“Manitoba farmers in many parts of the province have dealt with unprecedented wet weather and poor growing conditions this year,” said Minister Kostyshyn. “Producers told us what was needed to ensure the health and sustainability of their herd over the winter and this program is a comprehensive response. I know this program has been long-awaited and Premier Selinger and I are pleased we were able to confirm our ongoing support for producers affected by flooding and excess moisture, above and beyond the programs already in place. These new support measures will also help ensure the continued success of our local economy.”
Additional program details and application forms will be available later this week at Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (MAFRD) Growing Opportunities (GO) Offices and online at www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture.
There are 460,000 beef cows on Manitoba farms, generating an estimated $620 million in farm cash receipts.
Extreme weather conditions in May and June of 2014 resulted in significant forage shortages for livestock in Manitoba. The downstream flows of the excess moisture created significant flooding on lands around the Lake Manitoba/Lake Winnipegosis regions that were relied upon to produce winter feed for breeding herds, affecting an estimated 75,000 acres of hayland and winter feed production for about 330 farms. This AgriRecovery initiative will help replace the winter feed requirements for the breeding herds.
This federal-provincial initiative is being delivered under the AgriRecovery Framework, which allows governments to respond to unforeseen disasters that result in extraordinary costs for producers and where assistance required is beyond what is available under existing programs. Producers are encouraged to continue to make full use of existing government programs – AgriInsurance, AgriStability and AgriInvest, designed to help them mitigate income and production losses due to disaster events.
Source: Manitoba Pork