Governments Expand Support to Corn Farmers with Crops Impacted by Plant Disease

Mar 18, 2019

Toronto, Ontario - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - The Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario have heard farmers’ concerns and are responding with new steps to improve the corn production insurance plan. A new tiered corn salvage benefit will be introduced in support of requests from farmers who dealt with deoxynivalenol (DON) in their corn crop last year due to wet weather.

The new tiered salvage benefit will more accurately reflect the additional costs associated with harvesting and handling corn affected by DON and help producers trying to find a market for it. The support, provided under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, will begin in the 2019 crop year for eligible corn farmers, and the salvage benefit is expanded to include organic corn producers.

This new corn salvage benefit builds on previous government responses to DON-impacted Ontario farmers, including:

Establishing a partnership with the Grain Farmers of Ontario on proposed research into such areas as developing best management practices for in-season mitigation of DON and for effectively managing the storage of high-DON corn.
The provincial government extending its Commodity Loan Guarantee Program loan repayment deadline, giving producers affected by DON additional time to market their corn. The Ontario government also increased the maximum guaranteed loan limit, on a pilot basis, from $120 million to $200 million for the 2019 and 2020 program years.
Launching a cost-share program through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to provide special assistance to farmers experiencing revenue loss over testing for DON.

In addition to the supports to help manage the impacts of DON, the Ontario government also hosted two roundtable sessions with industry representatives to work on connecting farmers with mental health supports and to provide solutions to help the sector find alternate markets for high-DON corn.

Source : Government of Canada

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.