Livestock producers seek risk management improvements

Livestock producers want gaps in business risk management programs addressed, saying it would help keep them in business.

A recent livestock summit heard that even with recent enhancements to AgriStability, the program doesn’t provide proper protection and they view other programs as expensive.

Core expenses for cow-calf producers are less likely to trigger AgriStability payments, said Stuart Chutter, a senior policy analyst at Alberta Financial Services Corp., during his presentation at the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan event.

“There are no livestock individual coverage yield-based insurance products that would be comparable to yield-based crop insurance products,” he said.

But he also noted that producers who don’t participate in programs aren’t covered at all. On the Prairies, participation in crop insurance is about 70 percent but that drops to about 30 percent when it comes to forage insurance or weather derivative programs.