November 21, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

If a production insurance program were developed for livestock, there would definitely be a lot of interest from farmers, says Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales.

The Ontario government introduced the agriculture insurance bill at Queen’s Park Wednesday afternoon that, if passed, would allow more types of agricultural products to be covered by production insurance. Currently crop insurance is available for about 90 commercially grown crops, including grains, oilseeds and certain fruits and vegetables.

But designing a livestock production insurance program is “a lot more complicated” for animals than crops because some animals are kept indoors while others are outside, Wales says. “What is it that you’re actually insuring? Are you insuring weight gain? Are you insuring mortality rates?”

Production insurance is about insuring a crop for a number of perils, such as weather, disease or drought, he notes.

For livestock production insurance, Wales says there would be interest from pork producers for mortality insurance, particularly with situations such as porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. There have been 64 confirmed cases of the virus in Ontario since it first showed up on a Middlesex County farm in January.

Other farmers, such as beekeepers might be interested in insurance for bees. There already is production insurance for honey, but not for the bees themselves. Wales says he could see a strong demand for insurance for bees because of “the high mortality rates we had by some beekeepers in 2012 and 2013 and then the overwintering losses last year.”

The model of premium costs being shared by farmers, the province and the federal government would be used for any new programs, he says. If the bill passes, commodity groups would go to the ministry and Agricorp, which delivers production insurance in Ontario, and request a program. “A lot of times it will take a year or so to develop a program.” BF