By Bruce Cochrane
Cattle and hog producers in the four western provinces are being encouraged to register for the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program.
The Western Livestock Price Insurance Program, now available to hog and cattle producers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, is modelled after a long running Alberta program under which the producer pays a premium up front to set a floor price and a payment is triggered if the selling price falls below that insured price.
Jodie Griffin, the program coordinator for the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program with the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation, notes the program is voluntary and by registering producers will be in a position to take advantage of any opportunities it offers.
Jodie Griffin-Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation:
On the cattle side we've had quite a bit of interest.
On the hog side it's been slower coming and that just speaks to the formulated grid system I think from the packer side that you guys have.
Your marketing is quite a bit different than say the guy on the cattle side.
However, as of lately the interest especially in Alberta, I know has been heightened and I think that's just speaking to the more severe volatility the hog producers have been facing.
And it's a new concept and it's something that producers have never really seen before so it takes awhile I think for them to maybe get educated on it.
This is an on line access program so we have a web site which is the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program web site and it's WLPIP.ca.
That web site has all the information that the producers would need to learn about the hog program and how it works.
As well, the other great aspect of this program is it's 100 percent transparent so at any time he can be going on there and logging in and taking a look and seeing what the premium coverages are.
He can just go in and select the time frame that he wants to look at and he has access to that at any time.
Griffin says, by registering, producer will be able to immediately take advantage of any opportunities the program offers.
Source: Farmscape